Thanks for taking part!
We’ll be back next week with another live look at the week as it happened – in the meantime you can continue the discussion below the line or get in touch via sarah.marsh@theguardian.com or matthew.holmes@theguardian.com with any feedback or ideas for what you’d like to talk about.
Brexit named word of the year: what's yours?
The annual addition of neologisms to the various dictionaries has become a bit of a party game, with “squee”, “gender-fluid” and “moobs” among the 1,200 new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary this Autumn. When we wrote about it in September, Brexit – and its numerous derivatives – had not yet made the cut, but this week the Collins Dictionary made good, naming Brexit the word of the year, ahead of Hygge and Trumpism.
It’s a word further down the list that caught my eye: “sharenting” – the oversharing of pictures of offspring on social media by proud parents. Like Brexit, it carries a a big social load, the consequences of which are likely to be felt far into the future by those over-sharented kids. It set me thinking about “big” and “little” words - the trivial and ephemeral versus those that will become significant cultural markers. Any other suggestions?
Everyone's a comedian – even social workers ...
With the Guardian tracking social workers Debbie Greaves and Jim McGrath on a stand-up tour based on their often difficult day jobs, plus Jo Brand’s TV series Damned offering plentiful moments to wince on Channel 4, social work and its dealings with troubled folk are in the comedy spotlight.
But is it important that those creating this sort of comedy have personal experience at the sharp end? (Brand worked for many years in psychiatric nursing.) Can any decent writer wring comic gold from a difficult subject through imagination and a bit of research alone – or is that the route to an offensive comedy pig’s ear?
In response to our colleague Martin Belam below the line a reader shares their commendation ...
Martin, I would just like to commend you on the sterling piece of hard hitting investigative journalism you did on the travails of Dave the Earthworm
Who is Dave the earthworm?
Sad news folks – that should have been who was Dave the earthworm ...
On the subject of homework ...
As an educator with 39 plus years of experience I would say the amount of homework assigned in the uk,is excessive. Way to much no need for,it. Just as the constant testing and exams are over the top. One never has time to,teach. As the saying goes, weighing the baby all the time leaves no time for feeding
Only homework at primary school should be learning spellings and times tables. 5 days a week is long enough to teach.
What make me laugh sometimes is how forgetful people around my age are, 29, some of them seem to think their little one is getting more homework than they did but I member at 6/7 get spelling lists to memories 20 to 30 words, maths worksheets to do, 2 or 3 books a week to read those little one sentence a page books and then at secondary school homework was pretty much unending. If I can do it with no long term effects and as a person who is hard of hearing and has speech difficulties, I'm sure my friends perfectly healthy kids will cope just fine.
The 10 household chores you need only do once a year
Earlier in the week I wrote a piece about the Good Housekeeping Institute’s claim that there are 10 household chores you need only do once a year. They made it sound as if they were cutting us all some slack, but there were chores on their list I simply hadn’t heard of - who wipes down their lightbulbs? It turns out my lightbulbs are pretty dirty, but I was happier not knowing.
Given the comments, it seemed a lot of people felt the same way - that if you can get away with not doing a chore for a whole year, then it can probably wait another year, or ten. Just last night I went to see a stand-up who quoted one of her ex-husband’s frequent criticisms - “I’ve never seen you wash a door,” he said. Before that, the idea had never occurred to her.
What household chores have you escaped through sheer ignorance of their existence? Come and spoil it for the rest of us.
Are parents right to rebel over homework?
Parents in Spain are protesting over the level of homework that is set for their children. A 2012 found that Spanish 15-year-olds have 6.5 hours of homework a week, nearly one-and-a-half hours more a week than the average. And children from the ages of three to six in the country are apparently doing half an hour’s homework every day. Parents are being given letters to send to schools by a campaign group, urging headteachers not to set homework.
It is a touchy subject for parents. I don’t remember having any homework until I was in secondary school, but my seven year old daughter has a “homework menu” which she can choose to do some things from each half-term. She’s also expected to do reading at home nearly every night. It isn’t over-burdensome, but it does sometimes take a chunk out of our weekend when we could be doing things that are perhaps a bit more fun for all the family.
We asked readers from around the world what they thought of the amount of homework given to their children. Craig in Romania told us “My son often stays up until midnight finishing off homework” and Zainab from London said “My son is constantly stressed about work and no longer sees learning as fun.”
What do you think? Do children get too much homework? Does it impact on family life too much? Or should kids just knuckle down and get on with it?
Updated
On polls, here’s something from data journalist Caelainn Barr.
Donald Trump has been gaining ground in the polls since the announcement by the FBI that it has discovered new emails that may relate to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server during her time as secretary of state.
