Cranky Pants: On!

Peaches Geldof (left) and Katie Hopkins.

What the actual fuck is wrong with Katie Hopkins? 

If you haven’t heard about the Katie VS Peaches video, watch this Youtube video.

I knew where the video was going just by the sour look on Katie’s face the whole time Peaches Geldof was talking. For 24 years old, Peaches comes across as a well-rounded and mature woman. Much more so than the over-tanned Katie next to her who is 14 years older! I follow Peaches on Instagram and she is always getting put down for the way she parents. She has numerous snaps of her using a forward facing baby carrier (a big no-no in regards to the development of a baby’s hips) and is always blasted for it. But then the poor girl had to be in front of paparazzi when her boy pretty much fell out of the pram as it tipped over in a pothole, and she was blasted for that too (and shame on Katie for mentioning it!) so she can’t win.

I agree with Peaches  – it’s sad that this “style” of parenting even has to have a name. I’d rather call it “instinctual parenting” if we must label it. I for one found everything I do with Olivia to be 100% instinctual. Doesn’t that mean something? Do people realize the western countries are really the odd ones out in all this? AP “guidelines” aren’t new, and they certainly aren’t a fad. 

But this video… phew!

The comments that pissed me off were ones like “When you walk into Costa, you can virtually smell the breast milk on them”, meaning the parents who practice AP.  For the record, Katie, there are women who breastfeed their babies and DON’T practice attachment parenting but that’s really not the point, is it. In this current day, we need to be encouraging breastfeeding more than ever, and not saying remarks like that which are sure to discourage new breastfeeding mothers. 

Or how about the dolly comment? Co-sleepers haven’t grown out of playing with dollies apparently! She’s got to be a joke, right? This lady…!

And the golden one she blurted out a few times “attachment parents are crap parents”. Well that’s just an insult and really got me angry! I was open-mouthed at the laptop at 7am, wanting to bitch-smack the shit out of her through the screen.

I’m proud of the way I parent. We co-sleep, breast feed, baby wear (when she lets me), and I respond to my babies cries. I’ve bonded beautifully with my daughter, and truly believe all of the AP things I do will only benefit her as she grows and develops. It won’t “spoil” her or make her too “clingy” or “dependent”. In fact, research has shown that being there for my child now actually helps a child feel safer and therefore more independent as they grow older. 

I’ve copped a lot of flack for the way I parent, from strangers, friends and sadly even my own family. But I’m really confident with the way my husband and I have chosen to parent Olivia. We feel secure in our choices and actions and we’re also lucky enough to be surrounded by a community where AP is a popular way of parenting. We have a lot of support, and I choose to surround myself with these parents, rather than the friends and family who are judgmental of us.

I’m going to say what I believe it comes down to: Katie Hopkins is so aggressively fired up about this topic because SHE FEELS GUILTY  for the way she has parented/is parenting her 6 children (3 of which are her own, 3 are step children). She obviously doesn’t feel 100% secure and comfortable with how she’s raised her kids. Do you agree?

Now have a laugh at the numerous websites taking the piss out of Katie Hopkins, such as this one.

Becoming Adult

You know what’s scaring the crap out of me?
This one:

She’s growing up so quickly. It seems she has gone through a massive developmental milestone in the last couple of weeks. She seems so much more… adult like. She understands more (I’ve been waiting to communicate for so long!) and has picked up new skills that I don’t even know where she learnt them from Her personality shines through more and more with each Wonder Week. I love watching her learn and explore, play and grow. It’s a shame we don’t have memories of this age.

I’ve come here to list some things that stick out about her at the moment:

• She laughs at the blender, vacuum cleaner and loud noises in general.
• She likes to fall backwards. It took a few times for her to realize she can’t do it on the floorboards – it’s an activity best reserved for the bed or couch.
• She walks around with her hand to her ear (sometimes holding an object, even a phone) pretending to be on the phone. If the phone rings, she says “eh” “EH” “EH” “eh” “eh” while touching her ear and makes any conversation with the caller fairly difficult for me.
• She is still obsessed with popcorn. I pop it at home, add a drizzle of good quality oil and some nutritional/savoury yeast.
• Her love affair with The Wiggles has begun. She loves that “Do The Propeller” song and “Big Red Car”. 
• She is completely inconsistent with her naps. Yesterday she did a solid 4 hour block. Today was not even 1 hour. She’s killin’ me.
• She’s always getting into trouble for biting. She bites everything – the couch, the pillow case, my arm, the remote, herself, her drink bottle, the bean bag, iPhone cables… you name it. And not a typical baby suck and dribble… no this is a damn good bite. Sometimes she even clamps down and then pulls, until the object (god forbid, my nipple) slides through her teeth under extreme duress. I can’t even blame teething.
• She is damn fast. She started walking at 10 months. These days she runs everywhere. So fast that sometimes I lose her. She’s a sneaky little thing.
• She thinks farts are funny. As in, her own farts. She’s starting to become more bodily aware. And bodily function aware. The fun begins!
• She already gets bored inside when it rains. Don’t we all!

Babble Box – A Review

I came across Babble Box on Instagram at first, and followed them up on their website. I fell in love with the idea behind it – once a month your child received a box full of goodies, suitable for him or her and they look forward every month to opening it and the contents are a surprise every month! They can do boxes from 0-4 years and you can choose to have it as a month-to-month set up or a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription.

And the best part about Babble Box? For every box sent each month, they give back by making a donation to a charity such as Bravehearts and Barnardos. Isn’t that lovely?

I think it’d make a great gift especially.  Imagine if you were far away from a little one, perhaps a niece or nephew, or a godchild or even a grandchild. How beautiful would it for them to receive a box every month from you? And you don’t have to worry about it every month, it’s sent out for you. Or perhaps you could order a box in advance as a birthday gift. Heck, it could be your own child that you spend 24 hours a day with and it’s still a cool idea.

So what was in the September box I received? 

Well let’s start with the packaging. Oh my! Pretty darn cute if I do say so. Not to mention it was addressed to O, not to me. I’m sure for kids who can recognize their name, this would be a thrill! O was more into the cute bear logo on the box.

After unwrapping it all and then rescuing the paper from O’s tightly clenched fists that were shoveling it into her mouth (kids are really like puppies sometimes) I found the following items inside my Babble Box. Sorry, O’s Babble Box!

Also included was the tray pictured at the top of this post, along with a toy for O:

She moves way too fast these days to capture a decent quality pic, sorry!

I thought I’d escaped this toy for awhile… surely 11 months is too young to know how to blow into a toy trumpet? Wrong. Fucksticks. Thankfully, at 11 months her attention span is very short and therefore she only has a couple of blows into it before throwing it over her shoulder and moving on to chewing a DVD (or the lounge, or her bib, or the glass coffee table…).

My favourite item in the box was probably the pig tray. Just because it’s really cute and made from bamboo. O’s favourite item was the trumpet. She goes from being enthralled with it to being petrified of it!

Check out Babble Box and surprise a child in your life.