World Book Day

Today is #worldbookday, well in some places anyways. 

My living children dressed as the red crayon from “the day the crayons quit” and a bumblebee. The Bee costume was last year’s Halloween costume but the crayon costume took me a few hours to make.

Making the costume felt like I should have taken my home economics gcse rather than design and realisation. Trying to draw and cut straight lines on a t-shirt was a nightmare. It kept moving and curling or the chalk wouldn’t write properly. Getting the zig zags correct took both my husband and I.

I had to pin the previously mentioned zig zags to a polo shirt. The first ones of the pattern was easy to attach but trying to make sure the second halves were the correct distance from the first one all the way along was awful. I had to pin and re-pin them multiple times before it was happy. 

I tried a couple of different ways of stitching them on. The first zig zag was put on using big running stitch but the rest were small stitches and surprisingly the small stitches took less time. 

Once the zig zags were on I had to add the lettering. I was going to cut them from the same material but by this time it was getting close to 1am and I didn’t have the oomph anymore. I just used some precut foam sticky backed letters. The hat part was just a curled card cone. 

I think my eldest looked great and it didn’t cost a lot to create what he wanted to be, even though he didn’t decide until 2 days ago. 

Once we got to school there was an awful lot of superheroes and princesses. I get that these are costumes that most kids have and it means that parents haven’t got to out and spend more hard earned money on something the child might only wear once but, it just doesn’t sit right with me. A lot of these costumes aren’t derived from books and the point of World Book Day is to garner and love of reading not movies/TV shows. I also spotted a lot of the parents looking down their noses at the homemade costumes. One mum I wanted to smack the look right off her face. A child was wearing a decorated box (not sure what it was as only saw the back) and he was so proud of it that he was saying “look” to any parent he passed and she just looked at him like it was a pile of poop. 

Paw Patrol

My two living children adore this show. In fact, one of my Lilith’s first words was Marshall. Aiden plays it all the time at school with his friends and it is the first thing Lilith asks for when she has TV time.

I get the premise but it is totally not based on reality. Where in this world would you find such an incompetent bunch of adults that are completely reliant on a 10-year-old and a bunch of juvenile dogs.

How did Captain Turbot become a captain? Did he steal the boat and proclaim himself captain?

How on earth does a chicken be deputy mayor? Surely Chickaletta would poop in that handbag.

The merchandising has also gone crazy. Granted we have every version of the soft toys and all the cars ever produced but there is so much other stuff out there too. They even do full party sets with plates, cups, bowls, decorations and filled party bags.

I don’t know if my Milo would have liked Paw patrol but I guess he would have been subjected to it even if he hated it.

School run mums

When dropping my son off at school I notice there are quite a few different types of mums doing drop off pick up.

There are the working mums looking all smart that just want to drop and run. They seem to be most frustrated if their child needs an extra cuddle.

There are the mums who plan on going back to bed as soon as they get home as they have stayed in their pyjamas with their bed head hair do’s.

There are the mums who have the younger children who need to be restrained but are allowed to run riot. These mums don’t give a monkeys about their toddler who is eating sand or painting over some other child’s masterpiece. Sometimes these other children are screaming and shouting and the mums just don’t care.

There are the mummy cliques that drop their voices if a non member pass by or they just get in the way chatting in their little group. They are the ones who are always picking each others kids up or going on play dates, which are always talked about loudly the day after.

There is always a loner mum who stands on the outskirts of everyone. She either looks like she wants to join in but is afraid or she stands there with a scowl on her face because no one is including her.

You have the mums who are always the last through the door. They rush in and scream at their child because they are dragging their heels. They also seem to forget something. That thing is usually a different item each week.

There is also the ‘normal’ mums who chat to most other mums and take care of their younger children while dropping off their school age child. They are rarely late and only occasionally forget things.

