From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Tea munched.

We had the Jersey royals from the waste diversion scheme. Fr. Cauli, Fr. Green Beans, omlette and (optional) mint sauce.  The mint sauce was ok, but not the best as I made it with dried mint.  I have to say, that whilst the potatoes were nice, they weren't the 'you couldn't be eating anything other' than Jersey Royals that I remember from my youth.  But they were nice, and were almost on a par with freshly dug, home grown new potatoes.  i wouldn't like to speculate what premium price they were commanding in the supermercado of origin tho.  Yoghurt for pud.

I don't know if I mentioned I made an apple crumble for tea last night, with 2 apples I picked out of the  from the waste diversion scheme and a battered and bruised apple from the fruit bowl, paired with the last of the vanilla flavoured ice-cream.  

I have noted down the '50 things' list - and I'm pleasantly surprised just how many of them LG has actually done - some of them several times.   speaking personally, I hope we can do No. 9 - go on an outdoor picnic - for another gazinty billion times, until I'm too old and decrepit to do it anymore 😁 I shall look forward to trying to do some of the ones that LG hasn't yet tried, with re-visiting other old faves 😁 I like that we achieved several - by default - today 😁 We saw fish - teeny 'fry' - and we definitely listened to nature's orchestra with birdsong and the wind blowing through some willow and poplar trees 😁

The one thing I'm a little worried about is....... how can I put this?  Sometimes when we've done something nice with LG, instead of savouring the moment/event;   the next minute/hour/day, LG is "what are we going to do now". or "what are we going to do today mum?", and it can feel - maybe it's just me - like you're jumping through hoops and irrespective of the quality/enjoyment of the hoop jump today, you've got to provide a hoop jump tomorrow, and the next day.........  Not - I must say - necessarily getting any 'bigger or better', there's just the feeling that we've always got to be doing something.  I do find that a bit hard to get my head around - especially since LG hasn't really had a 'scheduled' upbringing with 'afterschool club' this or activities every night of the week, with tap dance on a Saturday and team sports on a Sunday. 

Never mind, we shall have fun - of that I'm sure.  And I've always been of the opinion that you don't always have to spend loads of money to have a ball.  LG has enjoyed the time with their beloved papa this past week.  

Greying X

Staffordia

We had some Jersey potatoes as a treat, and had exactly the same thought. Definitely not the same as the ones I had in my younger days. 

newgirly

It can be very exhausting navigating entertainment in the holidays! and the call of what “what are we doing next” were common 😂 I used to do a balance of (mostly cheap or free) days like the country park , picnics, library cinema, park, museums, zoo etc. but also some days where I basically just let them get on with it 🤷‍♀️ often for my own sanity, but it’s a life skill entertaining yourself 😁 I am told I was stricter that their peers parents when it came to video games , phones etc. when they were younger and they were last to have them. But I did cave in and there were periods in the early teen years where they played too much don’t get me wrong, but it also spawned new interests when they were younger especially in the boys where they collected retro games and consoles from boot sales and we ended up doing trips to the science museum’s retro games days. 

We also bought memberships some years along the way, we had a couple of years of zoo membership in the earlier days, that was a large “conservation” zoo an hour or so away which also had lots of play equipment which we went to frequently with picnics ( also being open all year round helped as so many places are better when it’s warm or even shut in winter)  and I think three years of the far more pricey Merlin passes,  that would have been offset by our holidays being worked around it mind, we would book a purple hotel room and make a weekend of it up at @lton towers, with the closer places being visited more often. I appreciate these options are not “cheap” just what we chose to stretch to instead of a “proper” holiday. Dh and I didn’t split the work life balance very fairly, he did nearly all the working while I did the bulk of the parenting as he was always at work, it’s challenging sometimes, I used to count down the days excitedly until they were off school for the summer, but before I knew it I was counting the days until they went back 😆

Sorry for waffling on about what I did, but basically I think you are doing great 😊

LotsOfTea

Don't forget 'doing something' doesn't have to mean going out. You can bake a cake together, have a picnic in the garden, do some art or craft activities (there's some great free online stuff like Draw with Rob that can be fun), make popcorn and watch a film, play a boardgame, invite a school friend round to play for an hour or two, put the tent up in the garden and camp out over night or just toast marshmallows on the camping stove,  write a story together where you take it in turns to write the next bit and try and leave the other person with the silliest cliffhangers to follow on from, find as many knock knock jokes/cheesy jokes online as you can and do a comedy set for Dad when he gets home from work etc. I expect a bit of online research would come up with lots of other suggestions. One of my DS's happiest times he still talks about is when I bought 2 cheap water pistols and we had a big water fight in the garden every day it was hot over the summer holidays. 

elsien

Staffordia said:

We had some Jersey potatoes as a treat, and had exactly the same thought. Definitely not the same as the ones I had in my younger days. 

