Young love?

I’ve recently been going through a bit of a ‘worrying’ phase – issues keep jumping out at me that have taken on a whole new significance now that I am a mum.

One issue that trailed across my mind the other day was triggered when I noticed that some other mummies refer to their 1-year-olds as so-and-so’s ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’. All as a bit of fun, but it got me thinking, is this appropriate?

I vividly remember feeling horribly confused at games of ‘kiss chase’ in the playground at age 5 or 6. I knew my parents wouldn’t approve but I didn’t want to be left out, I wanted to feel ‘liked’ but then I was uncomfortable when the boys did catch me.

So, today I pose a question: what do you think is appropriate? Should young children be referred to as ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ by adults? Are childhood games like kiss chase harmful or just innocent fun?

Ten Thoughts Tuesday 4

The last Tuesday of January dawns and with it another Ten Thoughts Tuesday post.

Here are this week’s musings:

1. This week has been all about starting a diet.

2. I’ve come to realize that I need to reign in my portion sizes that have been getting out of control, and stop eating ‘pre-emptively’.

3. I can’t say I’m happy about it though.

4. Children’s exposure to media has also been occupying my thoughts this week – something bothers me about a 7-year-old singing some of those pop songs out there.

5. But then I’ve always been one to focus on the lyrics. 

Exercise Report Card 4: Exhaustion

Commercial elliptical trainer (rear drive version) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s been an exhausting few days, but here we are with this Monday’s update of Keep Me on Track.

Monday – 30 minutes on the cross-trainer. It hurt. Might have something to do with recent lack of sleep?

Tuesday – My Pilates instructor is on holiday. How could she do this to me?? No exercise.

Wednesday – 33 minutes cross-trainer. Making up for Tuesday.

Thursday – 35 minutes power walking. I see that I have written this down in the draft post, so I assume it’s correct, but I am too tired to actually remember doing it. 

Please don’t ‘help’ my kids

I often feel like this when BabyBoy and BabyGirl are stretching / tottering towards something they want, and then a ‘helpful’ person swoops down and gets it for them. Please, I say (sometimes out loud, sometimes in my head), please let them try and get it themselves – not only will they do so, but they will have practiced crawling / walking / stretching at the same time…

Dear Other Parents At The Park:
Please do not lift my daughters to the top of the ladder, especially after you’ve just heard me tell them I wasn’t going to do it for them and encourage them to try it themselves.
I am not sitting here, 15 whole feet away from my kids, because I am too lazy to get up. I am sitting here because I didn’t bring them to the park so they could learn how to manipulate others into doing the hard work for them. I brought them here so they could learn to do it themselves.

Ten Thoughts Tuesday 3

Image from google.com

It’s Tuesday, week three of the Ten Thoughts Tuesday challenge!

Here are my ten thoughts:

1. I’m writing this slightly earlier than usual this week, so let’s see if it makes a difference…
   
2. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about what society teaches children about gender roles, there are some interesting websites out there e.g. A Mighty Girl, Pigtail Pals and Ballcap Buddies
3. In some ways this issue worries me a lot. In others it doesn’t.
4. This article also made me both laugh and think. 

Exercise Report Card 3: Scaredy-Cat

Monday dawns, and it’s time for this week’s exercise report card on how I’m keeping with my exercise goals. My current goal is to power walk for 30 minutes four times a week.

This week the exercise bug has (finally) hit – I’ve really really wanted to exercise. Long may this last!! But I am afraid of over-doing it and burning out or becoming too tired. For example, I had to talk myself out of exercising on Thursday and Sunday as we’ve had a run of disturbed nights and so I knew I should catch up on sleep when I could…

Here’s how the week panned out:

Happily Ever After

There was a fascinating post on Disney Princes last week, so let’s take the fairytale analysis one step further…..what about the ‘happily ever after’?

Now, I admit, I have not watched The Little Mermaid II or Cinderella II or any of the Disney sequels (apart from the Shrek series, which is largely an exception to this post). Growing up, I saw the classics. Snow White. Cinderella. Beauty and the Beast. And I loved them. I collected the videos (those were the days!), I sang the songs.

But it was not the weakness (or not) of the Disney princess that affected me. Nor was it the two-dimensional character of (some of) the Disney princes. It was the ease of falling in love. And the notion that the prince and princess rode off into the sunset to live their lives ‘happily ever after’.

The Grandparent Files – A Pinch of Salt

My mother-in-law came to visit the other day. Regular readers will know that she can’t help but interfere. Probably with the best of intentions, but still.

In this instance what attracted her criticism was the BabyBoy and BabyGirl did not seem to like the quiche I’d made for their lunch. I wasn’t concerned – they were eating other things – and we have been doing baby-led weaning so I’m keen to let them choose foods.

Nothing would do but for mother-in-law to make another dish for BabyBoy and BabyGirl. It most certainly was not necessary and I didn’t want her to but I decided to be polite and let her get on with it. Whatever.

Now my mother-in-law cannot speak much English. I also know that her views on child-rearing are different from ours. So I asked Multidaddy to remind her not to put salt in the food.

Ten Thoughts Tuesday 2

It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for the second installment of Ten Thoughts Tuesday!

This is a challenge set by journey2dfuture that I’ve taken on for January (at least). So here we go for today’s ten thoughts:

1. I have to be quick, BabyBoy is running a temperature and there’s no saying when he might wake up.

2. The continuous buzzing of messages on my phone is not helping my concentration.

3. I  meant to write my thoughts earlier in this day this week. That has not happened.

4. I am going to sleep early tonight in case BabyBoy needs me during the night.

5. I am, really. 

Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I was thrilled when a comment popped up letting me know that Valerie over at Atlantamomofthree nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Thank you! I am so touched!! Valerie is a true inspiration – do check out her great blog!

Now there are certain rules that come along with this award. These are: 

1. Link back to the person who nominated you (see above)
2. Post the award image on your page (see above!)
3. List 7 random facts about yourself, and
4. Nominate other blogs for the award.

The 7 random facts about me:

1. I’d rather cook dessert than a main course
2. I am probably the only person on earth who has not seen any of the Twilight movies / read any of the Twilight books
3. I love wrapping presents