For many months now, I’ve watched all of my friends turning the dvd or tv on to entertain their kids. I’ve watched in envy as their kids quieten down and become happy little angles in front of the tv and wondered to myself why Jeremy doesn’t like watching tv. Perhaps the occasional ad keeps him entertained for a short period of time but nothing else. Not Thomas the Tank Engine, Not Dora the Explorer, Not The Wiggles, Not High 5, nothing, zilch… until In The Night Garden, it only took 2.5 years for Jeremy to finally be fascinated by something on tv!
I can’t tell how much of a saviour it has become. I now turn it on when I need Jeremy out of my hair, it is almost an indulgence that I feel guilty about doing except I don’t! I watch it with Jeremy, easily through a whole episode and forget that I’ve been sitting there watching it. That’s how entrancing it is.
Spurned on by it’s powers to entertain Jeremy for the whole programme, I decided to go out there and get him some In The Night Garden toys. They haven been almost as good at keeping him entertained as the programme. I think the toys are a bit pricey but Target, ABC Shop, Toys R Us often have special promotions for these toys. There is not a huge variety from the In The Night Garden range to choose from but the ones they do have are enough to entertain Jeremy.
It’s fantastic and I highly recommend it to any mums out there who need that 30 minutes of quiet time. I know that sounds awful and all sorts of children’s experts are telling us not to let our kids spend so much time infront of the tv but a mum’s got to do what a mum’s got to do.
I don’t consider myself a seasoned traveller, but before Jeremy was born, I clocked up my share of airtime for work and pleasure. During those flights, it was all about ME. My wants, my needs, not my travelling partner, not fellow passengers. I watched what ever movie I wanted, when ever I wanted to. I relaxed, slept, read and basically did as I pleased to pass the long long hours.
I used to look at passengers with kids with dread and hoped none would sit near me. I found the babies crying annoying at best.
This was before, Jeremy. After Jeremy, ALL this has changed. They say, you have to walk in other people’s shoes to understand what they are going through. This is true. I understand now how difficult it is to travel with a child. It is no longer all about me. I cannot eat when meals are served unless my child is quiet, I cannot sleep or watch movies unless my child is a sleep, when my child is a sleep, I cannot relax in fear that he will fall off his seat. When my child is crying on a flight, I am stressed and almost in tears myself. Minutes of him crying in a small confined space feels like hours and hours. But unless you have travelled long haul with a child, you cannot understand this.
We have been told to settle our child because his crying was disturbing other passengers (by a hostess) and I’ve been given unwanted advice as to why my child was crying on a flight. All of this did not help. Most parents do the best they can to quieten their child so they are not deliberately trying to annoy you by using their child as a tool.
For those of you out there who find being in a plane with children annoying, remember that you too may be blessed with a child one day and have to travel with your child on a plane.
With all this said, I don’t expect a lot of people without children to understand unless they have walked in our shoes and experienced what we have experienced. I was one of those passengers too, once upon a time.
Hi everyone -
Sorry it’s taken so long to put pen to paper, but things have been a little hectic in our household lately. You see, we’re building a new house, hopefully moving in three weeks, and expecting a baby in around 6 - 7 weeks.
Sitting down tonight after i put Sam to bed, I started thinking about how different things are when you’re pregnant the second time. I look back fondly on the days of my first pregnancy, taking long baths, sleeping in, reading baby books, and generally trying to prepare myself for the onslought of parenthood.
This time round, life has been consumed by too many other things - work, house decisions, raising my 2 1/2 year old son and generally trying to keep my head above water. Even for those who arent silly enough to try and build a house when they’re pregnant, i think most would agree that it’s just not the same ‘2nd time around’.
It makes me wonder, what will life be like with a newborn for the 2nd time? What should i be doing to ‘prepare myself’?? Hmmmm…time will tell…
It’s been just over 4 weeks since we started toilet training Jeremy. They say that toilet training is easy, they say that toilet training is hard and they say ‘let him be’ but amongst all this, Jeremy says “pee pee caca”.
Looking back, there has been progress made but it’s been slower than what we’d hope. There have been days when he’ll ask to go to the toilet, but there have been other days when taking him to the toilet is a struggle. More often the later, than former so as a result, we have taken a different approach and been more laid back in our approach to his toileting. What Paul and I have decided was to incorporate his toilet training into his evening and bedtime routine and let him wear his nappy during the day when he is out and about.
This has been fantastic and every night, he is happy to do his “pee pee caca” on the toilet after dinner and before bedtime. He laughs and runs to the toilet and sits in there for up to 15 minutes at a time reading. This is in contrast to his negative experience before.
He hasn’t done his caca on the toilet yet but we are happy for him to be happy sitting on the toilet to do his pee pee.
In hindsight, there have been things that we could have done differently but with so much conflicting information out there, how does a first time mum know what’s right and what’s wrong for her child?
