Toys Galore

Well I had to tackle it some time.  And by that I mean the children’s toys.  They have so much stuff it’s shameful really.  But if you add up the number of Birthdays and Christmases and times by the the people who have bought them presents, it adds up to a lot.

I set up a load of boxes and spent the best part of the day trying to organise the toys into types.  Vehicles in one, soft toys in another and so on.  I was doing pretty well until tea time and the night time routine and have now hit a halt.

I have to concentrate on other things now like accounts and so have the residue from my efforts scattered all over the floor.  It should only take another couple of hours to do, but not tonight.

I also hit my head really hard on the door frame of the cupboard under the stairs where we keep some of the toys.  It still hurts now!

It was a good day to spend in the house as they all seemed very tired today.  Not the kind of day to take them anywhere.  So I have reserved their energy for tomorrow and will let them loose in a public place tomorrow.

So I shall be brief tonight as numbers and spreadsheets beckon, even though I have a thumping headache.  Oh to be a martyr!

Posted in General | No Comments »

A Good Day Had By All

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Parenting is not easy.  Well that’s it really - blog finished.  It’s very much like being a Manager except in an office you can walk away at the end of the day and the people you are dealing with remember every last little word you say especially if it involves a promise of some kind.

You know all the common sense basics about trying to reason with children, being calm with them, not shouting and taking them to one side if you ‘have to have a word’. However, the books never tell you that this is okay if you’ve had plenty of quality sleep, no additional stresses and don’t actually have to do anything else other than be a parent.

Some lessons I feel I have learned the hard way and in some ways, too late.  I’m sure I’m not on my own there.

One of the hardest things I find about being a parent is balancing the personalities of the little individuals you have.  I am totally aware of the work I need to put in with my own children and now is the time that I have to put thoughts into actions.  Today was a really good example of that.

I decided a while ago that each of my children needed quality time on their own with either myself or my husband.  In theory this isn’t a problem, in practice not so for whatever reasons can be put in the way.  And that is the crux of the matter for me.  I have woken up to the fact that you have to ‘make time’ for the children.

With all the stresses we have in our own life (which is another story for another day) I feel as though I have, at times, worked my children around my own schedule.  When quite simply, it should be the other way round.  Don’t get me wrong, you have to have a balanced approach and find ‘me’ time, but, like I’ve been told by many people before I had the children, they don’t stay as children for long.

I started to re-dress that today.  My eldest child had an invite to a friend’s house with a sleepover, which he was excited about and gave him some ‘individual’ time.  I then decided to take my ‘middle’ child out for the day on his own with me and with the added bonus that my mother said she would have my youngest for the day, it seemed like a perfect set up.

I decided to take my son to a safari park as he’s interested in tigers.  We took a picnic and I allowed the day to be completely taken over by what he wanted to do.

As we drove through the enclosures, he became chief photographer which made him feel really important and he loved the fact that he could climb about in the car without any restraints.  (Okay, I think this was the biggest pull!)

He even managed to attract an animal to eat out of his hand which was a big confidence boost.  I then let him decide what rides and shows we would go to for the rest of the day.

Without going into all the ins and outs of our day, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.  He laughed, he smiled a lot and I had no whining or whinging from him at all.  Even when he got really tired.

He had had my total and undivided attention and it was worth every penny I spent to see him happy.  Even when we came home, there were no arguments with his sister and we had a very happy camp.  If my eldest had been home, it would have been a lot different, the dynamics change and not always for the better.

For today, he was in charge, he was the big brother and I know the day was special for him as he asked if we could go out on our own again tomorrow!

Posted in Emma's Dilemmas | No Comments »