16

Nov

Bedtime battles

Parenting is never easy, I wished that when I had my first child a full detailed instructions on how to be a perfect parent was included in the pack. Sadly, I was thrown in the deep end, mostly struggling to keep my head above water, failure is something I have to get used to. You might think that I’m being hard on myself, but there are times when I really do think that I’m less than perfect, especially when it comes to putting my 8 year old to bed.

My son is great. Well mannered, polite and happy. But then some kind of strange transformation occurs when my husband and I mention the word ‘bedtime’. Suddenly he becomes argumentative, hostile and awkward. He finds any excuse to delay bedtime, from brushing one tooth at a time on 5 minute intervals to insisting watching the latest evening news. When was the last time an 8 year old been so interested in current world affairs? It never fails to amaze me the kind of excuses he comes out with when he knows it’s time for bed.

David and I have always believed that it’s important to have a ‘me-time’ in the evening and by putting the kids to bed at a reasonable time, gives us that quality time. Many couples fail to realise that spending even an hour with each other in the evening is very important especially if you have kids running riot all day.

My son however have other ideas, he believes that going to bed at 8.30 is some kind of torture. According to my him, he finds sleeping pretty boring. Well I’m sorry kiddo, but if I can find some other way to make sleeping more exciting for you then I will let you know!

After putting the baby to bed, tidying the house, loading the washer, getting the school clothes ready, bath time and kids messing about for an hour before bedtime, me and hubby are lucky if we get an hour to spend together. And usually after a dose of Dexter and a glass of wine were out for the count until the baby decides to wake up. We then find ourselves crawling up the stairs, grunting at each other on who’s turn is it to do the feeding. So much for our quality time eh?

So when I saw the Ready for Bed Week, I thought I’d check it out. I could sure do with some useful advice in how to bring back harmony in our bedtime routine.

The site offers downloadable bedtime reward charts, and for every 100 charts downloaded you can help other children in an underdeveloped or developing country get a comfortable place to sleep. SCAW (Sleeping Children Around the World) works to provide bed kits for children. This year alone they provided 6,000 bed kits for children in the Philippines, great advice for a good cause.

I don’t know whether my son is a little too old for reward charts but I’m willing to try anything in exchange for an easy life. Unless I discover something to make sleeping just a tad bit exciting.

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15

Nov

Help us bring justice to those who failed Baby P

These are the new photos released today of the blue eyed angelic Baby P. A toddler who endured countless physical abuse that ended in tragedy, his innocent life cut short in the hands of his mother, boyfriend and friend.

Baby P was seen 60 times by social workers, health visitors and doctors in the last eight months of his life, after he was put on Haringey’s Child Protection Register.

Despite his obvious weight loss, bruises and other injuries not one of the officials intervened to stop his daily torment.

Baby P’s abuse trial heard he was used ‘as a punch bag’ in the four-bedroom council house in Haringey, North London, which he shared with his 27-year- old mother, her sadistic boyfriend and their lodger.

At his death his tiny frame weighed only 23lb - the healthy weight for a child five months younger.

Four separate inquiries have been launched into the failure by child protection and health authorities to halt Baby P’s suffering.

Source: Daily Mail

I have never felt so strongly about anything, and as a parent, I want to make a difference and put stop to this kind of abuse. So I would like to ask the support of my readers to please sign a petition to sack the child protection officials who failed Baby P. We want lessons to be learnt from this and hopefully safeguarding our children from this kind of monstrous abuse.

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12

Nov

God bless you little angel

  • Broken back
  • Bleeding in the spine
  • Fingernail stripped off the skin
  • Eight broken ribs
  • Front tooth knocked out
  • Ripped ear

No you’re not reading a list of injuries from a horror movie, these are only the few of the 50  injuries sustained by a 17 month old baby, another life cut short, another abuse left ignored. A trial in the Old Bailey on the death of Baby P ended yesterday leaving us the horrific details on how this baby suffered in the hands of his mother, boyfriend and a friend. It was revealed that his step-father had a sick fascination with torturing animals while his mother has been accused as a liar and had every excuse for her sons injury every time the Social Workers came to investigate, we even heard that she used to cover her child with chocolate to hide his bruises.

I am really finding it hard to write this post, as I read through the details of how his little life was taken I can only think of my own children and trying to understand why a mother or anyone who wish to call themselves a human being could do this to an innocent child. I can imagine him wanting the pain to end, how he lived in squalor, wanting to be with his daddy, he trusted the people around him, yet they treated him worse than an animal until his frail body finally gave up.

I really don’t know what to say, I’m sure many of you feel the same way as I do, I cannot put it into words, I can only feel my heart breaking and hoping that Baby P is finally at rest and hope that little angels are looking after him in heaven. God bless you darling.

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