The latter part of the afternoon talked about making time for what's important in your life, and integrating your work and home life so that both of them gets an equal share of your full attention. Some interesting stuff, but the main thing that got me thinking about this post was this video:
Monday, 24 June 2013
Energy boosters
We had a training day at work today all about resilience and energy management. The first part of the day looked at stressors and things that give us energy and take it away. The first thought when we talked about energy boosters was Jake. I can come home from a tough day, see his smile and suddenly I'm full of energy again, ready to play, cuddle and entertain him. I don't know what it is, but I joked today about bringing Jake to work with me to keep me pepped up.
The latter part of the afternoon talked about making time for what's important in your life, and integrating your work and home life so that both of them gets an equal share of your full attention. Some interesting stuff, but the main thing that got me thinking about this post was this video:
The final part of the video resonated so strongly with me that I wanted to share it on here. The discussions following the video were interesting as those on my team who don't have kids were talking about their own bucket list (with numerous jokes about taking paid sabbaticals) whilst those with kids talked about their children, no matter how old, and how they were going to make more time for them. I like to think that I make as much time for Jake as possible, but there are times when I hate how long he's at nursery without us for (even though I know it's a good thing for him!) and times when I wish he was asleep or with Kelsey so I could sleep more/get work done/tidy up. Ric Elias makes me want to appreciate all the time that I can with him so I pledge from hereon to give him my full attention and love when I'm with him.
The latter part of the afternoon talked about making time for what's important in your life, and integrating your work and home life so that both of them gets an equal share of your full attention. Some interesting stuff, but the main thing that got me thinking about this post was this video:
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Father's Day
I've had a few posts in the pipeline for a while, and as I've got some spare time (ish!), I wanted to get a bit of momentum going again. Sunday was Father's Day, both here and in the UK, and I count it as my first one (I really don't remember much of June last year!). I'm torn about the day, because on the one hand, it's a commercialised holiday and I hate the idea of people spending money on gifts, food or cards simply because someone at Hallmark decided that they should. On the other hand, I think celebrating fatherhood is a good thing (part of the reason for writing this blog is to do so!), so I had wanted to write a post with some general reflections on being a father.
However, after watching some TV over the weekend, I want to write about the portrayal of fathers in the media. These are just my thoughts, feel to agree, disagree, tell me off for taking things too seriously as you will, but three adverts jumped out at me:
The first was for moonpig getting people to buy their fathers gifts and cards for Sunday. They had a series of men doing "manly" things like barbecueing, using power tools and playing golf, all of which feels stereotypical. I'm not sure that they would run a similar advert for mother's day (I don't remember seeing one on TV at the time!) and there was nothing about fathers playing or being with their children.
The second is for SMA formula. In it, you see mother after mother caring for their baby at home with the idea that all of them use SMA to help them through the weaning process. The thing that gets me is that out of 4 example pairings, all of them were mothers. This may be as a result of targetting by the ad agency after demographic research, but it would have been interesting to put a man in there.
The final one is for Robinson's juice (although the advert for Weetabix also hits this theme!). In this one, you see two boys playing out all day, drinking the juice, and the reveal at the end is that one of them is the father and the other the son (interesting, yesterday's version of the advert removed the bit about the father encouraging the son to go talk to a girl!). Whilst this moves towards how I feel we should be representing fatherhood, the tag line is It's good to be a dad, it's better to be a friend.
Now I may be thinking with my teacher head, but I think there's a difference. I think you need to be able to have that adult - child relationship with your kid so that they know boundaries and respect adult authority when they see it. I get worried when I see parents at school treating their kids as equals and friends, and these are often the children who will kick up a fuss in my class when faced with something they don't want to do. I hope that I have a good relationship with Jake (we certainly seem to have a good time together at the moment!) but I want him to see me as his father, someone who will help him develop and progress in life, play with him, love him unconditionally, but not someone that he sees as an equal until he's an adult himself.
However, after watching some TV over the weekend, I want to write about the portrayal of fathers in the media. These are just my thoughts, feel to agree, disagree, tell me off for taking things too seriously as you will, but three adverts jumped out at me:
The first was for moonpig getting people to buy their fathers gifts and cards for Sunday. They had a series of men doing "manly" things like barbecueing, using power tools and playing golf, all of which feels stereotypical. I'm not sure that they would run a similar advert for mother's day (I don't remember seeing one on TV at the time!) and there was nothing about fathers playing or being with their children.
The second is for SMA formula. In it, you see mother after mother caring for their baby at home with the idea that all of them use SMA to help them through the weaning process. The thing that gets me is that out of 4 example pairings, all of them were mothers. This may be as a result of targetting by the ad agency after demographic research, but it would have been interesting to put a man in there.
The final one is for Robinson's juice (although the advert for Weetabix also hits this theme!). In this one, you see two boys playing out all day, drinking the juice, and the reveal at the end is that one of them is the father and the other the son (interesting, yesterday's version of the advert removed the bit about the father encouraging the son to go talk to a girl!). Whilst this moves towards how I feel we should be representing fatherhood, the tag line is It's good to be a dad, it's better to be a friend.
Now I may be thinking with my teacher head, but I think there's a difference. I think you need to be able to have that adult - child relationship with your kid so that they know boundaries and respect adult authority when they see it. I get worried when I see parents at school treating their kids as equals and friends, and these are often the children who will kick up a fuss in my class when faced with something they don't want to do. I hope that I have a good relationship with Jake (we certainly seem to have a good time together at the moment!) but I want him to see me as his father, someone who will help him develop and progress in life, play with him, love him unconditionally, but not someone that he sees as an equal until he's an adult himself.
