Anti shitycles

Sometimes I get myself in such a rut. I convince myself I am prime contender for worst mum of the year award. The reason for this....because the boys and I sometimes end up in a shitty cycle or as I like to call it a shitycle. The cycle goes, and don’t judge me. Play with your toys, tablet or TV.

The shitycle leaves us without seeing the sky or breathing fresh air. I feel awful when we end up in the midst of a shitycle, I feel like I am letting my children down because I am failing to stimulate their little spongy brains. More importantly they get bored which results in tears and usually they end up fighting with each other, or teaming up and fighting me.

 A shitycle seems to be brought on by an attack of awful weather. I mean the only mums who can spur themselves on to go out for a stroll in the rain just to get out of the house are imaginary mamas.....or am I just a bit crap?

I also find when your strapped for cash a shitycle is usually imminent. There are loads of theoretical things to do, but the minute your bank balance becomes unhealthy your mind goes blank. Why is that, you know there is loads of free days out but all you can think of is a cbeebies marathon.

So I decided to get together 7 days worth of anti shitycle ideas, otherwise known as the cure for kiddie cabin fever. Enjoy.

1. Take a trip to the garden centre. There’s loads to see that costs nothing at all. Take a stroll around the plants and then check out all the garden ornaments. My boys love the animal ones and are quite happy to spend time walking around naming them.

Mr S named the stork in this picture, moose. Weird imagination this kid!

2. If your stuck inside, crack out the paints.  My two love painting anything.  A picture, one of those pot painting sets, we’ve even been know to paint old toilet roll tubes.  Places like Quality Save and B&M always have cheap craft sets. Even better when they can be seasonal, for example  we made valentines hearts this week and will paint eggs at Easter.

3. If painting is just too much mess for you then play dough is the answer. Every child loves play dough. For even more cheap fun, make your own. We use 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt and then add water gradually until you have the right texture and consistency. You can also add food colourings if you want to have more fun.

4. Go to the park. If your not sure where your nearest one is, simply go on the Interweb and the little people in the screen will tell you. If your lucky, like us, your local parks may have more to offer than a slide and swing. We also have a petting zoo where we can spend a good hour, a duck pond to feed the ducks and a very reasonably priced land train. We take a packed lunch and make a full day of it, because no one wants to pay cafe prices .

5. Baking is always good, mainly because you get to eat whatever you make. If like me cracking an egg into a bowl is as far as your baking skills go,( seriously Mary Berry would be ashamed of me), then just buy a ready made kit where you simply add an egg, or even easier make jelly or rice Krispie cakes. Everyone loves a rice Krispie cake. Supermarkets own Krispies are less than £1 and there’s always some chocolate on offer. The only down side is when you accidently eat all the cakes while the kids are in bed, then they want one the next morning. Cue guilty mama face, although it’s not my fault I was born with zero will power.

6. Indoor play. You don’t have to look far. Indoor play areas seem to be spreading faster than the kids Nutella on my toast, shhhhh don’t tell my kids. There is a huge bonus to taking the kids to an indoor play centre. By the time you leave the kids will be so worn out they will have a really good nap, the downside, you will need a nap too. I honestly don’t need to do a workout when I have climbed, crawled and ran around one of those places.

7. Have an indoor picnic. Turn off the technology, put a picnic blanket on the floor and pack up the picnic basket. If you want to make it even more fun, make it a teddy bears picnic. Have pom bears and honey sandwiches, read we’re going on a bear hunt and then work your way around the house looking for a hidden bear. Bring your favourite teddy’s and finish it all with a teddy bear sing-song.

So there it is, my 7 day course of anti-shitycle’s. Take one a day and things should feel better soon. The only possible side effect of taking my ideas is happy little cubs, and who doesn’t want that.

If you have any more shitycle ideas, don’t be selfish, please share them below, I’m always looking for new things to do because let’s face it, the weathers always crap and I’m usually skint a week after payday.

