The grizzling was just about killing me. So I invited a friend and her children to join us for a picnic in a storm and the kids ran up and down a hill and my friend and I laughed, and Cormac got a leech in his nappy (ew!), but apart from that all was well in the world again.
More and more I am thinking that the answer to all problems is to get the children outside.
On another note, I like this subversive little t-shirt of Cormac’s. It is pushing its pacifism uphill though in the face of mountains of hyper-masculinity in boys’ clothing, but good for it. Go little t-shirt.
yup- get em outside- always surprises me how much i enjoy it too- (despite/inspite of the relentless academic pressures) everyone ends up in a great mood
I second the take-them-outside strategy; even with my six-month-old, it is often the best way to “reset” a bad mood/fussy period & start fresh. And as to the gendered clothing issue: YES! So incredibly frustrated by the lack of gender-neutral (or even non-hyper-masculine) options out there. We got a ton of hand-me-downs for our son, which is wonderful, but everything is blue, football/sports/”MVP”-related, and/or traffic-related. He has a bib that says “#1 Sports Fan”—babies don’t know what sports ARE, for pete’s sake! My solution is to put him in a football onesie and a pair of maroon leg warmers, for a bit of balance.
I heard somewhere, that when you look back on your life, you remember two kinds of activities that you did with your family:
1. eating together
2. time outside
I think it’s so true. Those are my strongest memories from childhood.
ALSO so true about the boys clothing situation. I’m so sick of clothes that make my boys look like they are a sports fanatic, a soldier of war or a little white collar worker. It’s weird.
I keep thinking about what you said here about the two kinds of activities that you did with your family that you remember… very inspiring. Thanks.
ooooh, where did you get that t-shirt from? xx
It is a Mambino t-shirt from the Mambo designers. http://www.mambo.com.au/ But they don’t seem to have their t-shirt collections available on-line. This one came on sale from Myers, if that helps.
I just bought this shirt in two sizes! Also found it on sale at Myer. And yes, I also despair at the terrible masculine boys clothing. I buy more and more online now. Very expensive (and time consuming) way to shop.