From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - dare I suggest the Bard for Babes?  New stories that can be listened to while colouring which makes for a quiet day indoors out of the sun & heat!

KajiKita

rtandon27 said:

@Greying_Pilgrim - dare I suggest the Bard for Babes?  New stories that can be listened to while colouring which makes for a quiet day indoors out of the sun & heat!

These look brilliant for me!! Thank you

KK

Greying_Pilgrim

rt - they are quite wonderful.  Thank you.  I must doff my cap to the thespians of Scotland, as 2 of the tales we listened to (there are 10 I think), were told by the delightful Shirley Henderson - better known as 'Moaning Myrtle' in this house 😉 Dare I say that we laughed out loud at 'Macdeath' - which I'm sure didn't happen when we waded through the (abridged for children) original.......... 🫤🤣

Kajikita - thank you.  I think that whilst 'common sense' me knows that actually LG is receiving a better holiday time than some - not all - of their peers, when you're slap bang in the middle of it, I can't quite convince myself that we're doing OK. 

I think it's a feature of childhood that you don't realise how 'good' things are at the time.  LG will probably be 45 before they realise that actually, the summer hols weren't too bad at all, Ma & Pa did try to make things fun/entertaining or interesting. 

Conversely we can be adults and realise that things weren't right, and that folk didn't have our best interests at heart. 

Thank you for being so candid about your own situation.  I don't elaborate too much about wider family issues, but there are some similarities, and I hear your comment about 'all we share is blood', because that is true, and sometimes when you need to walk away, other people in the family make it incredibly difficult, claiming that you should accept all, because we're family.  Heck no.  

Anyhoo, on an MSE note, we made fruit 'smoothies' this morning.  I used the half the super ripe mango - it smelt and tasted of strawberry - delicious!  i used some frozen blueberries too, a banana, one of the battered white peaches, and some milk.  Luckily, many moons ago I had invested in some metal 'straws' which are a bit wider, and are good for smoothies.  Success, LG - who was a bit suspicious of the mango (although they did try a sliver), lapped up the smoothie 😁  Can't imagine what it would have cost us in a shop 😁Got fruit and calcium into my child today.  WIN ✅ 🤣

Thanks for popping in everyone.  You keep me sane and entertained 😁

Greying X

rtandon27

@Greying_Pilgrim - you feed your child healthy things?! - go figure?! 😋😉 - parents these days - can't figure them out!

Seriously though, I'm rather pleased that the Beeb pulled through again with a wholesome activity for a day spent indoors!  Let's say I was with LG in spirit instead of wading though work politics and some such nonsense all morning!  It takes a village and all that!

Watty1

Those look great - shall listen!   

Maybe even the elderlies are worth a visit, however frail they may be.   As a child I had a lot of "greats" and they were rather more fun than the other younger ones that I cannot remember, but, I can remember Great Uncle H showing me is roses and helping me choose the best sweat peas to take home, Great Auntie E and her pinnies, Great Aunt N and her fabulous sheepdog that once pulled the table cloth off to get to the fruit buns for tea - he was a real sheep dog and was in disgrace for even being inside but was forgiven when I owned up and said I had let him in.  As a reward for truth telling I was allowed to go and collect eggs and then there was Great Great Granny C who was crochety and swapped everything she was given for something else and once ate an entire glass dish of rice pudding that would have fed 5 but refused to part with any just because we had arrived LOL

My Greats gave me my love of the countryside and I look back and am so glad my parents took me to them in the long summer holidays.   But my actual cousins  -  no.   My birth father I never see now and does not feature in my memories.   I even remember the long bus journeys to see the greats!

