I’ll let you into a secret. I hate messy play. I hate sticking stuff with little kids who get bored quickly. I hate painting that is mostly gloop and soggy paper. I HATE setting up stuff that they do for a while, chuck everywhere and then I have to clear up. It may be partly […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #6: Scissors Equals Felt Fun
Bene has very, very nearly mastered the word scissors, an odd one to acquire before some of the more basic ones. Or biscuit, which in my experience is usually right up there. I think it is probably due to his sisters leaving them around a lot, resulting in someone suddenly shrieking ‘scissors!!!!’ A short wrestling […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #4: The Cardboard Box Edition
Now, obviously I’m a big advocate of toys, what with making my living selling them, but I’m the first to admit that a REALLY good cardboard box can hardly be beaten for sheer value. There are masses of post on this blog, I’m sure, of pictures of the girls in the olden days when stock […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #4: the big sister music edition
When possible, get someone else to entertain them would be one way of describing it. Or, harness the skills of other people in the household to offer stimulating and exciting opportunities to explore. Take your pick 😆 Bene loves Fran’s cello. It’s not a cheap cello either and also rather a precious one, for a […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #3: good toys, tidy cupboards
The lazy edition. Find incredibly good toys, like these ones (I’ll find the link tomorrow), introduce them and then pick up your crochet and sit back. I’m never going to spend hours in messy play and all that stuff; when it comes to toddlers I’m all for the least emotionally painful approach. Spend money 😉 […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #2: drawing on walls
There is a particular type of silence which all parents learn about; the sound of silence that can be created by a toddler doing something they ABSO. LUTELY. SHOULD. NOT. BE. DOING. Been there? I only made a cup of tea; he was in the room next door and I stirred the tea and mused […]
Lax Toddler Parenting #1: Geomags
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 […]
Bene made some cakes. Which is not the whole blog post.
When I wanted another baby, part of it was that I so wanted to be able to do better at all the things I felt I had failed to do well with the girls; I was too busy, 4 children in 6 years rather took its toll, there wasn’t enough time, I was tired etc […]
At 20 months.
Dear Bene, You are now older than Josie was when we first moved to this house. You are the age Fran was when she became a big sister and almost the age Freddie should have been when you were born. You might still be very little but you are now so very… very… big. Such […]
Bene's Bedroom (includes Photowall review)
Seven years ago, we moved into our house with me stinging badly from the knowledge that the fourth bedroom was not, in fact, going to become a bedroom. It’s been many things since, the proper birthplace of BeadMerrily and all the associated businesses and nearly, so nearly, Freddie’s bedroom, even though I never prepared for […]
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