A Matter of Choice

Like many Mums, or probably all Mums I've been having some 'terrible two' issues with my darling boy. Trying to work out the best strategy for dealing with these problems is not the easiest thing in the world and I've tried various combinations of raising my voice, talking quietly, ignoring, distracting, reasoning, removing toys/ treats, actually removing him, and have yet to come up with the solution that works every time.  I think what I need is a decent 'angry voice'  As a child I was rarely smacked but I knew the 'angry voice' and I knew that was time to behave. I'm not very good at the voice myself tending to be ignored by Leo, I guess because he hears it all the time. It's rare that I perfect it but this week when I thought he was about to tip the TV off its stand I nailed it! It could have been the danger or it could have been the the fact I know that replacing such equipment would not be cheap, not only due to an empty bank ac...

I've said before on my blog that one of the things I miss most about the UK is the canals, we spent many a lovely weekend on board and Leo had his very first holiday on the boat too.   I was a very reluctant convert to narrow boating, in fact I was sure that I would hate it! My idea of a good holiday was 2 weeks all inclusive on a sun bed by a pool. It did not involve any kind of manual labour, small living space, cold or rain, it would involve late nights and no early mornings, and certainly no children. Then I was 'persuaded' to spend a long weekend on a narrow boat with 6 children (none of them my own) and 5 adults, this seemed like a bad plan - apart from the reasons mentioned before, being outnumbered by kids can never be a good idea surely! It turns out it was a great weekend and although a completely different holiday to what I was used to, one that was great fun and good for all ages. Saying that the youngest child was four and although many pe...