Monday, 3 June 2013
Favourite toys
I've been carrying a few blog posts around in my head recently, so I'm going to try and get some of them written over the next week or so. I often think of a post, then forget about it when I'm in front of the computer, then run out of time when I next remember it...I feel I should be writing at least the titles down when I think of them!
Ideally, I wanted to write this one before Jake's birthday as he got a few new toys then which have quickly entered into his list of favourites. This post should act as a snapshot of Jake's favourite toys and interests now which should give some good comparisons later on.
1. Alan, or should I say ALAN! This is a puppet of the head of a white alpaca (hence the name). I don't think I've ever seen a child respond to a toy in such a way that Jake responds to Alan. His whole face lights up (we've got a great video where he's crying his eyes out then switches to giggles and smiles when he see Alan) and he grabs the puppet to cuddle and carry around with him. It's really cute when you've got your hand operating Alan as you can feel how tightly Jake cuddles him and it's fun to pretend to nuzzle him back through Alan.
2. The sorter. To be fair, Jake's favourite occupation at the moment is to take things out of a container and put them back in. It doesn't make any difference what the things are or what the container is, and he's as happy playing with the clothes in his wardrobe baskets as he is with an actual block sorter. However, he enjoys the challenge of putting a shape into the right hole (and beams when he does so first time round) so our wooden sorter always goes with us. His addiction to sorting means that you often find bits of food, socks and other toys stashed away at the end of the day, almost like he's saving them for later.
3. Plastic balls. We bought a couple of big bags (probably 100 total) of plastic balls to make a ball pit for his birthday, but Jake much prefers them as an indoor game. We simple unzip the bag and he scoots over, takes a few out and then tips the whole bag over. He'll then happily chase them around the floor, picking some up to bang together, putting others back into the bag. My favourite moments are where he decides on a ball to pick up, but because he scoots on his bum with his feet facing out meaning that he kicks the ball away from himself. This makes him laugh as he chases it again, only to kick it away. The sheer quantity of balls stops him from getting too frustrated.
4. Push bike. Another nearly new sale purchase. This bike slowly transforms to become a push along bike that Jake will walk behind, but at the moment he's much more interested in riding it, especially as his feet now touch the ground. It took him a while to work out how to move his legs to move the bike forward, but his favourite kitchen game is to push himself along to you and then be pushed back across the floor to start all over again. It's also full of buttons to press and make noise, making it a toy that we'll use a lot in the future!
5. Sunny. Sunny is a car toy to keep him calm on long rides and it's up there as it's got so many different sounds, movements and textures to keep Jake occupied. I like especially as it comes from an unlikely source, a friend who I wouldn't have put down as buying fantastic kids toys, but obviously knows his way around the Early Learning Centre. Sunny is about the same size as Jake, which makes me laugh as I tend to cover Jake up with Sunny as we get into the car.
The rest of his toys come and go in popularity, but the sheer quantity that we've accumulated means that we can always rediscover toys later on. We'll always be on the lookout for new things that will engage him and it'll be interesting to see the transition from his current favourites to new toys in the weeks and months to come.
Ideally, I wanted to write this one before Jake's birthday as he got a few new toys then which have quickly entered into his list of favourites. This post should act as a snapshot of Jake's favourite toys and interests now which should give some good comparisons later on.
1. Alan, or should I say ALAN! This is a puppet of the head of a white alpaca (hence the name). I don't think I've ever seen a child respond to a toy in such a way that Jake responds to Alan. His whole face lights up (we've got a great video where he's crying his eyes out then switches to giggles and smiles when he see Alan) and he grabs the puppet to cuddle and carry around with him. It's really cute when you've got your hand operating Alan as you can feel how tightly Jake cuddles him and it's fun to pretend to nuzzle him back through Alan.
2. The sorter. To be fair, Jake's favourite occupation at the moment is to take things out of a container and put them back in. It doesn't make any difference what the things are or what the container is, and he's as happy playing with the clothes in his wardrobe baskets as he is with an actual block sorter. However, he enjoys the challenge of putting a shape into the right hole (and beams when he does so first time round) so our wooden sorter always goes with us. His addiction to sorting means that you often find bits of food, socks and other toys stashed away at the end of the day, almost like he's saving them for later.
3. Plastic balls. We bought a couple of big bags (probably 100 total) of plastic balls to make a ball pit for his birthday, but Jake much prefers them as an indoor game. We simple unzip the bag and he scoots over, takes a few out and then tips the whole bag over. He'll then happily chase them around the floor, picking some up to bang together, putting others back into the bag. My favourite moments are where he decides on a ball to pick up, but because he scoots on his bum with his feet facing out meaning that he kicks the ball away from himself. This makes him laugh as he chases it again, only to kick it away. The sheer quantity of balls stops him from getting too frustrated.
4. Push bike. Another nearly new sale purchase. This bike slowly transforms to become a push along bike that Jake will walk behind, but at the moment he's much more interested in riding it, especially as his feet now touch the ground. It took him a while to work out how to move his legs to move the bike forward, but his favourite kitchen game is to push himself along to you and then be pushed back across the floor to start all over again. It's also full of buttons to press and make noise, making it a toy that we'll use a lot in the future!
5. Sunny. Sunny is a car toy to keep him calm on long rides and it's up there as it's got so many different sounds, movements and textures to keep Jake occupied. I like especially as it comes from an unlikely source, a friend who I wouldn't have put down as buying fantastic kids toys, but obviously knows his way around the Early Learning Centre. Sunny is about the same size as Jake, which makes me laugh as I tend to cover Jake up with Sunny as we get into the car.
The rest of his toys come and go in popularity, but the sheer quantity that we've accumulated means that we can always rediscover toys later on. We'll always be on the lookout for new things that will engage him and it'll be interesting to see the transition from his current favourites to new toys in the weeks and months to come.
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