Currently browsing bad daddy
It is official, I am finally willing to call it - I am a competent father. Hooray for me. I am pretty sure I can look after the kids without either of them being in either grave physical, emotional or developmental danger.
Being frank they have probably never been at much risk of any of these [...]
Let’s just pause and take a breath and look at what has happened in the last few days:
Wife has returned to work two days a week. This has probably been the hardest thing that she has done since childbirth itself. It will be a real effort for all of us to survive these next few [...]
Well it is back to the daily grind for all of us here. After a calender month off work (my longest break ever that didn’t involve a new baby - well not yet lol) it’s now time to return to the ratrace.
Not only is it time for me to head back to work, but it [...]
So 2008 is about to end and another year is about to begin and as is common at a time like this my mind has turned to what has transpired and what has been learned in the last 12 months - so here goes.
Usurper has had a busy 12 months - probably the busiest 12 [...]
Well, aren’t we just a couple of very bad parents, possibly the worst parents in the world - well with the exception of all those parents that physically scar their children (we only tend to scar them emotionally).
Today we topped even ourselves. It was end of year party time at Little Miss’ daycare centre. If [...]
Well, aren’t we just a couple of very bad parents, possibly the worst parents in the world - well with the exception of all those parents that physically scar their children (we only tend to scar them emotionally).
Today we topped even ourselves. It was end of year party time at Little Miss’ daycare centre. If any of you happen to remember last years disaster where an too upset to even cry Little Miss then you will know why I feel extra bad about this. She was so upset, and yet sooooo brave last year, that we should have made an extra effort to be there to support her. Instead we missed the concert completely.
The closest we came was seeing some video of her singing along and scanning the audience looking for familiar faces (and finding none). Luckily for us one of the other parents reassured Little Miss that we were there just trapped down the back of the sea of faces.
Being extra special parents we have continued the lie - well sort of. I have steared away from saying we saw her, instead going with non comments like: “I am so proud of you for singing today - was it fun”. Which is true - I am proud of her for overcoming last years disaster and taking to the stage today to sing (especially without any support).
But enough of the bad stuff - being the final day of childcare, we also go a report card - so maybe I will share some of the gems:
The photos from her 3rd birthday where she was so shy that not even a cupcake made her smile! Or the collage of photos from her time in the little (0-3 year olds) room under the heading of “Some of the fun I had in the bilby room” - she is just scowling or looking at the ground in all of them. Contrast that to the big room where she was all smiles - in fact at the mid year review when asked her favorite place she said “the big kids room”
How touching it was to see that about 80% of her drawing of people were apparently of her little sister Usurper - sure she tortures her, but I think she may really love her as well.
Noticing that like Wife she has a scientific bent - our shy little girl actually volunteered to do all the science experiments on science day!
I loved the comment from her carer that she had ‘gone from being afraid of the taps to helping everyone turn their taps on and off’ - she is now officially a tap nazi!
I also learned some things about her like: - apparently at one stage she wanted to be a cook, but now she wants to be a aeroplane driver. That what makes her sad is ‘Grumpy old trolls’.
My favorite bit was though was discovering that when asked to complete the sentence “I am happy when………..” Her response was “Mummy makes me happy”. And it’s true - she does, so do me a favour go to Wife’s blog and remind her that despite her protestations and todays little mishap that maybe her daughter loves her and that is because she is a wonderful mother.
She must be because as the carers themselves summed up “Little Miss is a soft spoken child, who shows kindness and empathy towards her peers. She is a delight to care for’ - so maybe we haven’t completely blown it 
