News — children

In my opinion, small plastic toys are definitely up there, along with single-use plastics as 'pointless plastic'. Despite the protests of love by the kids, there is no long-term use for or use of this plastic. It's literally production of waste. But kids' parties are often FULL of it, and it's SO HARD (almost impossible) to get away from. It takes fore-thought and effort. We're by no means perfect. At all. I'll start by being up front and say that whilst I say no to the shiny plastic helium balloons, I did say yes to latex helium balloons, which whilst better,...

(First published on The Contented Calf website on Sunday 24th July 2011.) So are you all dying to find out how our four days of Potty Training went (The best laid plans of mice and mummies)? What was our call yesterday as to whether we’d send BF to nursery in pants or nappies? Were we ‘totally potty’ to attempt Potty Training....?   Well, here’s my mummy report:   Day One, Thursday (aka D-Day!) To be honest, it was a bit of a mixed bag.  It started off well with BF being very enthusiastic about wearing her ‘big girl pants’. In the...

(First published on The Contented Calf website on Tuesday 19th July 2011.) As you will know from my last post (The best laid plans of mice and mummies), BF, Hubby & I went on a knicker-buying outing ahead of BF’s imminent transition from nappies to ‘big girl pants’. While we were out shopping we took the opportunity to stock up on a few extra t-shirts etc for her too. First up, though, was underwear. BF’s really into her TV characters at the moment. Her absolute favourite is Bob the Builder. (Slightly ironic as I’m currently trying to cut out any...

(First published on The Contented Calf website on Monday 18th July 2011.) It was all planned. IT WAS ALL PLANNED!! I wasn’t going to attempt potty/toilet training until BF was nearing three. I’d heard and read so much about leaving it as long as possible and not pushing it, that in my mind, as long as she was out of nappies by the time she went to primary school, I wasn’t going to worry. One major attraction I could see over potty training a three year old rather than a toddler was that their communication, understanding, co-operation would be so...

Many years ago, when 9YO was still very small, I was lamenting to a (male, without kids) friend of mine about how one of the things I really missed about work was being strategic. In response, he asked me the seemingly simple, innocent question, designed to make me miss my work life less: "Why can't you be strategic in how you're raising your kids?" He wasn't being facetious, or uncaring. It was a genuine question. I can't remember exactly what my response was. I wasn't rude. I didn't smirk, or rant. I think I just said something short about 'fire-fighting'...