I hate playing cars!

If I'm honest, I really hate playing cars with my son.

I feel a bit guilty about it, like I should be cherishing this time with him, but pushing tiny cars and diggers around the floor making brrrm brrrm sounds is boring and stupid and I can't believe that it is so fun for small boys.

But it is and so, perhaps not as graciously I might have done, I have spent hours sitting on the floor playing cars with Wild Man.

Spunky Rat is way better at it than me, and even seems to enjoy it (which I assume is his subconscious remembering when he was a small boy).

I can't believe that men have nerve to knock girls for playing Barbies when they like to play cars!

So imagine my excitement when Wild Man decided he would like to make 'dough-osaurs' like we saw on Play School.

For the sadly ignorant dough-osaurs are dinosaurs made of play dough.

Wild Man loves dinosaurs and we have an awesome dinosaur encyclopedia so we have made a fair variety of dough-osaurs ... highlights include a family of Stegosaurus, a Triceratops and a particularly fierce Ankylosaurus.

We also make trees for them to eat (or smaller dinosaurs if appropriate), caves for them to live in, snakes for them to step on (WM is good at making snakes!) and rivers for them to swim in.

And it is fun for both of us.

It's nice to be a bit creative (and to be reminded that however inept your Ankylosaurus-making, to your three year old you are a genius) and then we have lots of fun playing with our dough-osaurs.

Its also nice to have found a sitting down game that Wild Man and I both enjoy and which doesn't involved the phrase brrrm brrrm!

Strollers, childhood obesity and Mummy guilt

A couple of months ago my aunt gave me an article that said that children spend too much time being pushed in the stroller, especially older children.

Apparently we are subconsciously teaching our kids that you sit down to get around, and it is all because our lives are too busy and we are rushing, and our kids will all end up fat and dead of diabetes or heart conditions by the time they are 20.  OK, that's an exageration but I'm sure you can imagine the tone of the article.

Now I'm not trying to down-play the terrible thing that is childhood obesity and all the related health risks but do mothers really need one more thing to feel guilty about? I swear we are doing our best.

I was furious and indignant when I first read the article, and I still resent the implied criticism of all the Mums out there but, four months on, it has definitely changed my behaviour.

I have a double pram for Princess and Wild Man and we do spend a reasonable amount of time walking around our local area (normally to the local cafes for some much needed caffeine at about 6am). 

I used to feel really positive about pushing them around - they were getting fresh air, Vitamin D, not watching the TV, quality time together, experiencing the natural world blah blah blah (you see what I mean about mother guilt) but after I read the article I became consious of the fact that Wild Man was definitely capable of walking at least some of the time and the only reason he didn't was that I was in the habit of pushing him (and I was in a rush to get coffee).

No more! It only took a couple of gentle suggestions from me and he was enthusiastically running along the footpath, exploring people's front gardens, patting local dogs and generally having a wonderful time.

This brave new world is not without its drawbacks - walks take twice as long, Wild Man can be difficult to control, I keep having to pretend to be a dog out for a walk with its owner (complete with stick in my mouth) and I am terrified of cars reversing out of driveways and into my little boy - but for the most part it is fantastic and I love watching him enjoy this new sense of freedom.

So even though I resented the article I'm really glad I read it. And in the end my sense of guilt had a really positive effect.

How much time do your kids spend walking compared to in the stroller? And do you have trouble with them running off?