Practical Parenting
One of the upsides of having two children close in age - and the same gender means they naturally play well together - and it helps with learning concepts such as sharing and working together.
Of course, that's not all sweetness and light and for every happy moment running around together there's one of fighting, snatching, crying - it's all part of the growing up process.
Now I can't pretend the school summer holidays have been easy all day every day. I would love to be able to tell you happy tales of us heading off every day to theme parks and animal sanctuaries and all the rest of it, but the house and the business still need to run - and there are simple practicalities such as feeding and washing and cleaning that can't be ignored. OK - some people do to more extent than others, but I've settled on a bit of a compromise situation here. We'll have a couple of days out a week - on the others I'll work like a blue arsed fly to get everything done here and get ahead of the game.
When you have two children it's quite hard to give either of them the individual attention they need - both vie for Daddy's attention and if you attend to one, the other doesn't like it. So we all look forward to Friday at the moment. That is the one day per week when Jamie - the two year old goes to his childminder for the day. Although she has another child in her care, the fact that this is her full time job means that she can give him a level of attention I cannot always manage, and she takes them out to various toddler groups and on outings most weeks. This arrangement will be coming to an end soon, which will be sad for us, but Jamie is moving on to pastures new (The Courtyard) in September - all I will say is, publicly here, thank you so much Julie, you have been fantastic with Jamie for the last six months. I can thoroughly recommend her if any of you out there are looking for some childcare, here is a link to her page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/181387858588661/
Now the big bonus of Julie taking Jamie on these Fridays is that I am then able to devote the whole day to my other son, the 4 year old Ollie. Now as you know, Ollie has had some behavioural issues which we have had a number of specialists in the school involved with and he is to some degree on the autistic spectrum - not severe - but like everything in life - we are all on a scale somewhere and he is towards that end. He is a fantastic and loving little boy, but does have some behavioural quirks that I more than anyone seems able to deal with - which as his main carer is as it should be. He finds it hard to deal with some fairly straightforward day to day situations which lead to frequent upset and tears and I cannot always deal with this effectively on the spot instantly as I'm doing one of some many other things - preparing their meals, changing nappies, hanging out washing and all the other stuff. However on Fridays it is different. I ensure that everything that needs doing around here is done by the end of Thursday (other than very basic everyday necessities) so on Friday there is no washing, no business work - everything is already prepared for the weekend gigs, I ignore emails and so once we drop Jamie off with Julie the day is ours.
And what a difference it makes - this whole day with my undivided attention. We've had barely a cross word or crying moment today - he has been happy, fantastic, and he's shown it. He's even said "I love spending the day with you Daddy".
We went to Garth Park - deserted because the day started wet, but it was dry when we got there. We went on the swings and the rocket. On our walk there he asked me about the power lines over Priory Road instigating a whole talk about electricity and what it does for us in the house - finishing with a quiz - e.g. I say "name 3 things in the kitchen that use electricity". We don't get the opportunity to talk so much at home when everyone else is about.
We walked around all under the trees and going inside the hollow bushes - looking for treasure (daisies). Ran round and round the bushes. Ollie chased a squirrel right across the park and watched it fly up into the tree. We pretended to train a pigeon to walk on the different coloured sections on the roundabout "walk on the green bit, Mr Pigeon". And he chased some across the field to great laughter when they flew up in the air. We were in the park about an hour and a half. Then we went to Nash's and he had toast and an iced biscuit and a carton of Orange Juice.
And then back home and we sat with some learning books I have for 3 to 5 year olds, joining up letters to pictures (e.g, draw a line from the picture of the cat to the letter it begins with). Not a single moan or whinge the whole time - which is remarkable for Ollie who due to his issues gets frustrated very easily.
So I have no qualms whatsoever about splitting the two of the boys up one day a week - it's beneficial for both of them.
Oh - and we have not had that CBeebies on all day (it's a TV channel - not a baby sitter) either and nor has it been asked for.
We have had a good day!
Now they are both home and playing in the garden. Fighting has not broken out yet. All's good (so far).