One of the problems with many of the polls we’ve seen this week is the margin of error, or by how many points the polls could be wrong. In most cases this has been greater than the lead taken by either candidate.
As Trump and Clinton make their final campaign push in key swing states what now ultimately matters is who goes out and votes next Tuesday and the narrowing polls could help boost turnout.
Updated
Are you worried about the US election?
But how about something that could make make a lot of people very unhappy? Here’s James Walsh on the US election.
It’s been one of the most controversial US elections ever. After a seemingly endless campaign, pockmarked with moments of unprecedented outrage and farce, decision day is nearly upon us. Barring a repeat of the 2000 election, when the Florida election recount delayed things somewhat, by this time next week either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton* will be in the White House.
A quick glance at our busy comments threads will reveal there’s been a lot of anxiety about this election, both from our US readers and those watching nervously from afar.
Have you been worrying about the US election? Take part in our poll and discuss your own personal heebie jeebies in the comments below.
*For those of you about to ask “but what about Gary Johnson?”, let me point you in the direction of this Simpsons clip.
**Like polls? Here’s another.
Picture of the day?
Talking of staying happy, this young panda featured in the latest of our pictures of the day roundups might make you smile ...
Updated
A couple more of your comments so far – how do you stay happy?
It will be dusk/dark here by 4.30pm and being a 'night owl' I love it, and actually feel more awake in the dark evenings. My husband is the opposite, which makes for problems sometimes in winter when he accuses me of being crepuscular, verging on the nocturnal. However, I once visited the Lofotens (beautiful) and the continual half light did eventually become a little depressing, so I can see how this could be a medical issue and a serious problem for some people.
I force myself to get outdoors. Where possible I walk in some woods. The British climate is designed to be spent in the woods. Anyone who hasn't figured that out yet hasn't been born.
Updated
In an earlier discussion on winter and SAD in the Gardens section, there was a tremendous comment from Cryptic Mirror that you might consider putting ATL here with the others.
Good spot, Tenthred ... here it is
I've bought one of those miracle-gro aero-gradens, and the light from it helps combat my SAD as well as giving me fresh flowers -nothing fancy, just calendulas- in the winter. It does really help and I completely recommend it to anyone who has SAD. It is a light-box and mini-garden all in one.
Conversation of the week – how do you stay happy in winter?
Several writers lit up our pages this week with a celebration of what they were calling “one of the great impalpable joys of life”. But what happens when we don’t get enough light? One answer seems to be seasonal affective disorder, and readers had an interesting discussion beneath this piece looking at therapy lamps that aim to halt it.
‘Winters have made me ill since I was a small child’
Winters have made me ill since I was a small child. I am fine in other countries that have clear days with bright sunlight, just shorter hours of it, but the endless grey halflight of the UK is unbearable.
I have been using one of these sunrise alarms clocks for over a decade, through most of which I had such long working hours I had to survive on 4/5 hours sleep. Even when you are exhausted these lamps work, waking you up gradually rather than jolting you awake with loud noise.
I also have a SAD desk lamp at my office. It has transformed winters for me. Arriving at work in the dark, leaving in the dark and sitting away from natural light would previously make me feel more and more run down, even when going out to get some quick natural light at lunchtime and making the most of opportunities to get out in sunshine at weekends (few and far between!). I cannot recommend these lamps enough to anybody who struggles with the incessant greyness of the UK.
‘Using a light box is a good way to go’
A large study in the Netherlands found that sunlight hours correlated to levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) - low in winter high in summer - which is very important to neurogenesis and found to be low in many mental illness. So it seems using a light box is a good way to go.
‘Even better if combined with a bit of light exercise’
I have a 'LitePod' standing on my desk next to my computer while I do a morning check of emails etc. Light therapy works best in the early morning. Works for me. I also get out in natural daylight as much as I can, even better if combined with a bit of light exercise sweeping up leaves in the garden. Then I'm lucky enough to have a garden that I can go out in to and a large greenhouse that I can sit in the end of having a cuppa (with the door open so that I get direct sunlight in to the eyes). Low sunlight levels during the winter also coincide with cold air and wet roads or I'd indulge more in the equally beneficial "RAM" treatment (Riding A Motorcycle).
What do you think?
Welcome to our social
Hello all, and welcome to our weekly social, where we discuss the best of the week in terms of news and comment with our readers. We have a lot of interesting reading lined up for you today to trigger debate. Tell us if there are any topics that you’re keen to talk about by tweeting @GuardianOpinion or emailing sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Anyway, let’s get started. We will be here from 12pm-4.30pm (GMT).
Updated
Dave the Worm for prime minister, I say. He can't be much worse than the previous Dave, plus with the Brexit situation in such a muddle he could buy us some valuable wriggleroom