As if the Play and Stay staffers weren’t enough for our lovely readers we’ve invited two of the UK’s top parent bloggers to write exclusive posts for us.
First up is Sally Whittle, mummy blogger extraordinaire at Who’s The Mummy where she discusses life with four-year old daughter Flea.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and if you want to join our select panel of bloggers then get in touch.
I have this theory about parenting. Faced with the awesome responsibility of not raising a serial killer, new parents latch on to anyone who can tell us the “right” stuff to do. That’s why we spend £5 a week on classes to help our children walk along a bench in a straight line, or to hit a tambourine.
But when you think about it, the things that are the most fun aren’t usually organised. They’re almost certainly not the sorts of things that are designed to boost your child’s development or give them a head start. Flea and I did the activity class thing, but it’s fair to say she’s not big on organised fun.
At swimming class, Flea didn’t want to take her float off – which is pretty smart when you think about it because she was 18 months old and couldn’t swim. It’s hard to fault that kind of logic, really.
At a musical group, she didn’t understand why we kept listening to nursery rhymes, and repeatedly asked, “When are we having some guitar music?” That’d be my fault for introducing her to The Smiths, then.
Perhaps our most traumatic experience was at a language skills class, when Flea made the grave error of talking when it was time for listening. The look the class leader fixed poor Flea with reduced her to tears.
These days we’re big believers in disorganised fun. We’ve created a special bag that lives in the car, and it’s called The Adventure Bag. Inside The Adventure Bag is everything we need to go off and have fun somewhere. There’s a picnic blanket, water bottle, spare set of clothes and our camera. There’s also a Spider-Man figure and three small dinosaurs. Because you should always have a dinosaur or two on your side when you’re having adventures.
Over breakfast, Flea and I think about what we’d like to do. While I’m drinking coffee, Flea likes nothing more than considering her options, and will eventually say, “Mummy, I’ve got a brilliant idea.” Our adventures this year have included visiting museums, exploring the Lake District, various zoos and safari parks, numerous beaches, one theme park and one day when the GPS broke down, the town of Harrogate (we were supposed to be in Ilkley, I’m still not completely sure what went wrong).
Wherever we go, we buy a small badge or pin, and stick it on The Adventure Bag. Over the years, I hope the bag will become covered in images that are a visual record of all the places we’ve been together. Already, the bag holds lots of lovely memories of the first place Flea went sailing, the day she discovered dinosaur bones, the long afternoon we spent having a barbecue on Brighton beach and the day we went to Chester Zoo and spent the entire day looking at different varieties of monkey.
I figure that when Flea is a teenager and would rather poke herself in the eye than be seen in public with her mother, I’ll have all those memories of our adventures, thanks to The Adventure Bag. And you know what? I bet those memories will be a lot better than anything involving church halls and a tambourine.
It’s depressing enough that school is back in session: traffic, earlier mornings, packed lunches and for the unlucky few, lots and lot’s of tears. To make matters worse, that beautiful summer weather is almost gone and the clouds and rain are back. When you think about it, September kind of sucks.
