Taking your toddler to church may seem somewhat akin to baptizing a cat. In truth, these two activities do share an alarming number of similarities, but one is more important than the other. We all know that toddlers can be stubborn, wilful, and, honestly, very hard to handle. Taking your Read more…
When it’s pouring with rain, it can limit your options when it comes to entertaining the kids. It can lead to them feeling bored and you being stressed, which could be a recipe for disaster. Thankfully, there are loads of things you can do around the house to keep everyone Read more…
What do you think of, when it comes to tracking a child’s growth? Chances are that you’re thinking about marking doorframes, just as I thought before my research on the topic. But there are so many creative ways to track a child’s growth. Let me show you some cute examples. Read more…
As parents, we always want what is best for our children. As a single parent, you face more challenges with trying to make sure you can be everywhere and do everything for and with your children by yourself. It is easy to get stressed out and overwhelmed by the weight Read more…
Like anything, being a single parent has its good points and its not-so-good points. For me, it’s just my life. I don’t often sit and think about how hard it is, or I would never make it out of bed in the mornings! For the most part, I just get Read more…
I think a lot of people feel like “spiritual practice” and “parenting” are two mutually exclusive terms; that you can’t really have a spiritual practice while you also have a small person or people running about the place. Granted, meditation can be tricky when you have a small child – Read more…
Today’s post is a guest blog from Alan at OMG It’s A Girl … enjoy! For some strange reason whilst recuperating from her operation Vicky decided to let people guest post for her. Now that’s not that strange. What is strange is she asked me to do one of the posts! Read more…
I love to read parenting books – but not the mainstream ones that advocate use of the naughty step or time outs. I don’t do either of those things (you can read about why, here). I am a big fan of gentle parenting and enjoy reading books about a more Read more…
We’re now two weeks into the six-week summer holidays, and I have to admit: I’m struggling. We both are. S was ill with chicken pox for all of the half term holidays, and after that she seemed to be off school more than she was there for a long while Read more…
I grew up in the 1980s, a time when children’s shows were on TV for about an hour after school in the week, and a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday afternoons were for the football scores, and Sunday afternoons were a time when we never even Read more…
The other day I was talking to a friend who has two sons. She was telling me about how she’d gone out for the afternoon with just her eldest son, and how lovely it had been to sit and have a drink and a chat with him. Then she stopped Read more…
Is it hard to be a single parent? To be honest, it’s not a question I’m asked a lot. That’s not because I make it look so easy, but because the assumption is just generally made that being a single parent must be really tough. There are two sides to Read more…
Ok, that title is perhaps a little sensationalist – but it got your attention, didn’t it? This is not a foolproof guide, but it is a list of the things I do that help S to get plenty of sleep. S goes to bed between 6 and 6:30 every night. Read more…
For the bank holiday weekend, S and I went to London. At the beginning of August we attended an event at the Waldorf Hilton, where there was a raffle – and we won a free night at the hotel. That visit where we won the stay was S’s first ever Read more…
If I had to describe my style of parenting, I would probably say I favour “gentle parenting” over any other label. I try really hard to parent S gently; I do my best to avoid shouting, and will always favour an explanation over “I said so.” But sometimes, parenting is Read more…
I was really excited to be sent a copy of Sarah Ockwell-Smith’s latest book, The Gentle Parenting Book. I always find there are tons of books about babies, and a few about toddlers – but then nothing, until they become difficult teenagers. There’s very little to help you get from Read more…