Archive for the ‘Guest Post’ Category
Fatherhood²: Guest Post – One of Many Parents’ Dilemmas
There are many complex decisions that we make in parenting that influence how our kids turn out. How best to nurture our precious ones, make the best of their potential and ensure they are as happy as possible – it’s tough for us as well as them!
One that plays on my mind a lot is driven by one of my eldest son’s most prominent characteristics: Toby is monumentally competitive. Firstly, is this a feature that has been encouraged in him or is it just his personality? That age old question. Even watching him grow from 8 lbs 6 oz to a chunky nearly-6 year old I am not sure, but I suspect the nature end of the nature-nurture spectrum. That’s a hunch supported by evidence from a small sample size: his younger brother is not nearly so eager to win.
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Guest Post – Ways your mother lied to you about parenting
Anyone who has ever been a parent knows that the job is nothing like the situational comedies we see on TV or in the movies—with all of the burps, fusses, and mess-making timed just a little too perfectly to truly mirror the real world. While we all expect these quirky fictions from screenwriters, most of us probably thought we could depend on our own mums to give as an accurate depiction of what parenting is really like. But in the effort to be viewed as “super parents” they, too, have left out and/or fabricated some important details. Here are some things she forgot to mention about parenting:
1) You’ll never get a good night’s sleep again.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – Keeping up with the kids
No, this is not a post about exercise, before you start shuffling uncomfortably in your seat and looking shifty, it is more about how to keep up with the ever changing tastes, trends and needs of a child’s bedroom.
The bedroom your child has now was probably once a nursery, with night lights and toys that tinkled in the soft glow of the room and cute pictures of bunnies and scenes from nursery stories and the like.
Moving on from the nursery, there were possibly themed duvet covers and matching wallpaper, you get the picture, as children grow so does their personality and there is no better place for them to explore and to show their ever developing natures, than in their own bedrooms.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – Christmas Gift Inspiration
It’s easy to leave Christmas shopping to other members of the family but it’s not always an option. Avoid the pre-Christmas panic shopping trip, with comes inclusive of crowds, queues and shops filled with items you can never find! This is one of the great things about the internet… sit down with a brew and put things in a basket from the comfort of your own home. Easy! Now all you have to do is decide what everyone wants…
If you can, get family members to save virtual wish lists with a few of their favourite items. It’s advisable not to do this with the children as they’ll save everything they lay their eyes on! But the other half, siblings and parents could give you a few hints without being disappointed they didn’t get everything on their list. If this isn’t an option, first of all set a budget for each member of the family. This will make it easier to choose who to buy what. For men you can’t go far wrong with a nice warm jumper for Christmas – whatever the budget. For women, buy clothes at your peril! Women’s clothes don’t come in standard sizes like men’s and choosing what fits is a minefield. To avoid offending your nearest and dearest go for something safer, such as a stylish watch or purse, or a festive beauty kit.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – First Words: Dadda. Thanks a bunch!
As we draw closer to Christmas (sorry) this also means that we are getting closer to our only son – Sam’s – 14th Birthday, and it’s made me think and reminisce somewhat.
Looking back at our son’s childhood has also made me aware of the changes in the relationship between my husband and son – and of course me and our son.
From being the only thing that mattered in my son’s life – feeding, changing, not sleeping, crying, (that could be me or Sam) – to suddenly being on the periphery. It was me that did the nursery runs, the cooking, the cleaning, the “Mummy” stuff – probably for the first year.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – The Real Purpose of Ante Natal Classes
Stage 1. Conception. Stage 2. Back up required – in the form of information and people. Stage 3 – booking an ante natal class.
Knocked up? Bun in oven? Don’t know the difference between pethidine and methadone? Confused by the amount of words in your baby book beginning with “Con2? Conception? Contraction? Condescending? Only ever seen a nappy on a PG Tips Chimp? You need ante natal classes. Let’s break this down in to manageable chunks.
Purpose number 1 of the ante natal class – Buying your future life long friends.