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Jason xx
Of course, that's not all sweetness and light and for every happy moment running around together there's one of fighting, snatching, crying - it's all part of the growing up process.
Now I can't pretend the school summer holidays have been easy all day every day. I would love to be able to tell you happy tales of us heading off every day to theme parks and animal sanctuaries and all the rest of it, but the house and the business still need to run - and there are simple practicalities such as feeding and washing and cleaning that can't be ignored. OK - some people do to more extent than others, but I've settled on a bit of a compromise situation here. We'll have a couple of days out a week - on the others I'll work like a blue arsed fly to get everything done here and get ahead of the game.
When you have two children it's quite hard to give either of them the individual attention they need - both vie for Daddy's attention and if you attend to one, the other doesn't like it. So we all look forward to Friday at the moment. That is the one day per week when Jamie - the two year old goes to his childminder for the day. Although she has another child in her care, the fact that this is her full time job means that she can give him a level of attention I cannot always manage, and she takes them out to various toddler groups and on outings most weeks. This arrangement will be coming to an end soon, which will be sad for us, but Jamie is moving on to pastures new (The Courtyard) in September - all I will say is, publicly here, thank you so much Julie, you have been fantastic with Jamie for the last six months. I can thoroughly recommend her if any of you out there are looking for some childcare, here is a link to her page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/181387858588661/
Now the big bonus of Julie taking Jamie on these Fridays is that I am then able to devote the whole day to my other son, the 4 year old Ollie. Now as you know, Ollie has had some behavioural issues which we have had a number of specialists in the school involved with and he is to some degree on the autistic spectrum - not severe - but like everything in life - we are all on a scale somewhere and he is towards that end. He is a fantastic and loving little boy, but does have some behavioural quirks that I more than anyone seems able to deal with - which as his main carer is as it should be. He finds it hard to deal with some fairly straightforward day to day situations which lead to frequent upset and tears and I cannot always deal with this effectively on the spot instantly as I'm doing one of some many other things - preparing their meals, changing nappies, hanging out washing and all the other stuff. However on Fridays it is different. I ensure that everything that needs doing around here is done by the end of Thursday (other than very basic everyday necessities) so on Friday there is no washing, no business work - everything is already prepared for the weekend gigs, I ignore emails and so once we drop Jamie off with Julie the day is ours.
And what a difference it makes - this whole day with my undivided attention. We've had barely a cross word or crying moment today - he has been happy, fantastic, and he's shown it. He's even said "I love spending the day with you Daddy".
We went to Garth Park - deserted because the day started wet, but it was dry when we got there. We went on the swings and the rocket. On our walk there he asked me about the power lines over Priory Road instigating a whole talk about electricity and what it does for us in the house - finishing with a quiz - e.g. I say "name 3 things in the kitchen that use electricity". We don't get the opportunity to talk so much at home when everyone else is about.
We walked around all under the trees and going inside the hollow bushes - looking for treasure (daisies). Ran round and round the bushes. Ollie chased a squirrel right across the park and watched it fly up into the tree. We pretended to train a pigeon to walk on the different coloured sections on the roundabout "walk on the green bit, Mr Pigeon". And he chased some across the field to great laughter when they flew up in the air. We were in the park about an hour and a half. Then we went to Nash's and he had toast and an iced biscuit and a carton of Orange Juice.
And then back home and we sat with some learning books I have for 3 to 5 year olds, joining up letters to pictures (e.g, draw a line from the picture of the cat to the letter it begins with). Not a single moan or whinge the whole time - which is remarkable for Ollie who due to his issues gets frustrated very easily.
So I have no qualms whatsoever about splitting the two of the boys up one day a week - it's beneficial for both of them.
Oh - and we have not had that CBeebies on all day (it's a TV channel - not a baby sitter) either and nor has it been asked for.
We have had a good day!
Now they are both home and playing in the garden. Fighting has not broken out yet. All's good (so far).
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Jason xx
I like the cbeebies bit, it can't do children much good watching tv/dvd's all day long
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