Archive for August 2014
Extremely Clever Parenting Hacks
Posted on: August 29, 2014
I have now had the job of being Alistair’s Mum for five great years and now that he is old enough to entertain himself more I have time to reflect on my progress so far. On the outside I am relieved to say that I look like a pretty competent parent, as Alistair looks and acts as normal as a five year old can be and I can pull off a certain degree of serenity and togetherness. The truth however is a completely different story because my approach to parenting seems to be somewhat unconventional and lax to say the least. I am going to share my short comings with the hope that I am not the only who is not perfect!
#One:- I Tell Lies
Not big sticky dark ones but light fluffy white ones that will make my life easier and stop that pneumatic drill noise that can accompany a situation. The lie I like the most is telling him that his sweets and chocolate have gone off and had to be thrown away – when in fact I have eaten them myself.
#Two:- I Let Him Cut Up His T-Shirts
I have always believed that the clothes a child wears should not stop him from learning and exploring the world so I buy second hand clothes and make use of hand me downs. This means that he can get as muddy as he wants and paint all over him without me having any kind of funny turn. Recently he cut up a couple of his t-shirts so he looks as if he has been attacked by a lion and I didn’t batter an eyelid. he now realises that if he cuts his clothes up they are no longer wearable so he doesn’t bother any more.
#Three:- I Don’t make Him Eat Vegetables
As a vegetable hater myself I consider it hypocritical to make life hell by trying to force Alistair to eat food that he doesn’t like so I let him make the choice of whether he eats them or not. Fortunately this has resulted in him trying vegetables because he wants to and my heart wells with pride when he happily eats tomatoes during family gatherings.
#Four:- I Let Him Stew At The Top Of The Slide
Alistair has always been more slight than the other children and is very baby faced so can get away with a great deal of sympathy from everyone. At the end of term he had the irritating habit of climbing to the top of a very scary slide in the playground and being too afraid to slide down it – resulting in me having to help him down the steps. Occasionally I would leave him at the top of the slide with the hope that he would come down himself but that never seemed to happen so eventually I had to show compassion and help him down. I think he has been down the slide once and hated it!
#Five:- I Let Him Have A Messy Bedroom
Alistair’s has a craft table, book corner, computer, television and lots of puppets in his bedroom and he plays in his room a lot. Amazingly he enjoys drawing maps and writing stories either by hand or using the computer as opposed to mindlessly watching television. His craft table is covered in boxes decorated with beads and other embellishments on them and he is very protective of his artwork. His bedroom is one big creative mess most of the time and tidying only occurs when it becomes a health and safety hazard. I do not nag – every so often I lock myself in his room with bin bags and tidy up while watching his television and eating his sweets.
I have learnt over the last five years that parenting is hard work but rewarding at times and I don’t think I will ever get the hang of it!
Parenting Around the World
Posted on: August 22, 2014
So I recently read an article about ‘Incredible Lessons in Parenting from around the World‘ and I have to admit it was pretty interesting. We are so used to what is classed as ‘normal’ parenting wherever we are that you sort of forget other people do it differently. Some of the things on the list are almost funny but then I’m sure if we did some of them in the Western world it would cause a stir and most likely get a parent in trouble. It was numbers 4 and 6 that really got me thinking. They are both about giving their children a lot independence and trusting them (and other people) to behave as we hope they would. I can’t imagine (and I’m sure a lot of other parents couldn’t either) letting my four year old go out and ride the subway or train by themselves. If we saw an unaccompanied child of that age out alone it wouldn’t be long before they were picked up by the police or some concerned passer-by but that is what is considered normal in Japan for instance.
Nowadays children don’t have as much freedom to run around the streets as we used to as things have changed. It’s even quite unusual to see children allowed to visit the playground by themselves, yet in some places they roam free around the city or are left in the street while their parents go about their business, though that probably leads to them being pretty independent grown-ups pretty fast. It’s just very interesting to see how the world’s attitudes to these things differ so much depending where you are and what you are used to.
…I have to say that number 2 on the list – training babies to pee on command – would be very helpful indeed!
Having a child who eats everything would also be wonderful (number 9), meal times would be much easier!
Crafty Monkeys!
Posted on: August 14, 2014
- In: crafts | Play | Playgrounds | Summer
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So we have reached the halfway point of the summer holidays in the UK and exhausted many of the local attractions for children. It is important, especially during the summer holidays to make an effort to do some new, fun things with children without the pressure of the classroom. We’ve had a busy few weeks (and not a lot of blogging time) and so wanted to take a day trip out somewhere. All phones, computers, televisions and tablets were turned off and we headed out, not that the weather has been particularly good this week, what with hurricane Bertha! I wanted to do something different and creative (although was fairly certain a playground would be involved at some point, and sure enough it was)!
So we headed up to Penrith where I had heard good things about Crafty Monkeys – a craft studio for all ages. Unsurprisingly, being the school holidays it was quite busy when we arrived but with no time restraints we were happy to wait our turns. It was great fun! We painted a dinosaur, a mug and tried mosaicing (not quite as successfully though, it proved to require more patience than first thought) It was a great experience and all the kids there were loving being allowed to get messy and creative.
After we got cleaned up, I was begged to find a playground. Unfortunately it’s not until they get a bit older that they realise mums aren’t capable of just magicing a playground out of thin air. Luckily though, after asking another mum at Crafty Monkeys, I found out there was a playground not too far away, just outside of the city.
This was in fact the Great Salkeld play area. It had quite a lot to offer including slides, swings, a wobbly bridge, a small timber climbing frame with ropes and ladders as well as a big play area in the middle for basketball etc. It was a big area where the equipment isn’t too crammed together which I prefer as more space means more running around which means a tired out child at the end of it! The favourite piece of equipment was the wobbly bridge which, although met with some hesitation to begin with, was responsible for a lot of laughs.
acepuppets 