Rosie Scribble

Will Christmas still be magical?

IJ has been drafting and redrafting her letter to Santa since early September. I may even have seen her scribbling down ideas over the summer. Apart from stating quite clearly that Santa is to bring her absolutely no books, she seems to have everything else on her list. I won’t be whipping out my credit card and buying the lot obviously; she’ll get a sensible amount, but I can’t help wondering if this year will be the last year she writes a letter to Santa.

She no longer believes in the tooth fairy and hasn’t for some time. A friend at school announced that she wasn’t real. When she questioned me I confirmed her friend was right, because I could tell that IJ thought that too. Apparently I am now expected to pay her every time a tooth falls out, which wasn’t an arrangement I was aware of as a child.

But IJ stills believes in Santa although I don’t think it will last much longer. I can tell she has her suspicions and I suspect there will be detailed conversations in the playground over the forthcoming weeks.

I benefited from having a sister eleven years younger than me. So even when I was eighteen I was still putting out my pillow case every Christmas Eve and pretending I thought Santa really had come down the chimney during the night. Even though we didn’t have an open chimney.

I’d like IJ to work it out for herself rather than me sitting her down and breaking the news to her. It came as a shock to me as a rather naïve nine year old when my father shattered the Christmas illusion. Christmas lost a little of its magic after that. So with IJ, I’d like to keep it alive for a little bit longer.

That said, she knows I won’t be spending an absolute fortune on Christmas this year so she is asking Santa for the larger and more expensive presents because, of course, he makes them all in his toy shop which doesn’t cost him anything.

But still, I think it will be sad when she no longer believes. It will feel like she is leaving part of her childhood behind and growing up. But there’s always the Easter bunny so all is not lost. He still visits us. Thankfully not everything is completely made up.

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Photo credit.

One of those weeks

I’ve had one of those weeks.

One of those weeks where you set off with high hopes only to return home deflated when things don’t go even remotely as planned.

One of those weeks when you arrange transport and childcare for a journey that proves pointless and you wonder why anyone can place such little value on your time.

One of those weeks when the delivery driver arrives the minute you’ve left the house and arranging a redelivery proves near impossible.

One of those weeks when you dash out to the shops to treat yourself to something nice, only to discover you’ve forgotten your bank card.

One of those weeks where you start to wonder if the big plans you have for the future are totally unrealistic.

One of those weeks where it feels as if life is full of false hopes and too many exciting offers that simply never happen.

One of those weeks when things suddenly pick up and the future starts looking bright again, and you realise sometimes life is just like that.

Wouldn't it be easier if life was a little more like this:

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Bupa Video Competition Launch

Bupa are asking: What does healthy mean to you?

Show them in a short video clip and you could see yourself in a national TV ad.

Their competition invites members of the public to upload short videos of what healthy means to them.  As healthy means different things to different people, this could be anything from water-skiing to singing Karaoke, or even completing a Rubix cube in record time. It could also mean getting back on your feet after an accident or a major set-back. It’s entirely up to you.

Three winning videos, selected from a shortlist voted for by the public, will appear on air as a Bupa TV commercial at the beginning of 2012. The first prize winner will also be awarded a MacBook Air (RRP £849) with two runner-ups prizes of Flip Mino 3 HD 2 Hour Camcorder - Black (RRP £149.99) being awarded to the two other winners.

The only rules are that participants’ clips must be 25 seconds long and should not contain anything inappropriate. Closing date is Sunday January 8 2012.

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Please talk to your children about alcohol

At the moment the topic of conversation in our house is internet safety. IJ has discovered the joys of Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin and seems to think befriending complete strangers online is perfectly acceptable, so we’ve had to spend a great deal of time talking about it.

Before long we’ll be having similar conversations about alcohol. Although internet safety is a topic I’ve had to go out and read about, I'm all too aware of the dangers of alcohol. And as an uneducated child is a vulnerable one, I won’t be allowing IJ out in the big wide world without her knowing the facts about alcohol. I’d be putting her at risk otherwise. 

Although they might not listen to us a lot of the time, Drinkaware has found that parents have the most influence on young children’s attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol. Given that the average age of a child's first drink is just under 14, it is essential that we talk to them before their friends have a greater level of influence, ideally before they start secondary school.

Even the most sensible child can be vulnerable as a result of alcohol. Help keep them safe and their friends safe. The results of not doing so can be devastating.

Plan your conversation today.

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How to attract wildlife to your garden

We have a small section of garden that has been left largely untended to since my father accidentally mistook our very striking lilies for weeds and dug them up. Both IJ and I have made the decision not to replant them as this is the second time this has happened and bad luck comes in threes. It is only a matter of time before our last remaining lavender plant meets a tragic end, I’m sure.

So it comes as some consolation to discover that this section of overgrown garden is not such a bad thing. Jordans are in fact encouraging us to reclaim 10% of our gardens to give back to nature, and one of their tips on how to attract more wildlife to our gardens includes leaving a section of it untidy as this creates a natural habitat.

Our slightly overgrown section of garden probably represents about 10% which means we have already achieved the Jordon’s 10% challenge. Others tips in the video below on how to give a section of your garden back to nature include planting pollen and nectar-rich flowers, getting bird and bee boxes and including water features as they are a magnet for wildlife.

You can find out more about the Jordans 10% Challenge at Jordans Cereals .

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