Health – Page 2 – Mediocre Mum

Who needs Marriage Counselling?

How to survive summer holidays

Not suggesting we do, but I haven’t laughed so hard in ages. We both work from home and it does get fractious at times. Being school holidays, I’ve done as predicted and chucked money at it, not because I have a surplus of cash but with an only-child and a tiny garden, I’m always looking for things to entertain my five year old during the school holidays.

I don’t want to give the impression that it’s expensive. It cost me £20 and worth every penny.

Growing up I never played Swing Ball, I have no idea of its origins but guessing it didn’t make it across the Atlantic, but I could be wrong. We played a similar game called Tetherball but it didn’t have paddles, players used their hands and it was a hard plastic ball, more football sized.

After a few goes with our daughter, we decided to play each other…. is it just me or does it look like he’s trying to kill me?

So, if you’re looking for something to save your marriage or to have a right laugh with your kids this summer in limited space then this is the answer. Great family fun!

Gotta love traditional games!

Hubby reckons we should try it after a few beers. Can someone warn A & E?

I bought mine from Cuthberts Toys.

Have you googled your kids recently?

How confident are you managing your kids internet use?

I was recently invited to a round table discussion at AVG Technologies in Covent Garden to chat about online safety for kids. AVG in partnership with Plymouth University recently carried out a study, ‘Parents, Schools and the Digital Divide‘ to look at how well parents understood the risks involved in using the internet, how confident they felt in managing it and if there was anything AVG could do to support them.

I like to think I’m au fait with IT as an ICT Consultant in education myself and have put a few safety precautions in place at home, but there is so much more I should be doing, starting with setting controls on the Router. However, I can imagine that there are a lot of parents out there who want to keep their kids safe but have no idea where to start.

Why would you?

92% of kids in the US have an online presence by the age of 2 according to Macaroni Kid

The discussion was very informative but the most important thing I took away, was from a brief discussion with Tony Anscombe Head of AVG Free products and a father himself after the round table discussion. He asked ‘have you googled your child?’

Yes, I’ve googled myself but I’d never thought of googling my daughter and I swear my heart stopped for a brief second. As a parent blogger I’ve made a conscious decision about how much I’m willing to share about her in an attempt to keep her safer. I know some bloggers write anonymously, others only show back shots of their kids and then there is the other extreme where I’ve felt physically sick with some of the stuff people share about their kids. I’m forever, seeing children streaking on instagram.

You will find many posts about my daughter on this blog, I do include photos of her but carefully selected ones never any nudity, I don’t use her name, she’s always referred to as Madame online and if she’s in school uniform I blur the school logo. I’ve also informed the school of my online presence so they can be extra vigilant.

It’s only a matter of time!

I don’t want to instill panic as I do believe common sense should prevail here and I want my daughter to grow up thinking the majority of people are good, but I took the plunge when I got home and googled my daughter’s name along with the name of our town. I was absolutely gobsmacked that I didn’t find anything and I did have a good dig around. Even though I’ve been careful I was pretty sure that something must have got out there hence why my heart almost stopped initially.

Once, I remember taking a photo of something in my house, I think it may have been a verruca on my foot, as you do, and I accidentally took a shot of a parcel in the background that had my home address on it and tweeted it. Luckily, someone flagged it up and I deleted it straight away.

Lets put it to the test

I don’t know what possessed me but then I thought, I’d check a few of my friends kids and this is when I scared the crap out of myself. In less than 3 minutes, I found the child’s home address and the name of the school they attended. I simply put their name and town in google, it came back with 3 search results.

One was a profile of the child including a photo and all his dimensions (height, weight, etc) and one of the other results was a work profile for the mother that included both the children’s names and the school they attended plus their home phone number. I then googled the home number and voilà it gave me the home address. Don’t worry I’ve informed her that I’ve done this and she hasn’t crossed me off the Christmas list.

What can you do about it?

