We were  very happy earlier today to Retweet  a message from Grannies Inc asking if there are any more Grannies out there who'd like to join in their unusual enterprise.  It matches up Grannies who knit with people who want their own designs made – so it seems to us an ideal marriage of people with ideas and people with skills.  Not so many people know how to knit today, so it's great that there are Grannies out there who can provide this service to other people who like to design clothes to match their own unique style.

This is a link to the Grannies Inc website if you're interestsed in either becoming a Knitting Granny or if you have something you'd like knitted.

Today's report from the Institute of Economic Affairs that suggests general health declines pretty dramatically after retirement doesn't surprise us.  We're surrounded by people of so-called retirement age who are still bursting with energy, ideas, and enthusiasm, most of whom would far rather continue on in some form of paid occupation than simply put a.full-stop to their life's work.

OK we may slow up a  bit, and we may like a bit of free time during the week to have the odd lie in or see friends or mind grandchildren, but we certainly don't relish the idea of going from full-time, full paid employment to nothing.  A gradual let-down would clearly be far preferable for our health – as well, probably, for most employers who may not want to lose their skilled, wise, older workforce with such a harsh cut-off.

It seems to me that the ideal scenario as we age would be for work places to adjust to the idea that we'd like to scale down, while there are thousands of young people anxious for work, who could benefit from our skills and experience.  So why not a scenario whereby older people go part-time, allowing firms to take on part-time younger folk – and for the older group to mentor the young?  Wouldn't that be a better scenario for all concerned?

Unfortunately as a society, we're not flexible enough to  accommodate.such common sense ideas.  But I hope somebody, somewhere might give this not-so-revolutionary idea some thought.  It sounds like it would be beneficial for old and young alike.

It's @DyingMatters Awareness week and we're happy to offer them our support.  Here at GrandparentsNow we're all too aware of how we all want a good death – and many of us have had to watch relatives end their days in circumstances very different from those they would have wished for.  We're also aware that death is the last taboo – that no one really likes to acknowledge that it will one day be their turn, so we go into collective denial that death will one day strike us too.  But realistically we all know that the day will come – and there's no point in not preparing for it.

We were delighted to see that Melvyn Bragg was speaking openly recently how he wants to be in charge of his own death.  He apparently watched his mother slowly decline with dementia – and wishes to choose a different ending for himself.

And this is surely the time for change.  Those of us now entering our senior years are part of the big and influential group of baby-boomers.  We've been used to forging new paths, striking out to do things differently, fighting for what we want, and having our own way most of our lives,  Now that we're approaching our final years we don't see why things should be any different.

We will expect to be able to be in control of how and when we die;  we won't want to be a burden to our young, or have to move into care homes, so we will want to be able to make plans around our death and dying that suit us.

i hope there are enough of us to be able to make this happen.  We need to speak out and speak up and make sure our voices are heard.

Shocking story in today's Daily Mail about 5 year olds starting school in nappies!

It makes you wonder what kind of parents they have who don't even bother to toilet train their children before they reach the grand old age of 5.  And it seems most unfair on the children, who by then should be pretty grown up, self-aware and utterly uncomortable if they haven't been told how to recognise a full bladder and when they need to do a poo.  I can't imagine how horrendous it must be for a five year old to be spending time in a dirty nappy when they're quite ready to feel and understand the discomfort.

I can't help thinking this reflects badly on all the so-called parenting advice that is out there too.  When I was on BBC Scotland last week, we were discussing how today's parents may be confused by the sheer quantity and ubiquitousness of the advice on offer – from tv programmes, books, child 'gurus' and the internet.

And so it seems, because despite all the advice that's on offer some of today's parents don't seem to have picked up this really vital skill – how to potty train their toddlers.

I'm glad to see Nick Clegg joining in the debate today about the staff rations in nurseries.  For let's not forget that nurseries today have to play a great part in potty training too.  They see some of their children far more often and for longer periods than their parents….so they too simply have to engage in potty training or they'd be constantly changing nappies.  So let's keep the ratios the same so that their lives aren't made even more difficult by having too few staff to cope with demanding toddlers.

Back on @RadioScotland again this morning to talk to Call Kaye about a Grannynet survey which has found that 30% of their grannies feel  today's parents are too bombarded with advice from books, the internet and tv shows and in the process are losing touch with their instincts.