I think when LG looks back she will remember outings and picnics and love far more than any 2 weeks in a foreign place .

badmemory

I am sure I have said it before (or similar) I think you underestimate what you give LG.  Yes some or even many of their classmates may have a holiday abroad.   Or they go on a caravan holiday in this country.  Those I have seen many of.  I have even spent MY evening watching them, 10yr olds at midnight sleeping lying on chairs whilst their parents are watching the entertainment in another room with not one of the parents coming in even once an hour to check they haven't been abducted.  Can you tell they make my blood boil  I have even spent longer in the bar than I really wanted to because even MY conscience wouldn't let me leave them in a bar with unrelated people I don't know.

Being an adult & having money & the ability to spend it doing whatever you want is not always a great idea for a child.  I read what you are doing with LG & I think how lucky they are to have parents who do what you do with them

Greying_Pilgrim

Watty - the older relly's would certainly introduce LG to the 'auld country ways'.  One of my Uncles especially.  Even if LG had been born 5 years earlier, they would have been camping out in the woods, wildlife spotting, they'd know not to be frit of hornets, they'd know more bird calls than I've taught them.... the list is endless.  But time and ill-health have caught up with him, and he just can't anymore.  HOWEVER, when we last saw them about 3 months ago, Uncle was interested in LG, spoke to them, asked them questions, teased LG (my Uncles were all b*ggers for doing that! 😂).   They didn't sit in their chair and make out like LG should be seen and not heard.  LG has received the important 'soft' skill of recognition and communication from my 'blood' Aunties and Uncles, and the chosen 'Aunties' too. 

Badmemory - thank you.  As an adult I recognise what you are talking about.  Some people do the same thing whether they are in Cromer or Corfu or Canberra.  So sometimes a '2 weeks in...' doesn't actually change things.  I've tried very hard to (delicately) point that out to LG - as I firmly believe that several of their peers are "enjoying" this type of holiday.  I don't name names, obvs, but LG is still very apt to believe what they are told/hear or perhaps believe that when we go away and stop somewhere (however humble), we do things, and perhaps they believe everyone's experience is the same....... 

We've been listening to rt's Shakeysperian inspired modern re-tellings.  The one based on Othello was very apt - how images can be manipulated on SM to spread whatever message the OP requires...... quickly.  Chilling.  

I have just made the dough for pizza - LG added in the yeast 😁

Can I just say, that whilst staying at home isn't "exciting", I think it was what was needed today.  I even had a micro nana nap earlier 🫤  LG has been flitting between "engineering" projects 🙄 reading and listening to the audio stories.  We've just concocted a "stand" for their little hand held battery fan 🙄 and I shall probably peel them a grape just now.......... 🙄🤣

Greying X

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...I shall probably peel them a grape just now.......... 🙄🤣

Oh my GP this did make me laugh!  I remember doing this for my godson when he was a babe and just starting on solids!  I'd feed him grapes and cheerios and call it a day (mama was not impressed - lol) - he is now 20 and a beanpole so he survived my care! I'm saving the grape story to suitably embarras him in public one day.

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...I shall probably peel them a grape just now.......... 🙄🤣

Oh my GP this did make me laugh!  I remember doing this for my godson when he was a babe and just starting on solids!  I'd feed him grapes and cheerios and call it a day (mama was not impressed - lol) - he is now 20 and a beanpole so he survived my care! I'm saving the grape story to suitably embarras him in public one day.

Making a stand for a fan has something of a 'decadence' vibe about it rt 🤣 LG is working very hard at being 'on holiday' 🤣 (I jest, of course).  LG still remembers the grapes (quartered) they used to have in their lunch box at Nursery - even now they can (safely) eat whole grapes 🤣

Greying X

greenbee

It's worth remembering that many of those kids having their two weeks 'holiday' somewhere may well be either left to their own devices or in childcare 'activity' schemes for the rest of the summer because both parents are working. My brother and SIL didn't have a family holiday for years because they split their holiday to cover school holidays until the kids were old enough to (theoretically) entertain themselves at home/go out with their mates. They still have a week of drama workshop and possibly a sports training camp, but having had a two-week family holiday this year for the first time in their lives, they've also got several weeks of trying not to annoy SIL on the days she works from home!