As a result of this I am now going to set up a Google Alert which includes my child’s name and where we live, so google will email me anytime she is mentioned online. At the moment she’s only 5 and this is more for me to monitor myself, but I’d strongly encourage those of you with older kids to do the same. This will also give you an opportunity to monitor any bullying that is going on.

So have you googled your kids lately?

The Hidden Killer: Flapjacks

You have got to be fricking kidding me! A school in Essex has banned triangular shaped flapjacks due to sharp edges! A child had to go home after being hit with one. Apparently, the rectangular ones are still safe. WTF? Surely four corners are far more dangerous than three?

I have to admit I’ve tried making them before and they were hard as rock and couldn’t get them out of the pan, but I hardly think they can be classed as dangerous?

What are they going to ban next? I can think about a dozen things that have sharper edges than a flapjack or that would hurt more if hit by one. I imagine getting hit by an apple thrown by a member of the Cricket Team would hurt a lot!

OMG and cutlery! Can you imagine the damage someone could do with a teaspoon? *note the sarcasm*

I work in education and over the years have seen health and safety getting more and more bonkers. Can’t these people who put these rules in place see how ridiculous they’re being? I’ve seen everything from Conkers, Lip Balm, Plasters, Boys Ties and British Bull dog banned.

I would love to know what happened to the kid that threw it?

Have you seen any other ridiculous examples of Health and Safety gone mad?

My Top 5 Tips for Less Stress in the Morning

It’s no secret that I’m not a morning person, I’m not a Barracuda but I do need to ease into my mornings. If I wake up late it results in me stomping around cursing under my breath. I was a bit worried, with my daughter starting school this year, how I was going to cope.

However, I have come up with a bit of a routine that seems to be working and thought I’d share. Please note: That my daughter is only 5 so it isn’t a problem for her to be getting ready in the lounge but I have a sneaking suspicion that this wouldn’t work with a prepubescent teen!

Getting up and out of the house on time

1.) Rest is Best

We don’t have to drag our daughter out of bed in the morning as we always ensure, partly for selfish reasons as I need a bit of me time at night, that she gets to bed at a reasonable time. She normally wakes up quite cheerful as she’s had a good night sleep and I don’t have to battle with her.

2.) Twas the night before…

We do as much as we possibly can the night before, even if I’ve had a glass of wine or three which makes these mundane tasks more tolerable. I do everything from making packed lunches, filling in reading journals, signing permission slips and place it all strategically by the front door so I practically trip over it on the way out.

My daughter has the most amazing hair, however, if we wash it the night before and she sleeps on it, it’s virtually impossible to brush it. So, I’ve started plaiting it before bed so she doesn’t look like this in the morning.

3.) Location Location Location

Try to have as much as possible within arm’s length. In our house, this isn’t a problem as it’s not very big.

I would kill for a utility room. Unfortunately, this airer has become a permanent feature in our lounge. However, it has turned out to been incredibly useful. We splurged and bought a week’s worth of uniforms, we had some M and S vouchers. Each week I wash them all, put them on hangers, so there is no need for ironing and I can quickly grab what I need from knickers to cardigans, without traipsing up and down the stairs.

Using hangers also is a great space saving idea as I can put twice as much on the airer, but be careful as mine has collapsed on occasion.

We keep a spare toothbrush and toothpaste in the loo downstairs so we can have a quick brush after breakfast and on our way out the door.

I also have a brush and hair ties tucked away behind a lamp in the lounge so I can do her hair while she watches TV and eats breakfast.

4.) It’s not a restaurant

Limit the number of choices and save your energy for cooked breakfasts on the weekend. I sound like a broken record, each morning I can be heard saying would you like ‘Cheerios, Corn Flakes, Krispies or Toast?’

5.) Don’t look in the mirror

If you get up a few minutes early so that you can do your hair and makeup before the school run, you really need to give your head a shake. Please don’t make the rest of us look bad! :-)

What do you do to save time and stress in the morning?

Warburtons are also putting together a Breakfast Survival Guide – upload your hints and tips for getting your kids to eat their breakfast and out the door!

Category: Health