In an ideal world, my wife and I would quit our jobs and spend as much time as we could with our kid. In the real world, we’ve got bills to pay. This means we need to work. This means we need to outsource a significant proportion of our son’s childcare. And this means he spends around two-and-a-half days of every week with his grandparents. Continue reading “Are grandparents the new parents?”
There comes a time in almost every parent’s life, when they have to quit moaning about never seeing their old mates, and start making a real effort to find a support network of new friends. For early adopters of this mindset, antenatal groups like the National Childcare Trust (NCT) provide a ready-made group of soon-to-be parents to buddy up with. For later adopters, nursery playdates are Continue reading “Dear Father-Hood: Nursery playdates – is a dad asking a mum a bit weird or completely normal?”
Tears at the nursery door? To be honest, I’ve never heard of this concept, as my son is one of those rock-hard warrior kids. You know the type. They jump out of the car, swagger up to the nursery manager, give them a nod, run in and… …it’s all a big fat lie. Boy did our little man used to cry at the nursery door. He cried, wailed and then sobbed some more. And he did it during every single drop off for well over a year. Continue reading “Dear Father-Hood: why does my kid cry at the nursery door?”
Question: what’s pale, ginger and covered in sunburn that’s so bad it’s going to turn into heinous, puss-filled blisters? Answer: a 12-year-old me after spending a day on the beach baking under the sun while on a family holiday in southern Scotland. Yes, this is a true story. And yes, it does say southern Scotland. I really do burn that easily. But if you think this sensitive skin is Continue reading “The 5 best things to do with your toddler at the beach”
Wowsers, what a bank holiday that was. We had sun, we had Monday off, we went to the beach, we wore sunglasses, we got invited to a barbecue, we managed two 270-mile car journeys without a single toddler temper tantrum and, to top it all off, we took our little man for his first big bike ride. Continue reading “A blow-by-blow account of my toddler’s first bike ride”
Picture the scene. You’re in London with your kids. You’ve checked the guidebooks, ridden the Eye, visited the Aquarium and the Zoo, and now your find yourself gorging on M&M’s in Leicester Square. You consult your phone and discover that with a swift walk you can be at world famous toy store Hamleys in 10 minutes. Do you do it? Do you? Do you? Do you? Continue reading “London with kids – is visiting Hamleys a good idea?”
Yesterday morning, armed with two hand whisks, most of the ingredients needed to make a sumptuous vanilla cake and an iPhone with a cracked screen, my son and I sat down to record the pilot episode of our cutting edge, genre redefining cooking show, “Baking with the Bubster”. Continue reading “My parenting word cloud”
Milkshakes. Milkshakes. Milkshakes. In my 20s, I associated these calcium-packed drinks with Kelis bringing all the boys to her yard. In my early 30s, I associated them with eating and drinking too much at Byron Burger. Now, I associate them with Continue reading “Dear Father Hood: is Milkshake! live any good?”
I have lots of parenting ideas. Some of them (like my robo cry descrambler) fail to make it off the drawing board. Others (like my decision to bake a cake with my son) have mixed results. And others (like my toddler pleasing table games) are 100% Grade-A top drawer Continue reading “Cheap parenting ideas #642: bringing a book to life”
