Life as a Parent 2.4

[Dogg Thang]

She's just a bit short.

Give her 24 hours and, if she hasn't got the money by then, you're going to need to get rough.

[endo]

Nancy had her 2 year health visitor check today.

She's 2 1/2 years old!!

We had that with our second- she was basically 2 1/2 when she had her check too.

[Neon Ignition]

NI Jr1:
Killing us lately by trying to wake us up several times in the night with fake crying for literally no reason and just does not listen to instruction. Really hoping these last couple of months of the current school year embed in him some attention holding skills. Otherwise he's starting to re-engage with learning letters, counting, drawing etc and doing really well with that.

NI Jr2:
More of a light eater than I'd prefer but seems healthy enough. She's got a few more months before starting preschool in September so potty training is about to start. Everyone is obsessed with buying her very traditional presents and with her birthday not being far off talk has already begun but I'm finding myself increasingly irritated by the choices. NI Jr1 gets stuff like Paw Patrol, Toy Story etc whilst everyone wants to get NI Jr2 princess dresses, toy hoovers, babies, kitchen stuff, hair/makeup related toys etc. I need to look at how to hard steer her away from cliché girls stuff that feeds the housewife/self looks mindset.

NI Jr3:
First hospital appointment is next week so first scan is likely mid-March. So far all is good on avoiding a fourth crash out occasion and going through that fall out again.

[gunrock]

[MENTION=345]Neon Ignition[/MENTION]: sorry to hear about the kids and you guys going through a tough time. How old are they?

Also, I'm right on with the balancing of the girly toys and interests with more unisex/traditionally boys stuff. My daughter (now 16) got lots of Superhero, shooty things (guns, bows and arrows, catapult) and insect hunting type stuff when she was young. She's girly but totally digs Marvel and DC comics, The Walking dead Telltale games, Rocket League etc.

[Neon Ignition]

Cheers The eldest is 4 and the next is 2 atm. With the eldest I think part of his behaviour is he's missed quite a lot of school over the last few months being ill where they'll send him home and then nag us that he isn't in. He definitely benefits from being in but the slightest thing and they send them home again. Now, apparently, the school is after charging parents £3 every time a kid of off sick to cover expenses on activities etc that the kid misses when on sick which they can sod off over. It's not a high amount but literally everything the school does is a cash beg to the point it makes you wonder if its a money laundering operation.

With no.2, I think I need to try introducing her to other things than traditional girly interests. I think she'd be pretty responsive to it as well but its the usual thing where everyone else is pushing girly girl stuff on her quite hard which doesn't help.

[Dogg Thang]

its the usual thing where everyone else is pushing girly girl stuff on her quite hard which doesn't help.

I have two girls and this used to drive me bananas, at least until they were old enough to have established their own interests and be able to really tell people what they like. It's social conditioning from a bygone age and I can say from experience that it does girls a disservice but I'm sure it does boys a disservice in different ways too.

[gunrock]

[MENTION=345]Neon Ignition[/MENTION]: You've had a tough few years having all the kids so close in age and a few more to go, but yeah I totally get the school issues, as with the twins I got a ****load of hassle from the headteacher as she refused to believe that both kids got sick at the same time (have you ever heard of anything so idiotic? ). She got social services involved and then refused to send them home when they were ill at school (as we foolishly started to send them in ill, for fear of repercussions) and one of them came home with a 40.1 degree temperature. I was angry and mortified that I'd be cowed like that, so got Ofsted involved (they had a full inspection on child welfare grounds) and the headteacher didn't **** with us again.
They're almost 9 now and the one who I'm talking about would still prefer to be at home than at school, despite him doing well in his work and enjoying it when he's there.
I know you don't need to hear it from a stranger on the internet, but you're doing great and generally, the small stuff will turn out okay.

Edit: sorry if this is a bit cringe, but us blokes (especially British men) rarely support each other as Dads. Being a Dad and making the right choices doesn't always come naturally and it would be nice if society recognised it when, as it sounds like here, you're doing a grand job.

[Zaki]

My kid doesn't take to any of his toys. He just likes playing with random crap and packaging. His main goal these days is reaching things which can kill him.

[Dogg Thang]

My kid doesn't take to any of his toys. He just likes playing with random crap and packaging. His main goal these days is reaching things which can kill him.

That's a cat. You have a cat.

[wakka]

Yeah that's a cat Zaki. You don't buy babies in pet stores bud.

[teddymeow]

The key differential is that a cat tries to reach things that will harm its owner, not itself!!

[teddymeow]

What made me angry is that child 1 got chickenpox so had the mandatory seven days exclusion until he was better but then at the end of term we got a letter printed on RED PAPER telling us we were basically poor parents because child 1 had missed more school than is acceptable!!

What. A. Joke.

[charlesr]

Hah ignore that stuff. It's only because it affects THEIR ofstead rating. Doesn't affect you at all.

We got one for Ben saying there's a clear link between attendance and performance and that his attendance was very poor.
The other piece of paper on the same day was his SATs results (another nonsense thing that as Ben pointed out is just for the school, not for the kids). He got top marks in everything.

[Dogg Thang]

What made me angry is that child 1 got chickenpox so had the mandatory seven days exclusion until he was better but then at the end of term we got a letter printed on RED PAPER telling us we were basically poor parents because child 1 had missed more school than is acceptable!!

What. A. Joke.

That’s ridiculous!

[prinnysquad]

Don’t be too hard on the schools here, gentlemen. The arsehole government set attendance targets centrally, irrelevant of context. They keep raising it, too. It’s 96% I believe. If a school doesn’t hit them, ofsted can theoretically fail them. Ofsted are like the military wing of the DfE. They ensure that everyone is enacting their ludicrous, unachieveable policies, whilst ensuring that they themselves take none of the flak. They’re an unfit-for-purpose, pisspoor shambles.