Good day to you x

I am what I am

Before I begin my usual blog I just wanted to mention a friend of mine. She is a single mother, (is kicking ass at it). She works dam hard every day and has never stopped reaching for her dreams. She now has an amazing career, provides a fantastic life for her son Mr C and has just manged to buy her first house. I cannot express how proud I am of her and proud she should be of herself. You’re doing a ‘jolly’ good job Mrs.

We had a lovely night in for my sister’s birthday. Me, my sister, my mum and my auntie M. We started off on the Pimm’s and ended up on the wine. The conversation started off very lady like and ended up about pubic hair and sleeping naked. We started early so by 7pm we were questioning how we became such light weights.

I attempted to make a cheesecake for my sister birthday cake, despite my best efforts it would not set. I balanced candles on the top, sang happy birthday, then handed out spoons and explained that I could not provide slices, as this was more of a soup than a cheesecake. I was given a 1 for presentation but a 10 for taste. Everyone knows that’s what matters. At least I didn’t have a soggy bottom.

Mr J had a lovely moment today where he felt, in his words, very grown up. He emptied his piggy bank and had saved enough money to buy a game he had wanted for his Xbox. The pride on his face when he handed the money over, knowing he had saved and bought it all on his own. I gave him £1 to start off his next little saving mission which he was over the moon with. I asked him, “so Mr J what are you saving up for now”. His response was brilliant. “I’m saving up to buy a rug”. I obviously questioned why a 7-year-old child would want to save his pocket money to buy furnishings for his bedroom. His answer was simply brilliant and typically Mr J. “well I like the feel of the one I’m sat on”. BRILLIANT. What is it with the children in my life wanting to buy all their things from the home department? My Christmas shopping list for this year is so far a rug and a chicken egg timer. 

I am a huge fan of children being children. By that I mean I hate that boys have to be boys and girls have to be girls, they should just be children. I took Mr S out in a lovely pink and navy t- shirt, while we were out having fun I heard an older child say, “mummy why is that boy wearing pink, only girls wear pink.” I felt ashamed, as if I had set my little boy up to be picked on because I picked a girl’s colour, I stood right there in the middle of the play centre running out his future of bullies in school, having no friends, complete failure in life and all because I was a terrible mother who made bad choices. How sad is that, a 7 year oldish child made me feel ashamed because of a colour. At that moment I stopped being irrational and looked at Mr S. He was wearing clean clothes, had a huge smile on his face, was having fun with his brother and mama on a lovely day out and couldn’t stop looking at his perfect self in the mirror. I realised that it didn’t matter what that child had said because my child would have a happy and successful life no matter what colour his t-shirt was, because he is loved, cared for and allowed to be who he is.

Mr S and Mr B both enjoy a variety of toys and we have no such thing as boys and girl’s toys in our house. Mr S’s current favourites are a styling head with a toy hairdryer, a train and his water activity table. We had to buy him the styling head so that he would stop trying to brush my hair, (he is not gentle) and he loves it. Mr B is 8 months old so will grab and play with pretty much anything. He is happiest when he is in his jumparoo or knawing on teething toys. The most effective seems to be one his godfather bought him, Sophie la giraffe, it is the best teething toy, I just wish we had known about it with Mr S. Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://sophielagirafe.co.uk/.  My stepson, Mr J, loves playing dress up and whenever his cousins are here they appear in around 4 outfits an hour, ranging from superheroes to cave men. Miss M my niece puts Mr J in a princess dress and makes him do a twirl, he enjoys it and loves when we laugh along with him. 

I can’t help but shudder when I see little boys crying and their parents say, “stop being a girl”. Why do tears make you a girl? I regularly see a poster in my doctors waiting room stating that suicide is the leading cause of death in young men, I can’t help but feel like those passing comments of ‘boys don’t cry’ will teach them to bottle up their emotions and keep it all locked in, all in the name of being masculine.

I understand that people have a choice when it comes to parenting. If you want your son to play with cars and only wear blue, then crack on. If you want your daughter in pink and only pink while playing Barbie’s, then that’s your decision. You bring up your children in a way that makes you happy, as long as it makes them happy as well.

Good day to you x

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