Most callers to the show – Mums were clearly using loads of common sense in their child-rearing, referring to books and the internet often but relying on health visitor and parent advice too.

But a couple of grannies, like me, were quite happy to speak out about what we believe are some of the nonsenses in today's books.  The trouble, we feel, is that today's parents are getting a feeling that there's a right and a wrong way to do everything – and that this is so far from the truth.  Babies like parents come in all shapes and sizes and new parents simply have to be prepared to suspend the routines that so dear to them – and invent another.  Going with the flow seems to our generation an eminently sensible way of handling new borns.

It's always lovely to talk to Kaye Adams, a very charming and professional hos,t and we chatted for an hour around the subject.  It seems I hit a bit of a chord with my remark that young mums today are probably so used to being in control at work that when they stop work to have a baby – and suddenly find they're totally out of ot control, they panic and turn to whatever help they can lay their hands on.  Babies are anarchic, we all know that.  So the best way forward, surely, is to tune in to the baby, try to find what suits him/her best and then fit your new life in around that.

Interesting that the debate is opening up again about withdrawing universal benefits from some pensionersr.  Ian Duncan Smith has raised the issue by suggesting people who can afford to should give back their winter fuel allowance and bus passes.  But the rub is surely who can afford to?  And I'd like to think those who can afford to probably do so already.

We all know there are some millionnaire pensioners who don't need anything – penion, bus pass, free hospital care, fuel allowances and tv licences.  And it would be good to think he's got some of those multi-millionaire friends of his in mind.

The worry is that he's thinking more of the ordinary pensioner, someone who's worked hard all their life, saved up a little and is now enjoying the freedom to watch television, and get out and about on public. transport. These people probably particularly appreciates the winter fuel allowance  as our winters seem to get colder and longer.

What  IDS surely misses is the fact the modern life is so terribly expensive.  I can assure him that even London bus fares seem horrendously high for someone living on a small fixed income. Most pensioners would probably have to think twice about even taking a bus more than once in a while if they had to pay for every trip. Even cups of coffee can feel like luxuries at £2.75 a go.

And perhaps he's also forgotten that the pension is actually taxed.  So that even people who've worked hard all their lives and have nothing more than the state pension, often find themselves wondering how it can be possible that their meagre income is to be taxed.  I know there are some pensions that fall intside the tax allowance but there are others that don't and it seems miserly enough to be taking back a few hundred pounds from people every year as it is.

So that's my rant of the day.  I'm lucky enough not to have to live entirely on a state pension but I deeply sympathise with anyone who does. With inflation as it is, daily life must consist of weighing up every penny and every shopping trip; fearing the sound of a bill dropping on the doormat and scratching coins together to feed a meter.

I'd like to know who Ian Duncan Smith thinks are those who are wealthy enough to forego their extras.  Probably the same ones who deserved their recent tax cut?  In which case I'm all for targeting them.

What a lovely day dawned for those 35000 runners yesterday.  London put on its best face and all the people who turned out to support the athletes seemed suffused with that extra special feeling that comes from a feeling of solidarity with others who've suffered.  There were families of all kinds there – including people like us with three generations.  And even though we had such precious small children with us, we none of us thought twice about heading as near to the finish as we could get.  We were not going to be cowed, or change our beahviour in any way.  And the weather was so conducive to strolling in the sunshine, that the increased security presence didn't seem to have put anyone off.  Indeed the police and sniffer dogs looked as relaxed as the rest of us.  So it proved to be a great day out and we left full of admiration, as ever, for those athletes and ordinary folk who put themselves such punishment year after year in order to raise money for charity.  Our son was running for Children with Cancer and there cannot be a more worthwhile cause.  So salutations to him and all the other runners for the great good they do every year.

Just back from a soft play centre with our 5 year old grandson Lucas.  I spent most of our three hours there wondering how on earth my generation of  parents managed without them!  I don't know when they arrived in the UK but there certainly weren't any around 30 years ago when my children were small.

I, like most parents and grandparents I supsect, have a love-hate relationship with them.  I love to see the childrens' utter delight at being let loose to run around, climb, jump, slide and generally let off steam.  I enjoy watching as our grandson attempts to make friends of other children – sometimes he's rebuffed but generally his winning smile works and he finds friends easily.

