Do you read to your kid’s every night?

‘83.6% of Mums spend time reading to their children at bed time, despite studies showing a growing number of Mums returning to work’

As a working mum, I’m often tired after being on the motorway and fairly stressed by the time I get home, but the one thing I make sure I do every night is to read to and with my daughter as part of her bedtime routine. Around 1 in 10 parents admit that they find the bedtime routine very stressful, it is certainly a lot easier, when after the bath, hair brushing and teeth cleaning to focus my daughter’s attention with the promise of a story together.

Reading to your kids Even as dads get more involved in parenting, bedtime is still mums domain, with 51% of mums in charge of bedtime each night compared to just 15% of dads’

We are lucky that our childminder does our daughters school reading with her, because often by bedtime she is too tired to read by herself and it can turn into an unwelcome battle. She is now at the age where reading is a pleasure for her and as long as the pressure of having to read is removed; I find she often takes over from me whilst I read her, her bedtime story. Dad is very involved with parenting and shares the bedtime routine, especially on those nights that I’m just too tired.

Our daughter has a wide selection of story books, she is keen to read some of her school reading book to me to show me how well she is doing and will select the book she wishes me to read to her before going to sleep. We do have our favourites, one of my personal favourites is Winnie the Witch.

I find it important to prioritise the bedtime routine with my daughter, especially as a working mum. Whether it’s the reading or the routine, our daughter certainly settles to sleep a lot quicker than she does if the reading is missed out of the routine.

I’m going to miss the bedtime routine when she’s older.

Do you read with your kids every night?  What are your favourite books?

Disclosure:  This post was inspired by research undertaken by Fairy Non-Bio about children’s bedtime routines and we did receive a bottle of Fairy Liquid and a lovely bedtime blanket for our daughter.

 

 

 

 

The Healing Power of Sugar

I was in a soft play centre last week, for my sins, sitting in the corner as I usually do playing on my phone, ear wigging and tutting at the other mum’s sharing stories about the colour of their children’s faeces, when a little girl came rushing up to her mum screaming with a split lip.  The mother calmly picked her up, opened a sachet of sugar and started to sprinkle it on her lip.  I really thought she was nuts!

But, me being me, an inquisitive soul, I came home and did a bit of googling.  Please don’t quote me as my research wasn’t very scientific but apparently there’s something behind it.  It seems that it can help wounds heal faster and reduce pain.

The treatment originally came from Africa, where they didn’t have access to conventional medicine so they used whatever was available.  On my Google travels, I came across an interesting study by

Senior Lecturer Moses Murandu grew up in Zimbabwe and his father used granulated sugar to heal wounds and reduce pain when he was a child. But when he moved to the UK, he realised that sugar was not used for this purpose here…….

Sugar can be used on wounds such as bed sores, leg ulcers and even amputations. It works because bacteria needs water to grow, so applying sugar to a wound draws the water away and starves the bacteria of water. This prevents the bacteria from multiplying and they die. Moses found that a 25% sugar concentration ensures the microorganisms cannot survive.’

Apparently, if it’s adopted by the NHS it could save billions of pounds!  But you and I know the pharmaceutical companies aren’t going to let this happen. I do think it’s unfortunate that some of the traditional medicines are overlooked in favour of their much more expensive counterparts.

So, I’m off to Starbuck’s for a large latte and to nick a bunch of sugar sachet’s for the next time Madame does a face plant.

Have you heard of this?

Does it work?

Is it a wives’ tale?

Is there anything you wouldn’t do………….

Sue’s husband (@CaptainTom3) persuaded her to join Twitter as he thought it would help her during her recovery. I have to admit when I first met Sue (@mrsTom3) it took me a while to work out what she was going to be recovering from. Here is her story….

‘On March 9th 2010 I donated my left kidney to my son, who has suffered with end stage renal failure all his life. At 15 years old, robbed of his childhood, Sam was constantly tired, in and out of hospital and unable to lead a normal life. Now, only 3 months after surgery he is feeling the benefits of a working kidney and is full of life, appetite (he is now allowed to eat things previously banned from his diet like chocolate, ice cream and chips) and is looking forward to the future. We began 2010 with trepidation and fear, unable to make any plans even though it’s a big year for us – our 25th wedding anniversary, my 50th birthday, Sam’s 16th birthday and Stef’s 21st. So now that we are on the other side of the transplant we are finally able to look to the future and start to celebrate again. So no marathons this time – just a celebration of 25 years of marriage by renewing our vows in August 2010 in the company of all those who have supported us over the last few months. 25 years usually means gifts of silver, but this time we are asking you to dig deep and come up with some cold hard cash for Kidney Research, as the gift of life is worth far more than silver.
Sue asked me to help promote awareness for Kidney Research and I’m more than happy to as she and her family was an absolute godsend when my own family was going through a difficult time recently. Even if you can’t spare any silver, do give her a follow or send her a message of support.

You can find her Just Giving Page here