Parents pay a nominal sum and the authorities provide the balance. All meals are prepared locally and not mass produced.

Every Monday a list of the week's menu is taped on the door so that parents can see what their children are having.

This is what my grandchildren were served with yesterday:

Bread

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Chicken Casserole and Carrots

Cheese

Apple Cake

Water

The only choices they have to make are "take it" or "leave it"! They seem to thrive well enough!

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the wastepaper basket under the table and notice that it is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the rubbish first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the postbox when I take out the rubbish, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my cheque book off the table and see that there is only one cheque left.

My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking. I'm going to look for my cheque book but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The Coke is getting warm and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers catches my eye--they need water. I put the Coke on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote control that someone left on the kitchen table. I realise that tonight when I go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table. I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor so, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

The garden isn't watered

The car isn't washed

The bills aren't paid

The bin needs emptying

There is a warm can of Coke sitting on the worktop

The flowers don't have enough water,

There is still only one cheque in my cheque book,

I can't find the remote contol,

I can't find my glasses,

And I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,

I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day,

And I'm really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem,

And I'll try to get some help for it,

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!