Arte that is fantastic - and I bet it's a huge relief too after all that sustained non-helpfulness! I think you will be much better served in the private system - my experience with the public system is that it's only resourced to deal with the severe cases. I'm also so pleased that you've found someone who you can talk to who is living it as well, makes such a difference. xxx

Re the studies - sounds like a really sensible decision. Unreal that E is so close to going off to kindy! You won't know yourself once all three are at school .

I LOL'd at shrinkying chip packets! As I remember it, it all started with the Twisties packets & they did at as an advertising thing. I remember kids going around with them on necklaces, keyrings, hanging off their school bags. I told DD1 about this and she looked at me like I have two heads. PMSL. Apparently you can shrinky anything with a recycling #6, which means that if you can find flattish clear bits (like the trays inside the bicky packets), you can draw on them with texta and cut them out and shrinky them just like regular shrinkydinks.