Baby sitting

[Cockney_si]

I've volunteered to babysit tonight while my girly has a drivng lesson, anyone got any ideas about what I can do?

By the way the DVD and the video player are both not working.

Her son is not my son so that's why I'm suddenly becoming worried...he he

[ineedahobby]

How old is the little dude si?

[Cockney_si]

he's 2 and a half and likes to make a mess all over the place and would quite esily stay up all night.

[ineedahobby]

Hes quite young Si, so I wouldnt think too hard about it, just ask him what he wants to play with and join in. 

[andy hughes]

Buy a small toy - even a small ball is ideal, foam for inside the house, and play rolling it to and fro / hiding it / move on to peek-a-boo, sing some songs, don't have to nursery rhuymes, that kind of thing will keep a little one occupied for the time of a driving lesson.

[Cockney_si]

should have mentioned that he has the strengh of ten (little!) men and that he's attention span is rather short.

Sure I'm gonna have fun and I guess if he start squishing banana into the carpet i shall just think...oh well if you can;t beat 'em join 'em....LOL!

[mimififi]

get him to 'help you' help her.  Kids love to do grown up stuff.  He can wash up tupperware/plastic things in the sink with bubbles (take off his top, aslong as it's warm enough and then the splahing won't matter) DOn' leave him unattended with water though.

make choco crackle cakes (melt chocolate in microwave, stir in rice crispies and put into cake cases ) Kids love stuff that they cans show at the end and then mummy can have a nice cuppa and a cake when she get's back.

Do the laundry, kids love putting stuff in the washer and then pressing the buttons.

find some puzzles/games/toys maybe in charity shops that are cheap and different and then ONLY play with these when it's time for her lesson.  you could pretend that mummy doesn't know about them, they are just special for you and him (kids love secrets.)

make a scrap book. Collect catalogues and junk mail.  Buy a scrap book from woolworths, for about 99p, and a glue stick (like a pritt stick) and help him cut out piccies he likes and paste them in the book.  He can colour in it too and you can write the names of the items in and this is a great way to talk about language.  You could vary this on a theme, say if he is really interested in horses, then you could perhaps buy a couple of mags about nature/horses and he could cut them up too.  You can help him use the scissors if he can't do it, my 2 year is only to good with scissors as my other daughter's hair is testament to!

[mimififi]

go out for  a walk, collect leaves, twigs, conkers etc etc and come home and make a mini museum or stick them on another piece of paper, or use them to do paint printing with (Paint the wrong side of the leaf and press it onto the paper and it leaves a leaf print)

read read read.  Kids love stories.  Take him to the library if you are able and read to him there, or borrow some books.  Or you could go to the library, borrow some books you think he might like and then you could change them in time for the next driving lesson.  He will always look forward to the books you bring him then because he will know they are always diffferent.

build things from lego.  (blokes are always better at this than gals, IMO.  Im rubbish at lego, but my bro is ace at it and builds really cool stuff even out of mega blocs.)

make some dough for him to play with.  You can find a reciepe for dough on the internet.  Google for salt dough and you'll probs get loads of hits.  It is no bake dough and will last in the fridge in an air tight bag for a few weeks.  You can even put food colouring in it to make it a bit more groovy.  You can even bake it once you have modelled it and then you can paint it when hard and you have a forever model.

Get some bulbs from woolies, and plant them in a container, or in the garder. 

get some cress seeds from woolies, or garden centre (about 50p) then you can sew them on damp cotton wool in an empty egg box, or an empty egg shell.  If you paint a face on the egg shell, the growing cress then looks like hair.  The following week, you can then make a cress sandwich.

[mimififi]

sorry if Ive been a little patronising, Im sure you probably already know all this, but I wasn't sure.  If you're anything like some of the blokes I know, you might n't know what I was talking about sometimes. Heheheh.

I hope you have fun what ever you do.  A happy child is a happy mummy and that way she will be able to do her best at her lesson without worrying about kiddy being bored.

