Category: Views & Ramblings

1. Friendships are a funny thing!

   Posted on 11:07am Thursday 15th Nov 2012

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   Friendships are a funny thing and when you are little, they seem to be singularly the most important thing in your life (after cuddles with mom obviously)

   I watch my eldest daughter and her friends and in some ways she is very much like me, she has different circles of friends but maybe that is because I have encouraged that. I remember when she was at pre-school and she had her first “best friend” and one day that best friend wasn’t there and she was bereft. So began one of life’s lessons, people aren’t always there when you need or want them to be.

   Someone once told me that the older you get, the smaller the circle of your true friends and there is never a truer word spoken. I used to surround myself with lots of friends, I was always throwing a party for any occasion or even for no occasion and I became the one that “organised” getting everyone together. 

   Then life likes to throw you a curve ball (as it always does) and different things took priority. Not priority over my friendships but over the responsibility of organising everyone.  That curve ball focused my outlook on a lot of things and a lot of people. It made me realise who my true friends were. Obviously, there are two possibilities here, either I changed or I didn’t really know who they were until that very moment. 

   My family are the centre of my universe but my friendships stand important at their side. These are my true friends, the real friends, the ones you know, without question that you really can ring at 3am in the morning and they will be there. I am very lucky to have them and I hope that as my eldest daughter and they little one after her, grow up, they cherish good friends and don’t worry about the others. 

   Easier said than done but I got there eventually. Have you?

2. What comforts you?

   Posted on 9:40pm Tuesday 6th Nov 2012

   I am not a fan of a dummy or a soother. There, I said it.

   Opinion is genuinely divided over the use of dummies, as a breast feeding advocate I was always worried about creating confusion with the soother and I personally feel that you get to learn the different cries if you dont instantly use a dummy. This is not to say that I dont totally understand why parents use them and why some health professionals recommend the use of them. A friend of mine asked me why I didnt use one as her health visitor encouraged her to think about it as a "soother" and why wouldnt she want to use one to soothe her baby? (insert onslaught of mummy guilt here)

   I genuinely believe that babies react to the cues and comforts that we provide, whatever they maybe, whether that is a dummy, a special toy or a comfort blanket.

   

   We all need and take comfort in different ways and me choosing not to give my children a dummy or a soother doesnt make me harsh, it just makes me a mum with an opinion.

   They can take comfort with me.

   What comforts you?

    

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3. Little Lilypad Blog : Is anyone listening?

   Posted on 8:43pm Sunday 4th Nov 2012

   When I started writing the Little Lilypad blog, I tried to write for everyone else. I tried to be witty. I tried to be engaging but really all I should have been doing is try to write a blog with halfway decent grammer and spelling! When I started to blog for myself by just letting myself write freely and not to be worried about who was reading and what they thought, I began to enjoy it so much more and kind of forgot that anyone was reading it. I was therefore genuinely shocked when my best friend told me yesterday that she reads every one of them. It always surprises me when my friends and family tell me that they not only read the blog but enjoy it too. I dont mean that in a self deprecating kind of way, it just simply surprises me.

   There are literally hundreds and thousands of people blogging their way through their lives and there are some amazing blogs to be found on the internet, so I love that anyone, even one person reads mine.

   Half the time I am not sure my own children listen to what I am saying (something to do with childrens selected hearing I suspect) so its nice to know someone somewhere is listening.

   If that is you today, thank you x

    

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4. What age is too old to go Trick or Treating : Halloween

   Posted on 7:25pm Sunday 28th Oct 2012

   When I was a child, we never went trick or treating at Halloween. We may have had a few friends round on Halloween but it was never a big celebration on our calendar and we were certainly never allowed to go trick or treating and my parents didnt respond kindly to kids turning up on the doorstep "begging".

   So when did the levels of acceptance change?

   As soon as my daughter was old enough to a) not be scared and b) get excited about dressing up, we started to celebrate Halloween. The first year we had a small party with her nursery friends, the next year a few more people were invited and each year it has grown. The adults take the dressing up "almost" as seriously as the children (more so in the case of my gorgeous and artistic other half), the party games have got more crazy, the pumpkin designs more elaborate but the part that the children love the most is going round our neighbours and trick or treating.

   

   Now given that we have had up to 15 children, I have always thought it a little unfair on my unsuspecting neighbours to turn up with 15 children expecting treats for all of them, so have meticulously gone round to all of the neighbours the day before the party and given out sweets for them to give back to us the following day. (it all sounds a little bonkers but it works I promise).

   So we have gone trick or treating every year for the past 4 years and the little one will join us this year, (although I am still panicking that I havent got her an outfit) so we will be traipsing round knocking on the neighbours doors, shouting "trick or treat". We never have any tricks and over the years the neighbours like to play some on the children, which has caused much hilarity, so am not entirely sure what we would do if they asked for a trick!

   But as the children get older, the thought of teenagers threatening to trick or demanding a treat is a little less cute and a little more intimidating, so what age do they evolve from being adorable to menacing? I have seen teenagers simply don a "Scream" mask and try their luck through the streets at night time which is not really in the spirit of Halloween but on the flip side there are far worse things for teenagers to be involved in than a bit of trick-or-treating. Is it so wrong if they want to hold on to this childhood tradition?

   Lets be honest, you are a grown up for a very long time and childhood is precious. So should we put an age restriction on how old is too old for trick or treating? Or should we simply let children be children for as long as they possibly can be?

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