Permission to ask for the Mother’s Day you want
Is it ok to say that for Mother’s Day all I want is a full day off from parenting? Or to spend two hours in a hot bath in complete silence while I read a book? Or to eat a family-sized Dairy Milk on the sofa while we all watch back-to-back films?
We say yes, yes and yes.
Is it reasonable to expect young children to say thank you?
“Say thank you for your present,” is a line we will no doubt be repeating time and again at this time of year. But how much do children really understand about why? What are reasonable expectations for young children when it comes to sharing a new toy or being polite when they are given a jumper they have no interest in? And what can we do as adults to support them in these tricky situations?
We asked our My First Five Years’ experts for their views.
Have you tried a baby class?
These stories have been written by the same me.
Beyond the first five years – getting older siblings involved
It is a very rainy Sunday, and my children are stalking the window, looking for an opportunity to get outside. We have four children between the ages of three and eleven, so finding something to entertain everyone can be tricky. Our three-year-old has started bouncing on the sofa singing the Bluey soundtrack on repeat, while his older brother is launching a bouncy ball across the room. The eldest has decided that now is a good time to bake(!) and her sister is turning the cupboard upside down looking for a Pritt Stik. Our house suddenly feels very small.
Do you need to change your mindset about the summer holidays?
When I was younger, I swear the summer holidays were longer. They felt like decades of dusty knees, hours spent catching midges in yoghurt cartons at dusk, and games of kerbie (throwing a football against the kerb!) that started after breakfast and were still going days later. Now they still feel long but in a very different way. Six weeks’ worth of military planning that I do not necessarily look forward to. Six weeks of days to fill and memories to make while still attempting to maintain a day job and enjoy every single second. There are so many decisions to be made that I end up making no decisions and then panicking (probably rightly) that I have made hasty, last-minute decisions. So, this year, I’ve decided I need to change my mindset.
How to play with your child without having to dress up as a princess
I am sitting in our front room, half-dressed as a princess (I cannot fit the costume over my head properly, so it is currently looking like a synthetic, glittery straitjacket for misbehaving grown-ups). My three-year-old is serving me plastic cake from a small red plate. I say serving me, often he is insisting that I put the grotty-looking thing into my mouth and when I resist, he shouts toddler obscenities at me. He’s like a very pushy parent (?) and I am counting down the minutes until I can escape and make a cup of tea, or put the washing away, or do anything other than endure another second of this role play.