Something to do with less seaweed and more use of artificial fertilisers, if I recall something I recently heard on the radio correctly.

Greying_Pilgrim

newgirly - you're not waffling on, your post is great.  I hadn't thought about the M3rl1n type passes - maybe it's a bit too early to get the most benefit, but it's certainly a consideration.  Even though I went to a tiny, rural primary school - we had experience of amusement parks and attractions, as at the tail end of the summer term, the school took us on coach trips to places - same with the small, rural secondary school I attended.  That really doesn't seem to happen anymore.  I mean, it cemented in me that i wasn't overly interested in roller-coasters etc - but you don't know until you try, do you.  Water parks were something else that didn't float my boat, because at school I couldn't swim and was actually afraid of water - something that school swimming lessons never conquered.  

I think you point about evolving memberships/passes is interesting - I hadn't thought about that either.  I'm not sure (in hindsight) whether EH membership is a good one for us - LG has been "as interested" in EH sites that have no formal entry requirements as they have in the staffed sites - the big draw, is, unfortunately, whether there is a gift shop...... ☹️ But in terms of monuments, ruins, gardens, run-around space, they're much of a muchness.  I've yet to utilise my EH membership via the Civil Service scheme, as there's always been a reason for us not to go out for the day.  i'm hopeful the new car might change that!  

I'm sure I am stricter than LG's peers parents about many things ☹️  Not least gaming devices.  Even if you strip away LG's inflated perception of what others 'have' - which seems to not include some wider issues of 'why' some children have 'everything' materially......  I still think we're probably stricter.  BUT, if we take "broader" views of life experiences, then LG has - often - been in receipt of more than their peers.  If we just take the example of the '50 things' list - LG has already done alot of those, and some more than once.  There's a 'breadth' to their exposure/experiences - even of things they didn't like/wouldn't repeat.  I can't think of a child in LG's class that has had similar experiences - although I can think of many that brag they are on level 'gazinty' of such and such a game - because they are glued to their eye-padd for long periods of time.  A parent literally mentioned that exact thing in the queue for the gate to me this morning - the child only appeared at meal and snack times yesterday - the rest of the time they were on their computer.  

Thanks newgirly - I think there is still room for elements of our parenting approach - but I think me & DH probably have to start to loosen the reins when it comes to gaming.....  Rather than hoping LG would develop other interests and never go near gaming, I think we need to let them go check it out, and keep our fingers crossed that they try it, but find other things in life more engaging.  

Greying X

Grumpelstiltskin

G P Have you read this article?

How kids can earn a Blue Peter badge to bag free entry to 200+ attractions

newgirly

A new car could make a big difference 🙂 You are right about the school trips, ours didn’t do many as there went many to do, it was just the PGL ones. Is that because it puts pressure for parents to cough up I wonder? we would still get offers for £3k ski trips that they never went on, so perhaps not 😆

Like you I don’t do rollercoasters, mine were old enough to go on without me by that point when we went to the the bigger theme parks with the terrifying ones, I was the pack horse who waited for hours while they queued 😩

Greying_Pilgrim

newgirly - I agree that the lack of trips at school is probably down to cost - and as someone who regularly moans about school determining how our household spends its income, I guess I shouldn't be hypocritical!  But given school do very little in the run down to each holiday now (it seems like, anyway), and yet you can't have an early holiday, otherwise you get fined - it feels like being between a rock and hardplace.  I remember going to a PGL centre at secondary school - I got to try canoeing and archery.  I remember capsizing, and panicking, screaming for help.  The instructor just shouted that I should 'stand up, just stand up'.  The pond was about 3 foot deep........ 🤣

Grumplestiltskin - I hadn't read about the BP badges, will have a think on.  Thank you.

Greying X

redofromstart

Similar to Newgirly in that we did annual tickets for localish places for a few years.  They got funded by gifted money from relatives.  I eventually realised that they just liked the different play parks, and that we could just be taking picnics to the parks in various local villages.   We knew all the ones with free parking and zip slides after a few years.