When I was a child, about 10 years old , we lived in a small town at the base of some foothills.  On the Saturday morning I would pack a small rucksack with a sandwich and a drink, I would put the lead on my trusty little dachshund,  and head up into the hills.

Not once did I ever give a thought to the fact that I was about 2-3 miles away from home,  all alone except for my yappy wee dog. We would cross small creeks and walk through wooded  areas, or close to waterfalls ,  eventually heading home going through slippery leafed declines.

We live on 2 acres  and I panic when I cant find my children ,  admittedly they are a little younger than I was when I went on my adventures. I don’t have confidence that they will make good choices and not leave the fenced yard.

Are children less adventurous now, or are we as parents holding them back for fear of what we hear ( and know for fact) ,in the media ?

I don’t remember hearing much about children being harmed when I was a child, perhaps only twice I saw something in the newspapers.  I suppose it was happening, but not everything made it into the news.

Today, we take photographs of what we are about to eat, where we are, where we are going,  who we are with , and  photos of our children and pets.  We have GPS satellite navigation and everyone has a cell phone .

My sister and I used to get on a plane from Edinburgh to Singapore ,unaccompanied, aged 14 and 10. We had no communication with our parents until one of them laid eyes on us at either end.  We were never scared , and we relied on each other  for company and comfort (  when we weren’t arguing ) .  The worst thing that could happen to us, in our opinion, was for the traveler next to us to speak to us, especially if it was a male.

We grew up very quickly then and I’m not sure that this generation is doing the same. Heads down in electronics , and always with the hand held game or phone in hand or within reach.

But, that being said, I do know where my children are .

Gone are  the days, it seems ,  when we played outside until it was dark and we knew then it was time to go home .  All your mother had to do, was yell your name at the top of her voice  and you start running !  She didn’t know where you were , but she knew she could find you with one screaming tone from our front door  . Neighbors were allowed to tell  you off , and heaven forbid they called your mum (  on a rotary phone ) !

Looking back those days were great, innocent and fearless .

I wish such things for my children but believe they may be gone. I am very much a ‘look forward ‘ kind of person , and I hope they never look back and regret never looking up from those electronic gadgets.

Being a kid was fun ….at times. I am happier being 45 though as I have money , wine and my own kids to torment!  😃

 

 

I have 3 children under seven years old. At any moment one inevitably yells “I gotta pee!”  It doesn’t matter where we are. We could be in the supermarket line at which point I have to abandon my cart and run the length of the store with three small children to avert an accident , yelling at the employees as to where the bathroom is. Heaven forbid that the bathroom door has a coded lock !

We enjoy frequent road trips.  I now have a three-year-old who is almost potty trained, and doesn’t quite understand that mommy doesn’t carry a toilet in her bag. Of course she says “Peepee” 100 times a day  , and when I ask her does she need she says “no”.  It’s peepee roulette.

We do our best to make them all go to the toilet before we get in the car,  but still 30 minutes into the journey we have to leave the freeway and look for a gas station bathroom.  If you are lucky ,the key will not be chained to an old tire or a concrete block,  and there may not be a pool of urine on the floor.  Even luckier is that you don’t go in the bathroom after a trucker has been in there for  20 minutes. No amount of air freshener can save you then !

I was browsing on Amazon.com today and looking for travel items related to iPods.  Some suggestions came up at the bottom and one of them was the picture at the top of this blog.

Travel urinals for children !  Who knew? You can’t make this shit up.

According to the description , the child urinates into the bag and it activates a gel and solidifies.

We are embarking on a long journey ( 21  hours on an airplane )  in the Spring , and trying to fit three children and myself into one of those small bathrooms on the plane just so ONE of them can pee is my idea of Hell !

This crazy idea just might work ! I have ordered a pack of six and my seven-year-old should be grateful because he was going to be in a diaper until I found these!

Some of you may be horrified at the thought of my child peeing into a bag on the plane under his blanket , but I’m going to try it anyways. Not for the little girl , but for the boys.

Actually thinking about it gives me shivers of air hostesses chucking us off , or someone tweeting that I “am allowing my child to pee on the seats ” when I’m sure worse offenses happen on planes. I remember when people could smoke on planes as long as they did it at the back! Because that really helped the smell and second-hand smoke not fill the plane.

Maybe I’ll just keep them for the car , at least I can control that environment.

So, the next time you are on a plane and you see someone fumbling under their blanket, it could be that they too saw the same product as me and thought to give it a go ! I hope………

Friday was the day before  Halloween and our local school  outlawed costumes.  Party poopers !!  Instead, they sent a note home to say it would be a pajama day, at least that’s what I thought it said , It was sent  a week in advance after all.  How am I supposed to remember that?

Looking in the boys pajama drawer all I could find were some short shorts and miss-matched T-shirts.  Off to the store I went and bought cute firefighter PJs.  I laid them out the night before and I was very pleased with myself.

Much to their amusement on Friday morning, they took off their jammies and put on the new ones. They giggled  their way to school  in the car and we laughed about how fun it would be to see everyone in their pajamas !

We pull up at the school drop off line, I look around and I don’t  see any other students in pajamas!  My blood ran cold  and the hairs on my arms  stood up.  What if I was wrong? Would my kids  be that guy in the chicken suit turning up to the Halloween party and finding the costume part has been canceled?

I yelled at everyone to stay still, pulled out of the drop off lane, and into the parking lot.

Scrambling through their bags ,I found  a crumpled flyer amongst pencil shavings, crumbled goldfish crackers,  and something soggy I couldn’t identify.

Reading as fast as I could I finally found  the line ” Friday is pajama day ” .

I am a freaking awesome parent!  I got it right and others forgot! For once my kids and I  followed instructions !!  I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten to send in cookies, markers, lunch or even a raincoat on dark cloudy days!

Of course now my kids are feeding off my previous anxiety and they don’t want to get out of the car.

My first thought was to just have them get out and endure the other school kids looking at them weirdly, but I would hear about that for the next 10 years. ” Do you remember the time you sent us to school in our pajamas, Mom?” Most people have dreams about just such an occurance, and sometimes are telling their shrink about it. So I relented and stayed parked for my kids future mental health.

We sat for another 10 minutes and finally some other children showed up in their bedroom attire.  Some even had robes on and fluffy slippers !

Overachievers.

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Phew! Dodged another Mom fail.