I enjoy being able to sit down for a couple of hoursand  read a book for that provides a welcome rest during what is always an exhausting time when the little ones come to stay.

But after a while I begin to get fed up with the noise and the other people around.  Particularly the parents and grandparents who don't supervise their children.  Often there'll be a group of bigger children careering around, not noticing the younger ones and knocking into toddlers.  Today, a Mum near me had to go and rescue her girls from a group of older children who were lobbing balls up into one of the chutes and so hitting the children coming down.  She had to get up – babe in arms – to ask them to stop.  And we both wondered why nobody was keeping an eye on them.

So when I cast my mind back to the days when my children were small, I realised that we never missed what we didn't have.  Our children were much more content with simple pleasures and during the holidays  were kept occupied with visits to the park, friends coming over, building dens out of chairs and blankets when it rained, or having adventures outside when the weather was fine.  I suppose today's children suffer from not being able to explore outside – so they explore in these centres instead.

But frankly I'm glad I'm not a parent today.  I'd find it hard to resist the constant clamour to go to these places.  At least I only have to succumb once or twice a year – and once we're there and the boys are happy then it all seems worthwhile.

We were once invited to dinner in the Royal Naval College while Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister.  I sat next to Dennis during dinner and had an entertaining conversation with him.  He was quite curmudgeonly and not terribly  good at easy conversation.  I asked what he did for a living – which might have seemed impertinent to him but it was what I would have asked anyone else and I didn't see why I should treat him differently.  But once he told me he was into Waste Management and I started asking intelligent questions about where all this waste went once it left our shores and where in the world was there enough capacity to send it to landfill, he became pretty defensive and accused me of having some 'prior knowledge'!  In fact I was just asking an intelligent question as any curious journalist would.

After dinner I was sat on a small sofa with Mrs Thatcher at one end, me at the other, and a man from the Institute of Strategic Defense studies in between.  He immediately began to engage her on some topic – I think it might have been Iran – effectively turning his back on me and squeezing me out.

After a couple of minutes, Mrs Thatcher leant forward to speak to me across him, to tell me what they were talking about and allow me to join in.

So despite the fact that I never liked her politics, I came to see that evening that she had an ability to be courteous and kind – and that she was clearly on the side of women who in those days were so often brushed aside by men.

It strikes us all as odd that, not so long ago, if we needed to call someone whilst out and about, we had to head for a red telephone box.  Those of us who are old enough can instantly recall the heady, smokey, acrid smell inside;  the fact that you rarely had enough money or the right coins to make the call you wanted; the queues when you needed to make an urgent call;  the annoyance when not just one but several phone boxes proved to be out of order.

Yet somehow we survived without instant communication.  We were more understanding if people were late for appointments or simply didn't turn up.  We forgave them!  We never held it against them that they couldn't let us know.

And now we're celebrating 40 years of the mobile phone.

The first mobile phone I came across was in my then-to-be-husband's car.  He drove around the country a lot and wanted always to be able to take calls and make appointments whilst he was away.  So he was one of the early adopters of a strange system whereby phones to and from his car would go via an operator.  So the phone would ring, he'd be asked if he wanted to accept a call from a third party, and he could accept or decline.  All this while driving!

But there was no instant access as there is today.  That came later during the 90's when we all had phones in our cars. That was weird!  What a strange place to fix a phone!  I suppose the idea was that we could still be in touch whilst out of the home and  for women it was considered a real safety feature in that if we broke down, or were attacked or hi-jacked, we would always be able to be in touch.  But it was often annoying.  I can remember having to go out to the car from a hospital to inform relatives of our son's cancer diagnosis.  I suppose sitting in the car gave me privacy but I also remember how aggravating it was that I had to find a quiet moment when nothing else was going on inside the hospital, simply to make a phone call.

But things moved on and soon we had phones that we could carry with us and use at any time and to call anywhere.  We loved them initially but viewed them purely as a useful tool for safety and in case we ran late.  We never dreamt that they would be superceded by a phone that could do everything, a smart phone that would revolutionise all our lives.

I wouldn't be without mine for the world.  But I don't always keep it on!  I still like to be unavailable sometimes and I feel sure that once the novelty of being constantly in touch has worn off, more and more people will be drawn to the off switch.  And I can't begin to think what will be the norm once my grandchildren are grown up.  It'll have to be something pretty special to replace our smart phones.