I watch all these different mums and see how they all interact, or don’t with everyone around them and I see that most don’t realise that they are so lucky to have a child to take to/collect from school. I know my Milo wouldn’t have gone to a mainstream school at all but I wonder about what type of mum I would be if I had to do his drop off. I would probably be rushing around after getting my eldest to his school first.

parenting communities

I am a member of many parenting communities or birth boards on social media. I love them and I find them great to chat to mums who have babies who are around the same age. I may never meet these women but I feel like some of them are my best friends.

One particular group saw me through the worst time in my life. They were, and still are invaluable for me. They kept me going, they helped by listening when I needed a rant or if I was having a down day. They did a kitty so that I could get to my Milo when my husband couldn’t drive me and the extra went towards presents that made my eldest sons life easier when mummy and daddy were away for many days at a time. They even sent flowers for my Milo’s funeral.

Some people think these groups shouldn’t exist or just want to bring them down. Those people have never experienced the love you can feel through the words someone posts. Yes, they can also go the other way and bring you down but then you just step away from the keyboard until another day.

There can be times where these groups fall out and go onto form splinter groups. These groups are great to keep in contact with people who have left the original group but I wish they didn’t have to happen. My life would be so much easier if there was just one group for each of my children. As it is, I have 3 children and 5 communities. Lots of members overlap but others don’t and they are usually the ones who are important to me.

Soft play parties

Yesterday I took my eldest to my version of hell, a soft play party.

The place we went to was rammed to the gills with screaming children, most seemed to be dripping with some bodily fluid and all were very excited that it was the weekend.

Usually my son hates these places so we get to leave early as he just stands there with his hands over his ears but not yesterday. He decided that it was the best place on earth to be and he was joining in with the screaming. While I was there I did manage to have a nice time chatting with the other mums and watching for my son in the giant cage like arena.

I did notice quite a few things with the other parents/children.

• So many parents were ignoring their babies
• Two of the kids got into a full on fist fight in the ball pool and no staff intervened. One walked right past and looked at them and left them to it. It took myself and another parent yelling at them from the outside to stop it.
• Big kids were in the little ones area
• Little ones were in the big area, with no supervision
• A pair of dads were having fun with their kids in the sandpit but they stopped all other kids joining in as they would glare at the other kids.
• So many of the kids were barefoot, vile and awful. So glad my son hates to be barefoot.

Once we went upstairs for the party section it was like monkeys were running the show. Each child had been asked what they wanted for food when they entered and this was written down on both a sheet and on the wrist band each child has to wear. They had successfully ignored both and made way too many chicken nuggets and no where near enough of everything else. Why offer a certain option if you don’t have enough of it to serve to those who want it? I managed to grab my son what he wanted but other kids weren’t so lucky.

They then did party songs, 3 party songs. The staff had no idea of the proper moves to Superman and kept looking at each other and giggling. Us parents did a better job with them, but then Superman is a classic song.

Then the dreaded giant headed figure came out. One kid went nuclear and started screaming in a pitch that only dogs could hear. She attempted to climb her mother to get away but the dozy twat kept coming closer and closer to her. The mother had to push past her so she could get her daughter to safety.

The final moment of the torture was the cake/party bags and balloons at the end of the party. It was a free for all. Kids were stropping because they didn’t want to leave, parents were stressed because there was no order and the staff were overwhelmed by all the kids clamouring for stuff. I stayed back and watched the drama unfold. Parents were grabbing cake before it had been put in the bags, kids were grabbing the bags and digging into them before they should have and the staff were swearing under their breath. They hadn’t blown up enough balloons either so there was tears and fights over them. The staff then refused to blow more balloons up as they had done one for each party guest. Totally fair but they should have said that before handing them out to all and sundry as some people had brought siblings and they had taken balloons for them.
While my eldest now enjoys the parties and my youngest might come to like them I can’t help thinking that my Milo will never get to experience them. I wonder if he would have been like his brother, scared at first and needing someone to climb around with him but then more independent. I see 3 year olds running around and it just reminds me of what I am missing.