Life as a Parent 2.4

[Zaki]

This thread scares me every day.

[vanpeebles]

I will remember gamer zaki when I look at the stars in the night sky.

[Cassius_Smoke]

My 2yo daughter loves other kids and she trys really hard to be friends and play, but any children over the age of 4 want nothing to do with her, understandabley I guess. Its just heart breaking to watch her try and be rejected and she doesn't know why.
Some older kids are just bastards though. They have no problem pushing her over or snatching toys from her.

[randombs]

I can't wait to have a kid.

I could name them something gamercool like Ryu or Ryo or Nozomi or Hadoken and it wouldn't even be lame or embarrassing.

And I can chat to them in Japanese. And tell them off in Japanese.

[Neon Ignition]

One thing that's been interesting to observe with SFJr2 is the difference having an older sibling makes to her development in comparison to his. SFJr1 was always perfectly capable of hitting milestones but sometimes would just opt not to do something as he didn't see the need to, his speech for example only really came along as he was approaching two and a half - you knew he knew the words, he just didn't feel a need to use them.

SFJr2 however is one and a half and last night garbledly said 'I love you', she's spitting out words left right a centre. She's equally comfortable holding her own as well, SFJr1 has always been very sociable but had the same issue of older kids not being interested in him because he was smaller etc. If a larger kid takes a toy off SFJr2, she gets right in their face and breaking-glass-pitch screams in their face usually making them hand it back - she thinks nothing of standing them down because her whole life she's lived with and older kid doing it to her and she knows she can make him back down.

They seem to hit the same milestones and thankfully be as happy and confident as each other, she just hits them earlier because he's always been there to guide her with it. God knows how two of them would impact the development of a third one.

[Zaki]

I can't wait to have a kid.

I could name them something gamercool like Ryu or Ryo or Nozomi or Hadoken and it wouldn't even be lame or embarrassing.

And I can chat to them in Japanese. And tell them off in Japanese.

Baka!

[QualityChimp]

My daughter had her two year progress check last week.

Some children are struggling to say any coherent words but she walked in and said "Hello lady! My name is (name), how are you?"

[_SD_]

I remember taking my daughter to her reception introduction day... she was stood at the white board writing ‘Emily’ and ‘Abigail’, ‘Muhammad’ (her best friends), ‘I love Mummy & Daddy’ and then merrily skipping around counting up to 100 with some help from the boy.

The teachers looked completely gone out, like it was the second coming. WTF? I thought this was normal, Joseph was just as bright. If they hadn’t been brought up in this manner I’d have received the thickest ear ever from my Mum, and trust me, you don’t want my old dear clouting you one.

Apparently, not everyone can be arsed to educate their kids properly. I think they were even more surprised as this was during my ‘can’t be arsed with a haircut, let’s diy a Blade 0 at home’ phase, and I probably stunk of pot too. Again, I thought reading bedtime stories after bath time was normal behaviour with your kids.... apparently not.

And as for standing at the school gates with a fresh deck of 20 baccas when you’re claiming benefit and free school dinners for your poor kids...

[Neon Ignition]

Some parents prioritise other things to teach their children over manners, reading, speech etc. It was only last Wednesday I was in the supermarket and saw a mother wander off to go look for cooked meats and she had successfully taught her two kids to make their own way to five aisles away and to go and pick up a four pack of Guinness for her

[_SD_]

That just shows you how lazy kids are today.... my pair would have been carrying a 24 box of Stellas straight out the fridge.

Seriously though, that’s just awful, bless their innocent little hearts.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Apparently there are children arriving at school unable to speak or read to any reasonable capacity!
My little one loves to learn, she's only 2 and I can almost hold conversations with her. It just seems natural to show her and teach her how to talk and count and read.

[Neon Ignition]

SFJr1's favourite words of late are 'ah, okay', 'thank you', 'perfect team' and sadly 'youtube'

[Neon Ignition]

Time to start looking at something that I think isn't give as much consideration when you expect a child but becomes so central to your life as a parent once the baby is born... Children's TV

For just over the last three years now, I've seen an insane amount of kids TV shows and programmes, the kids go through phases with them so quickly it's no surprise that most are cancelled after quite short runs.

I'll start going through my... *sigh*, experience with the shows we've at times endured over the years but I'd be curious as to how others who see these feel about them.

Fireman Sam
Currently on Series 11, the show has had one or two visual revamps over the years but remains a direct continuation of the stop time animated original run. It is, without question, one of the most grating kids shows on the air. Sam is incredibly bland and the entire town is in awe of him despite him being one of a team of around seven, he's happy to take the credit for anything that's done and spouts direction despite not being in charge. The town has an awful safety record and one of the worst characters on TV is Norman, a child you should have been prosecuted by now he's caused so many emergencies. The animation is awful, the voice overs gratingly bad and it has no life to it, they could repeat the same series instead of making more and nothing would be lost. One of the worst kids shows running.

Thomas and Friends
Currently on Series 22 that is also canonically continuous and yes, literally, it even does call backs to events of the 80's and 90's series sometimes. The latest series is the first since Mattel took over and made the 'controversial' changes such as largely removing Edward and Henry from the main cast and replacing them with two female engines. Despite the fuss made about the change it's a token move as beyond their initial introduction they've pretty much been ignored ever since, the old faves being focused on still. It now alternates between episodes with Thomas abroad and the engines at home with Thomas introducing episodes instead of a Liverpudlian voice over. It's a refresh that remains surprisingly faithful for the most part even if you can sometimes tell things are included to expand this years toyline but even though Thomas now seems to have less regard for Health and Safety with his two wheel corners and hill leaps, it's solid stuff.

[QualityChimp]

Basically, anything on CBeebies, without adverts, for as long as possible until they want something suitable for older kids.

I rue the day my son found Pop and CITV and their myriad of adverts.

[vanpeebles]

Once I walked past a classroom, and a teacher was trying to coach an 11 year kid what 1x1 was. They had no idea at all.