Lax parenting… something like the ‘benign neglect’ of our home educating days that served the girls so well. To be honest, parenting Bene badly is something I’ve had to practise at a bit, since his first year or so mostly consisted of me hovering over him in a panic that he would stop breathing, stop eating or just plain die. But gradually this year I’ve got a little better at sitting back and watching him scrummage around half dressed, eating slightly too many biscuits (arrrrrgh to toddlers and their refusal to eat), not being absolutely watched like a hawk at every second. I’ve got a bit more comfortable with sitting back. He watches terrible Disney films (HSM) and stays up too late and exists on Jaffa Cakes and gets shockingly indulged in the sleeping with his parents and being monstrous department. It seems to be serving him well enough, he’s a lovely boy.
I have noticed I don’t blog about him often enough. I spend a lot of time ‘doing’ with him and a LOT of time Instagramming him 😆 but less time recording his days. So I thought I would try. And what better way to describe his life than document all the terrible parenting that’s on offer.
Take this, for example. I was casting back to the things Josie used to get up to (she was younger than he is when we moved here!) and I realized he misses out on just mucking in with the ‘big girls’. So I got out the Geomags.
This is terrible parenting. They are 3+ at least, a definite choking hazard and MAGNETS to boot, so if he managed to swallow 2 of them he COULD DIE. Duh duh daaaaaah.
But he really loved them. I got him a flat baking tray to stick them to and he cottoned on to them working like his wooden trains really quickly. He had a ball working out how to build, use the balls to connect them, make magnets attract and repel and explore the shapes and feels of them.
I was sat next to him the entire time. Geomags are one of the brands who had no safety issues at all (one cheap brand had a horrific tragedy when the magnets detached and a baby swallowed two of them) but I trust Geomags and I watched closely. Interestingly, I see his nursery now has a jumbo sized baby version of them – I need to try and see what they are called.
So there you are, part one of my rubbish parenting play time series 🙂
I think that you know only too well that supervision is the all-important thing here, and that you supervise properly.
I also think it’s great you’ve wittily alerted everyone to the dangers of small children playing with, and eating, magnets – if it makes one person think then it’s done it’s job well 🙂