-
The Netflix baby-sitting service
Netflix offer a comprehensive baby-sitting service and at reasonable rates too. Baby is obsessed with Team Umizoomi and that show is so educational it’s almost like she’s at nursery.
-
Left over end of a wall paper roll and crayons
She loves colouring, normal paper is fine, but find an old half roll of wall paper and let her spread it all over the floor and draw on that; she’s all over it! Usually it buys me a fair bit of time.
-
Give her a box and challenge her to be creative
We all know kids love a box and one thing we are never short of in our house is a box (a blogger’s life!). So, I make the box seem a little mystical and definitely not for her, which obviously makes her want it all the more, then BOOM challenge her to make Blaze (from ‘and the monster machines’) with it.
-
Head to the garden laptop in hand
Sometimes we just need fresh air. Baby loves the outdoors and so heading off to the garden laptop in hand to ‘watch’ her bounce on the trampoline is always a great fall back plan.
-
Enlist the help of our dogs and a tennis ball
Our youngest dog Lily loves running for a tennis ball and for Baby it is such a novelty to throw a ball for her. I think if I let them, I could get hours of out this particular game.
-
Tablet-time
At the end of the day and especially at the end of the week, when Baby is getting very tired, we resort to tablet-time. Giving her the tablet and headphones is the only way we can keep her still long enough to chill out a little and oh the peace when the headphones go on, priceless! If Carlsberg did the witching hour……
-
SnapChat
This is a new one for us, but I recently started using Snapchat, although I am still not loving it Baby adores the funny face filters.
-
Park
When everything gets too much, we will head to the park for a restorative play! If I am lucky I might get to do some Instagram commenting at the same time!
Comments 16
Fabulously honest post, thank goodness for your approach to life Aby!!
We all have to resort to things some oriole frown upon during the summer holidays, but if you have things to do, the kids just have to get on with it to a certain extent. I’m a firm believer in letting kids get ‘bored’ from time to time. That’s often when they come up with the most imaginative things to do by themselves.
Love Netflix….
X
Author
Ah thanks huni. I know we are all meant to be focused on our children 100% of the time, yes my daughter comes first, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a business to run and deadlines to meet. Thanks so much for your comment huni xx
I love the wallpaper idea, Alice would love this. My plan is to find things to entertain Alice when Holly naps for 2 hours. There is no hope of me getting anything done when they are both awake! Its all about balance and at least with all these ideas, baby is with you and that is the best thing! Xx
love the cardboard box idea!
This post made me sad 🙁 Don’t you get to enjoy the summer with your daughter at all? I can’t wait for the summer holidays. Yes it’s a juggle, yes it’s hard work but I plan days out, days dedicated to the children they work so hard at school the summer should be about them. It’s 7 weeks, sod the to do list, explain to clients your on reduced hours and have some fun! Fill the summer with wonderful memories, soon they won’t want to hang out with you! Surely being self employed is so that you can enjoy the summer holidays not turn on the TV?
Author
Well don’t be sad on our account and yes I do get to enjoy summer with my daughter; I’m actually really looking forward to having her with me more. I am aware parenting and juggling is hard work, we all do it all of the time. We do stuff she will enjoy every single day, day trips, riding the pony, going to the park, going on holidays. She’s not at school yet and while most of her life is focused on her, if I have a big contract that I am on deadline for, for that hour, it might not all be all about her. Personally, I don’t think that’s an issue. I think she will benefit from knowing where money comes from and I don’t believe it’s a bad thing to have a dedicated, hardworking mum as a role model (so she see’s it’s not just dads who go to work).
Maybe I should be burned at the stake for loving my business too, but I don’t have the luxury of sodding the todo list for 6-7 weeks.
I can assure you that we make wonderful memories every single day and I resent the implication that we don’t.
You’ve got a bloody nerve. All you have to do is have a quick look through this blog or Aby’s Instagram account to see how much time she dedicates to her daughter. And FYI being self employed and running a successful business is BEYOND hard. She can’t just reduce her hours for 7 weeks over one of the busiest times of the year. Perhaps you don’t understand because the pressure isn’t there in your line of work (not sure what you do?) but for Aby to stay at the top it means putting the hours in as well as dedicating time to her daughter which I can assure you, she does. Maybe engage brain the next time you leave a passive agressive comment on someone’s blog without fully considering the implications of what you’ve said.
I personally think that Joanne has a valid point and at no point was that comment made with any malice or was passive agressive. I can see the post is tongue in cheek and we all have an “keep the kids quiet armoury” but attacking someone else’s point of view is unfair. Joanne is self-employed and works bloody hard too – she is working her bottom off to get her to-do list done in time for the holidays so she can spend precious time with her family and I think that should be applauded too.
I am all about filling the summer with wonderful memories too, as having grown up kids really teaches you that they grow up too fast and you need to relish every single moment with them!
Enjoy your summer all of you, I am sure you have some wonderful adventures planned, I know we do. I am now off to check out the funny face filters on snapchat!
Gosh, did you read Aby’s post on Mum guilt? She has enough without this kind of comment. We all are just doing our best to make it work, I for one think these tips are amazing and so helpful for when you have a deadline looming. If there’s anyone that’s neglected in all the time that Aby spends being the best at what she does it’s Aby. Baby has an amazing adventurous life, anyone who spends 5 mins on this blog can see that. Maybe be more careful what you comment, we are all entitled to an opinion but this post is literally to help and inspire those who need some hacks, maybe not to work, maybe just to have a bit of breathing space. An only child can be very hard to entertain.
Some great ideas Aby. It’s so hard in the summer ro juggle working and childcare. Half terms are fine to down tools for a while but no one could down everything for 6/7 weeks it’s impossible. I certainly wouldn’t want to or even try, it’s good for our children to know Mummy works hard and to see us doing so as it sets a positive example. Yes we can still have fun together too but there are times they need quiet activities so we can work as deadlines need to be met too.
Great post
This post makes me SO happy! Amazing ideas, I always dread and look forward to holidays in equal measure. It is very hard when you’re self employed but nice not to have to rush about to school/nursery etc. We will meet up loads so we can split the childcare! Xxxx
Some of these are so good Aby, I’d forgot about the wallpaper one, ours LOVE doing that. I’m so lucky that they all have each other and entertain each other a lot of the time. The iPad is so helpful for us at wind down time, we don’t have TV and don’t watch too much of it, but pretty much at 4pm every day they get tablet time while I get dinner sorted so I know they’re not going to attack each other while I’m cooking (benefit of open plan living). Team Umizoomi is the best, although that theme song can be a beast of an earworm.
What lovely pics. Commenting for myself and on behalf of BritMums and thanking you for taking part
Good ideas – hope they work! Mrs B has tried to work from home in the past with our toddler but as he only concentrates on anything for a maximum of five minutes I’m not sure even all these tips would be enough !
I think if either of us go down self employed route in future we’ll have to keep up some childcare during the holidays. I’m dreading the whole term time / holidays thing actually. I’ve no idea how anyone copes.
Love it x
Author
Thanks Susanna 🙂 x