With us, first came the joy, the excitement, the hugging ourselves and each other with complete and total blissful happiness of finding out “we” were going to become “a 3″. Then, shortly afterwards came the real light-bulb going off moment – we had to get some friends and quick. Our kid was seriously going to need mates. He was already likely to be ginger (like me) and hairy (like husband). If we were going to give birth to ‘Cousin It’ from The Addams Family we needed to ensure he had back up on the school playing field. Not being locals and because my husband is incredibly anti-social (“I have enough friends Han. All 3 of them. Who live 2 hours away. In different directions”) we knew no one in the area, other than each other. So we bought some people to hang out with.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – Captain’s Log: The Shoe Odyssey
Our mission today: to seek out new shoes for three of our expedition members. This will be the first time crew members BoyN and BoyJ have had shoes as they have recently mastered the technical skills needed for walking.
Terrain: Hard going. Today we will need to transit the area of ‘Oxford Street’ in order to reach our planned goal of ‘the Clarks Shoe Shop’ – which is the only shop in the vicinity that will give us our 10% TAMBA (twins club) members‘ discount. We expect to encounter seasonally migratory herds of shoppers, indignant retail employees, and obstacles of varying degrees on the ground.
Method of travel: Bus, tube, taxi (depending on state of nerves on point of expedition embarkation). We will be using our perambulation vehicle engineered by Messrs Maclaren & Co, augmented by a ‘Buggy Board’ for three year old BoyT.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – The Joy of Twins, Part 1
‘I’m still funny. I’m still creative. I’m still kind of hip. I’m still sane.’ This is the mantra I have been repeating to myself for the past three years. The past three years have seemed long and short at the same time. The day they were born was the best and most stressful day of my life. Their development through these years has lifted my soul to the highest heights and weighed on my mind until I thought it would sink into the deepest depths of worry and frustration. Some folks (me included) never know what feeling two opposite emotions feels like until you have kids.
Not to bore with a long story, but I have to step back in time a bit. I never thought of being a mom that much. To be honest, I was getting used to the idea of having a career and being happy with that. Things changed when I met my husband. I was pretty late to that game in comparison to my friends and colleagues. We were married when I was 31. Then I found out the whole biological clock thing isn’t a myth. It’s real. It sucks, and it will hound the crap out of you until you listen to it.
We started almost two months after our wedding trying to build our little family. We had no reason to think things weren’t going to be easy. We thought that within a few months we would have happy news to share with our families and friends. One year, then almost two years went by and we knew things were not going to fall into place naturally. After lots of unhappy medicines and two rounds of the medical equivalent to a turkey baster, we got the phone call we had been waiting on. I went in the next week for my first ultrasound. One small little bean with a beating heart showed up on that screen. I smiled and knew everything was going to be ok. That was BT…before twins.
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Fatherhood²: Guest Post – Feeding Time at the Zoo
Henry has been asking me to write a blog for ages. I’ve always declined the offer as I’ve really got nothing interesting to say on parenting – plus I’d never written a blog. So it was a teensy bit scary. But I’ve finally thought of something to write about which, if it reassures or helps just one person, then it’s worth the time and effort.
As a new mum I was desperate to breastfeed – after all its what they’re designed for; it’s what the books you read recommend; it’s what the nurses in hospital pushed for; it’s what the midwives visiting the house encouraged and it’s what well meaning family members understood. Child No. 1 had other ideas…
When he was born he wasn’t breathing properly which is apparently quite common with caesarean births. So we had to wait a couple of minutes before he was able to be cuddled. Read the rest of this entry »
Fatherhood²: Guest Post – Is There a Male Bias to CBeebies?
It's time for Teletubbies - but are they male or female, and does it actually matter?
Question: what have Pingu, Tommy Zoom, Mister Maker, The Koala Brothers and Little Charley Bear all got in common?
Well done if you came up with the answer that they are all the titles of CBeebies’ television programmes.
And you can give yourself an even bigger pat on the back if you identified that they are all male characters – a list featuring female CBeebies’ characters would be considerably shorter.
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