Activities my kids love and I hate:
- Play dough! I hate the stuff as either Mr T is eating it or Miss J is rubbing into my carpets and sofas. I’ve tried desperately to only use a couple of colours at a time but they all eventually become one khaki brown. I’m not sure I’ve met an adult who actually likes the stuff.
- Painting. I always dreamed of the day I had kids and we could paint together but in reality it is messy and every bit of work turns khaki brown with all the mixed up colours.
- Stamps. I thought one day it would be a good idea to get ink stamps, envelopes and make a post box. It wasn’t a good idea as every surface in my house was stamped.
- Stickers. Again I thought stickers would be a good idea but I haven’t enjoyed scrapping off the stickers on our kitchen floor and I don’t think Miss J’s brother appreciated being covered in them.
- Mr Frosty! As a child I had a Mr Frosty which I loved so when I saw the original retro one was back on sale it got added straight into my amazon basket. In reality I forgot how hard it was to crush the ice as I had made my poor mother do it for me. Miss J on the other hand loves it.
- Wendy House. It takes me roughly 15-20 minuets to build the Wendy house and around 10 minuets for my kids to get bored of it again. After all the effort of putting it up I then feel I have to keep it up in my cramped living room and throw all the toys in there at the end of the day.
- Hungry hippos. Hands down the shittiest game of them all but my daughter insists on playing it over and over again and has a full on breakdown if I accidentally get the yellow ball. I also spend a lot of the time from stopping Mr T eating them.
- Barbies. This is one of those things having a girl made me really excited about. I love my Barbies growing up and had actually kept some of my old bits. Miss J on the other hand insists they are all naked and their hair is all matted after trips into the bath. The Barbie house is actually more of a shit tip than my actual house is which I guess is comforting.
- Lego. We have just entered the age of Lego in our house which means we have a fair amount of parent swear woods (fudge sticks, mudder ducker etc) as we stand on them. Again I have spent many a hour constructing these for Miss J for her to destruct them immediately. Don’t get me started on Mr T eating them.
- Soft play centres. I really enjoyed going to the baby bits when they just rolled around and were confined enough for me to sit and have a cup of tea, then one day they learnt to climb, then get out, then crawl to the big bit and then crawl up the slide. Now Mr T is 16 months and just walking, I spend my whole time acting like I’m doing a course on Ninja Warrior whilst he runs about not giving a shit of what dangers crawling up a slide may encounter.
Last of all I just wanted to say that I never knew how much of a control freak I was until I became a parent. Those rare moments when they are entertained and independently playing I fill with pride at just how cute they really are.
