26 - North Shore News — Wednesday, April 19, 2000 Entrepreneurial housing solutions needed | Eugene Kaeilis Contributing Writer THE proportion of sin- gile-parent families and families with two work- ing parents is not likely to decline in the next several decades. The housing market has, howsver, not sufficiently responded to their needs and has thereby not only failed to provide an appropriate prod- ver but has deprived itself of sales and iia. On a typicel working day a pre-school child may have to be dressed and transported to a nursery, possibly with 2 pre- DESKJET S9S5CX! COLOUR PRINTER ¢ PhotoREt II colour layering technology min. Optional network capabilities 43020 © Prints up to 10 pgsnper e LASERS *Faster laser printing, 8 pgs n-Onel 1389975): A598 | 5: pared funch, on the parents’ way to work. At the end of the day the pracess is reversed. In inckement weather, these are particularly arduous tasks. Then there is shopping on the way home, and prepara- tion of dinner followed by cleanup. No wonder employed sin- gle parents and parents of two income households with pre- school children often feel har- ried. Ifa child has a mild illness, someone has to be hired to sit-in or there is the loss of one or several days’ pay. Why can’t an enterprising, developer provide a pre-school nursery in the same building? segnenencene NN 369" 6635 PAVILION COMPUTER Think of the ease in dropping off and picking up the child. A small infirmary could be attached which could take care of children with mild conditions, like chickenpox, freeing up parents to go to work, To take this another big step, why not include a sub- scription restaurant in the same large condo or rental apartment building with, let's say, 25 to 30% of its residents failing into the single parent or two-employed parent cate- gories? Subscription restaurants have been around in Europe for years. People sign up at the beginning of a month for weekday dinners. The proprietors get their money in advance and can plan their menus and food quantities accurately, reducing waste and making lower costs possible. In addition to easing the life of parents, this would pro- vide ample, nutritious fare instead of the fast take-out food to which some parents are driven by time and effort pressures, Everybods benefits — the parents, the pre-school opera- tors, the restaurateur, and the developer or owner who can easily get 100% occupancy and derive income, not only from rent or sale of dwellings, but PRICES! PHOTOSMART C200 DIGITAL CAMERA 1 megapixel (1152x872) max resolution .8” LCD with viewfinder 2x digital zoom 393344 P1000 PHOTO COLOUR PRINTER _ ® Enhanced Colour Layering Technology © Print instantly from o digital camera without using a PC 961027 from the services provided. Why hasn’t this happened yev A recent business report criticized Canadian business for being tardy in getting into the e-marketing business. Has the kind of housing described failed to materialize because of the same kind of entrepreneurial lethargy? Symptoms hated but condition missed From page 15 at all. That’s because | was forced to bravely endure the full range of negative symp- toms of pregnancy, with the lucky exception of hemor- rhoids. It began with nausea, bloating, and fatigue. By the time I got to the doctor for a test, I'd already gained iiftcen pounds, quite an accomplish- ment since you stil needed a microscope to detect the baby. For the rest of the Pree nancy I tried to eat properly, but I packed on somewhere in the vicinity of 50 pounds for each eight-pound baby I dis- patched into this world. I exercised daily, but I couldn't find a trace of muscle defini- tion anywhere on my body. While other women glowed, I developed a severe case of acne. I had to wear thongs (not the underwear kind) dur- ing pregnancy, even when it was freezing outside, because my feet puffed up like ball franks on a barbeque spit. My nose ran buckets for nine months, my breasts achieved football proportions, (somewhere down in the drop kick zone), and my cmo- tions flip-flopped on the turn of a dime between unabashed glee and desperate sadness. As for a sex life, mine pret- ty much ended the day my husband carelessly neglected to hide his amusement at the size of my burgeoning bot- tom. Some women carry their babies high, some low. I car- ried my babies ail over my body, especially in my bot- tom You know what else? You become public property when you’re pregnant. Complete strangers feel entitled to put their hands on your belly to check your progress and issue gems of advice so that you get the job done right. Like it’s any of their business. . __And people look at you y when you’re preg- nant. Suddenly they know you've been (nudge nudge, wink wink) “fooling around.” I'm a modern woman but I found myself blushing like a school girl and feeling a bit like a tart all three dimes i was pregnant. I really tried to be a good, glowing pregnant girl, but trankly | was miserable for the whole nine months. It’s a darned good thing that at the end of the haul you get a baby, because if pregnancy Were just a job, [ would have quit and forfeited the pay- cheque in a minute. Unfortunately I got to keep a lot of the baggage (commonly known as “motb- er’s stored reserves”) I'd accu- mulated during the pregnan- cies too. When the other new Mom’s were slipping into their jeans within weeks of delivery, I waddled around in my faded maternity sweat pants for four years. One year [actually checked out of the hospital three pounds heavier than I checked in. “Excuse me,” I complained to the nurse weighing me, “but I delivered a nine-pound baby here”. “I know”, she said, clearly trying to suppress a giggle. “Bummer, huh?” Four months after child birth, just as I was starting to feel normal again, half my hair fell out. “For crying out : loud,” I railed at ray mother the first time it happened. “I go through this whole ordeal and now I’m going bald. What’s with that?” _ “Hormones, dear”, she -: told me. By the time it grew __ = - back I was pregnant again... - When 1 delivered my third and last baby, I heaved an |. | enormous sigh of relief that I would hor have togo 9° ‘ough a pregnancy again: ld then, isn’t it, tat . after all this ime I snil pine: ~ for the flutter of a baby’s tiny © foot kicking inside my tummy. _ Maybe it was one of the = best times of my life, and I. . just didn’t realize it. oh Don’t you hate it when. that happens? . * Intel Celeron 533 MHz processor © 10.2 GB hard drive © 64 MB RAM © 40X CD-ROM ® 56K modem 38580/428747 “Moy not be exactly as shown * Our Prike 1496.72 ’ PRICE AFTER REBATES: wigs Buz ‘i Ea Government ficengau in vation sake Pies | 183 Pemberton Ave, . Yasow nt: (3. 985-7195 Erze NORTH VANCOUVER 1999 Marine Drive =f STORE HOURS Mos-fri SAM-9P&. Sct 9AM-OPHA Soa TTAM-SPM FREE WEXT-DAY DELIVERY: PH: 1-800-668-6888 FX: 1-800-567-2260