UK Parent and Lifestyle Blog – Travel | Kids Tech | Slow Cooking
I am absolutely sh*t at telling jokes. Firstly, I can never remember jokes when I want to, if I do remember them I often start giggling part way through but worst of all I often forget the punchline which can be hugely annoying.
It looks like this may be hereditary. We’ve been trying to expand Madame’s repertoire of jokes, beyond ‘what do you call a goat with pants on it’s head?’ which there is no punchline but results in fits of laughter from her.
How hard can it be to tell a Knock-Knock Joke?
One thing we really lack locally is truly child-friendly pubs. We have pubs that tolerate children but none that really go beyond offering a children’s menu and many don’t even do that.
It’s not that we want to take our daughter to the pub and get ‘fall down’ drunk but on a sunny day it would be great to go and enjoy a pub garden with other families and have a couple of drinks whilst the children play. A swing, slide or climbing frame wouldn’t go amiss.
Years ago, prior to kids I was in Slovenia and vividly remember going to a restaurant early evening and sitting on the patio. I noticed many families having dinner together, drinking responsibly but they had a fantastic play area for the children. Everyone was happy! Is this a cultural difference? Why don’t we do this more in the UK?
A couple of months ago on a trip to Shropshire, we stopped at a pub that was advertised on my Good Pub Guide App that was supposedly child-friendly. When we arrived, we quickly worked out that children were not allowed in the main part of the pub, which looked fantastic, open fires, beamed ceilings, etc. Unfortunately we were relegated to the scabby conservatory and felt like second rate citizens. What I also found interesting is that dogs were allowed in the pub but children were not. Not all pubs need to be child friendly, as not all people like kids, but please don’t advertise them as child-friendly if they’re not.
The closest pub to us that is truly child-friendly is Moor Mill in Park Street which is about 5 miles away. We went last week when it was really hot. There’s a pond where you can feed the ducks, a smallish playground, which could use a bit of an upgrade, the children’s menu is quite extensive but I did like that they had a special menu for even younger children and it being an Old Watermill the building in itself was interesting.
Do bear in mind it is a Beefeater, so if you’re a foodie it may not be for you but we found the menu extensive, the prices were reasonable, and the service was outstanding, but this may be due to the fact they knew that we were reviewing the restaurant. Overall, we thought it was okay but most importantly our daughter was happy, which meant we were happy. However, when writing this review I did come across a few negative reviews so please do make sure you do your homework.
Disclosure: Our meals were compliments of Beef Eater Grill
We bought our daughter a puppet theatre for Christmas, we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re not naturals(wine helps) , but are enjoying it and improving slowly!
Just wait to you see our rendition of I’m a Little Princess sung to I’m a Little Teapot!
Nearly broke my heart today. My daughter asked to go to a soft play centre, which is equivalent to hell for me. However, in an attempt to be a good mother, I said no problem, but I explained that we would be going on our own and wouldn’t know anyone there. She said she wasn’t bothered. Normally, she is a very confident social character. She hasn’t had any problems making friends at school and socializing with other children in familiar situations is a breeze for her. She’s far from shy and has a lot more social skills than her mother.
The Problem
However, when we arrived at the soft play centre, she struggled to find anyone to play with. She attempted to go off and play but came back a bit deflated saying she felt lonely and no one would play with her. In my quest to develop her independence, I tried my best to sit back, playing on my IPAD and let her work it out. But…..
Our Attempt to solve it
At one point, I walked around with her holding her hand looking for a playmate but they were all running by so quickly. She tried a couple of times to say excuse me but they didn’t hear her. Bless!
Totally lost, I suggested finding someone playing on their own and introduce yourself and ask if they would like to play, but no luck. Then, I suggested that she find some children having fun and play near them and maybe they would ask her to join in. Bless she went and sat by herself in a play tunnel for ages and no one came by. It was so hard to watch.
Solution
In the end, I intervened again and luckily found two sisters, who were lovely and when I explained she didn’t have anyone to play with they swooped in and whisked her away. I had to drag her away in the end.
In reflection, it is rather an odd thing to go up to a complete stranger and ask to join in? As an adult walking up to people you don’t know and striking up conversation is the social equivalent of skydiving. So why do we expect children to do it so easily?
In future, what can I do to help her? Do you have any tips on how to help them make friends in these situations?
Overall, I think we did fairly well on the present front, not too much tat. In a way, we are lucky that my family is overseas and posting presents is extortionate. So they, tend to send money for me to buy presents for our daughter. I really like this as it allows me to control what she gets and I tend to know what she needs/would like. We did our best not to spoil her but in hindsight she did get a lot. Here are her top 5 Christmas Presents.
Number 5
A Princess Tent from Santa, as a family we were torn on how to handle gifts from Santa. Too be honest, we didn’t want him taking all the credit for our hard work. At one point we were just going to have him bring the stocking, but in the end we decided one main present from him would be good.
The Princess Tent is designed for the garden but for the time being, we are going to keep it inside until the spring. At first, I was a bit worried that it would be too small for her but boy was I wrong! At the moment, it’s dominating our rather small lounge. It was fairly easy to put together and you can feel the quality, the canvas cover is robust and the wooden frame is sturdy. At the moment we haven’t secured it with the screws as we may want to put it up and down. As you can see it’s gorgeous and I’m sure her and her friends will have fun playing in it.
Number 4
Kerplunk – a game that I loved to play as a child; it’s changed a bit but still great fun. We’ve really been enjoying playing it as a family, but we’ve noticed that my daughter has a very competitive streak and likes to change the rules as we go along. I think she gets this from her Grandmother who is fiercely competitive when it comes to games.
Number 3
My daughter’s main present, after a lot of thought, was a Puppet Theatre, but what I really like about this one is when you turn it around it turns into a shop. At the moment she tends to prefer the shop. We spent the evening playing Toy Store; however, I find her shop very expensive as everything costs £50 and she doesn’t take IOUs!
Number 2
Prior to Christmas, I tried to ask her what she wanted for Christmas and I really struggled to get something sensible out of her. The last time I asked she said she would like a yellow dress, red handbag and pink bunny costume. Luckily, a friend of mine who has a penchant for Prada and the colour red jumped in and offered to sort out the red hand bag. Phew!
Number 1
To go with her Puppet Theatre we bought a collection of Hand Puppets from the Puppet Company. As she is currently in a Princess phase we opted for Fairytale Characters. As you can see they are absolutely gorgeous. Mummy and daddy could use some work on their puppetry skills, but we are getting the hang of it. Last night we did renditions of ‘we’re off to see the Wizard’, ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’, ‘if you want to be a Prince stand up tall’ and ‘I’m a Little Princess’ sung to the tune of I’m a Little Teapot. We’re looking forward to many more productions.
Wishing you all the best in 2012!
Disclosure: For the record Santa did not bring the Princess Tent. It was a gift from the company.