kids

Parenting: gender stereotyping

I have massive issues with the vast majority of marketing aimed at parents today. Any parent who has tried to find something remotely gender neutral in a typical high street store will surely understand my concern.  If you have a boy, then expect him to be dressed in blue, grey or brown garments adorned with dinosaurs or digger trucks. He will play with toy cars or trains, and if he goes against the grain and displays imagination, you can provide him with a toy tool kit.

At the other end of the spectrum, a girl will be typically be dressed in pink or lilac. If other colours are included, then it will probably have some kind of lovely animal or bird on it. Nothing with sharp teeth. Her toys will be dolls, cooking equipment or creative materials involving glitter. If, heaven forbid she picks up something blue or resembling a mode of transport, expect the question – ‘Oh, is she a Tomboy?’ As if choosing something not marketed towards girls somehow renders her masculine.

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Food: Comforting Chocolate Brownies

Bleak, wet weather calls for one thing… Comfort food! Ordinarily, I’d be heading to my local Starbucks for a latté and chocolate fudge brownie but as it’s ‘No Spend November’ I needed to get a bit more creative with stuff lurking in my cupboards!

Chocolate brownies are really pretty simple in terms of ingredients – all you need are eggs, butter, flour, sugar and of course chocolate. I also like to add vanilla essence and chopped walnuts but as I didn’t have these in store, I figured it doesn’t make that much difference! Cooking chocolate is obviously very bitter so a lot of recipes call for a lot of sugar to balance this out but I’ve found no one has ever complained when I’ve reduced the sugar – kids included!Read More »Food: Comforting Chocolate Brownies

Style: The opinion of a three-year old

My daughter Katie has very set ideas about what constitutes ‘style’ in that on any given day she is absolutely determined that she will wear what she wants to wear. On a very odd occasion, this will match what I want. On a good day, I would describe her as independent of thought, or strong-minded. On a bad? Downright stubborn.

On Wednesday, we were having one of ‘those’ days. Rather than having her usual fruit and toast for breakfast, Katie wanted sandwiches. Then at lunch, she insisted that she needed her cereal bar before her bread and butter – after I caved in and said she could eat them in whatever order she wanted to – she ate the bread first.

I knew that to leave the house on schedule, I would need to start the process in plenty of time. Forty minutes before the starting time of her Art class, I said it was time to get dressed. She had noticed that Thomas and her Grandma were both wearing blue and white stripes (by coincidence – we’re not that weird) so she wanted to as well. Thinking this was an easy request, I set out her Polarn O’Pyret striped top, navy bubble skirt, some M&S grey tights and then her new boots from the Treehouse in Stockbridge. In my opinion, this, with a coat, was suitable for the weather, easy to wash (so fine for art) and she’d look presentable.Read More »Style: The opinion of a three-year old

3 steps to keeping motivated

Update on the quest to lose the mummy tummy: this week was my second session with Susan from Streamline Personal Training. It kind of felt like I had only just recovered from the last one but then time just seems to be flying far too fast! This week we went through a series of circuits targeting key areas such as aerobic fitness, upper body strength and core muscles. At times, I did feel quite disheartened by the amount that I couldn’t do: at one point I was laying flat on my back trying to lift my feet off the floor. My brain kept saying lift but my feet just were NOT budging. I couldn’t do it and it was evident that the core strength wasn’t there. What I needed was to focus on my ‘fitness motivation!’

Aside from Susan encouraging me, I could hear in the back of my head my old cello teacher encouraging me. He always said that you must say that you can’t do it YET. Keeping the knowledge that you absolutely will be able to with practice and perseverance.

With that in mind, I thought that this week I would write about my three steps for keeping motivated:

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The Best fishmongers in Edinburgh

We have been having some beautiful Autumn weather in Edinburgh recently. Although there has been a definite chill in the air it has been accompanied by bright sunshine and the air is lovely and crisp.

I had all three children with me today so spent some time playing outside to make the most of the good weather but also had a fair amount of menial chores to get done such as food shopping. When I can, I like avoid the supermarkets as think it’s more fun to go to local shops – they usually have nice displays and the staff are often chatty. One of our top shops for this purpose is Welch Fishmongers in Newhaven.

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