Parent Gossip

Children often have little activities which give them comfort and help them settle down. One of the most common habits of childhood is thumb sucking. My sister is 24 years old now, however when she is tired she still sometimes sucks her thumb when she thinks no one is looking.

Babies suck on a bottle or a dummy to pacify them when they are upset so thumb sucking can relax and make children more comfortable. Young children may also suck to soothe themselves. Since thumb sucking is relaxing, it may help send a child to sleep.

If you are meeting your partner’s parents for the first time it is important for it to go well because first impressions count. Here are a few tips to ensure it goes well:

• Dress to impress – turning up in ripped jeans, greasy hair or messy stubble on your face will not bode well with your potential future parent in laws.
• Don’t forget your manners – When speaking to your girlfriends or boyfriends parents always ensure you use good manners, say please and thank you and be polite.
• Good table manners – Don’t chew with your mouth open, and don’t talk when you have food in your mouth. Try not to rest your elbows on the table and offer to help with the clean up afterwards.

Most of all try and relax and be yourself, this way your partners parents are sure to love you just like your partner does already!

I have met my boyfriend’s parents as we have been going out for nearly three years now. We regularly go around to their house for Sunday dinner and some evenings just to pop in. I have a good relationship with my boyfriend’s parents however I have heard terrible stories about people who are not so lucky.

Some mother and father in laws can be dreadful to deal with as parents always want what is best for their children, therefore they sometimes do not approve of your partners as they believe that you can do better.

I am one of three girls, I have two other sisters and I have no children of my own. Therefore I can’t really pass judgment on how my parents feel about myself and my sisters. However, my youngest sister is eight years younger than me and she is definitely the baby of the family and she has been spoilt.

There is eighteen months between me and my other sister, so when we were in our childhood we received presents which were similar. Now we are older, we look back on the presents that the youngest gets and they are so much better, for example; A Nintendo WII, a Nintendo DS, driving lessons etc. I don’t know if she is the favourite but she definitely gets better presents on birthdays and Christmas!

I was not brought up in a really strict household. My parents taught myself and my sisters what was right and wrong. We were not smacked or hit, if we did something that was naughty or we were cheeky we were shouted at and if we did something which was really naughty, we had a severe talking to.

However, some parents just don’t know how to discipline their children. Children need to have boundaries; they must have rules in place to give them structure. This allows the child to know what it good behaviour and what is unacceptable behaviour and it is up to the parent to set these boundaries.

Do your parents give you much privacy? I believe there is a fine line between caring and wanting to share experiences with your child and then the other extreme of being far too nosy and molly coddling your child so that they feel smothered.

From my personal experience, mum’s and dad’s like to know what is going on in your life because they care about what is happening and how you are handling different situations. When you are younger – they like to know where you are, who you are with and what you are doing. As you get older, it is important for parents to let go of their children and allow them have some freedom – otherwise parents would risk being too interfering and then ruin their relationships with their off spring.

Oh my goodness, its nearly school holiday time again - the year really is flying by. But in a few weeks the kids will be breaking up for Easter and for 2 weeks my son will need to be entertained.  If the weather is good I’ll have no problem. He loves the park so a picnic, friends, and a football oh, and a good book for me goes down a treat!  However, if it’s raining, it’s a different story.  I’m having an extension built so the house is a mess - no room to play etc etc so I’m starting to stress about it already!  I could get the paint out and we could decorate my new living room…..or maybe not just fingers crossed for sunny days!

We live in a world where there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  Evenings are spent racing home from work, making the tea with one hand helping with homework with the other and taking the dog for a walk if you get a spare minute!

Weekends are then left to catching up with household chores.  Boring it is but needs to be done so I get my 7 year old to help out.  He’s more than capable to tidy up his own toys and at least when he does he knows where everything is.  He’s even been known to ask for a duster and helped do a bit of cleaning - it only lasted 5 minutes but was better than nothing I suppose and a little more each time and he’ll be flying round the house!

They’re never to young to learn and if he helps we have more play time!

I have a fabulous Mum and I am a Mummy.  So it gets difficult to know what to do to keep everyone happy.  Luckily I managed have my son despite it being his Dads weekend.  He gave me a lovely bunch of daffodils and a card - or the more special because he’d made it himself.

So then I needed to make sure My Mum had a nice day whilst also doing something that I enjoyed too.  Despite it being cold we got wrapped up and went to our local park which had a lake, playground etc.  The kids had a ball running round in the fresh air and although a little bit cold the adults walked round the lake (it’s only small) to keep warm and then we all went ot the coffee shop for ice cream - the kids! and hot chocolates with cream and marshmellows for us.

Great, a very enjoyable day and all Mums  kept happy!

It was my birthday last week so as a family we arranged to go out to a rather lovely Italian restaurant.  The kids can build their own pizzas and the food for adults is good too so - result - everyone happy!

However, my son who is only 7 ,is slowly picking up from me that it’s good to get dressed up when going out He’d picked his trending little outfit, spent ages spiking his hair - he looked the business!

I thought I did too - until I realised that he was staring at me.  I asked what was wrong and he just turned his nose up and told me I looked ‘funny’  that I had too much makeup on and that he didn’t like my lipstick!

I couldn’t believe he’d made such a comment but he made me check my face and although a little more than usual I didn’t think I looked that bad.

I just hope that whens he’s older he has a bit more tact than he did with me!