Glad your tv is broke.  I have 5 kids ranging from 11 year to 10 months and we don't have a telly. We don't have time to watch it, so we jacked it in... I think you do way more cool stuff without it.

 

Have fun fun fun!

[mimififi]

sorry about the dreadful grammar in my posts, I was excited and getting a bit carried away with my typing!!!

[mycatis]

Great ideas mimififi but can I just say one thing? In the nicest possible way please dont have toys, puzzles etc that you play with and say "it's our little secret, don't tell mummy. Small children should never be encouraged to keep secrets from their parents, this is how bad people get away with stuff. (Not that I am suggesting for a second that you are a bad person Cockney_si, honest)  Apart from anything else what if he says "mummy, me and si have  a secret but he said I'm not allowed to tell you!" Sorry to get heavy but it's important.

[Cockney_si]

Well in the end it wasn't all too bad.  He insisted on wheeling his buggy into the living room, then using his mums CD collection as carpet decorations and then he didn't eat his dinner.

I gave him some attention for a little while then got him to help me.

I whacked the old playstation 2 into the back of the tv and put on "a dogs life" game, as he can get away with only using the one control stick to do stuff in the game.

[mimififi]

I agree about the secrets if they are indeed secrets, obviously they would not really be as Im assuming Si would have prearranged the activities with mummy anyway.

It is important not to keep secrets, but it is also important to stress the importance of being able to keep secrets and say that you are, i.e, "Mummy, I have a secret and Im not supposed to say." If you are really worried you as the parent can then investigate further with the person who has instigated the secret. I think it is important to teach children that some secrets are ok, e.g, "don't tell mummy I bought her a toaster for christmas, it's a secret."

bad secrets nearly always are accampanied with other signs and signals which gentle questioning can uncover. Some 'secrets' indicate healthy and personal relationships. I suppose, it was a poor choice of words "Our little secret", I guess right up there with "Come and see my puppies little girl", but presumably, she wouldn't be leaving him with Si, if she didn't trust him???

What a shame that everything these days has to be checked and double checked just because of a very very small minority of men that don't know how to behave. My kids do loads of stuff with their dad that they THINK Im not privvy too, and it gives them a wonderfully strong bond, it is something that says this is my relationship with my dad and its for no one except me. My son believes me to know nothing about fishing because that's his time with his dad. (unbeknownst to him, my dad took me fishing all the time as a kid, but I don't let on.)

I feel really sad now. :-(

[mycatis]

Sorry mimififi don't be sad that's exactly what I didn't want. But you see my point? My son isn't encouraged to have secrets (I have my reasons) if it's something like a surprise for me, then my mum or gran or someone knows, if it's about them, then I know. I totally agree that it's sad to even think about stuff like that but I dont think you can be too careful.
I wasn't suggesting for a minute that she shouldn't trust si, but no one leaves their kids with someone they dont trust.  Also in this day and age all it takes is for a child to say "me and mums boyfriend have a secret game" and a life could be ruined, because people aren't rational, they spread stories then ask questions

[mimififi]

I guess so mycatis.  Sorry for being so sensitive about it, it is just that wasn't how I intended for it to be taken.  I just meant that it would be nice for the kid to think that hi and Si had something special that was just for them.  I wasn't really insinuating (sp) that the mum really didn't know about it, just that it might make the time he had with the boy less than a baby sitting time, and more of a quality time for just him and him.

I guess I would need to suggest that instead of trying to encourage secrets between children, rather, teach them the difference between secrets, or promises that can be healthy and those that can be harmful.  No mean feat I guess.

Maybe I am a bit niave as I have only ever lived in a life where the people I trust can actually be trusted.  (Apart from one time but that was between me and and a bloke my own age) When you begin to remember that for some people that is far from the case it makes a person feel sad. 

Of course, however innocent I appear to come across on here; obviously if anyone ever did anything to one of my kids, I wouldn't be suggesting that they are probably innocent, I would be posting questions trying to find out the best way in which to brain them.

I take your point mycatis, and it is a valid one.  We don't 'know' people on this forum as actual people and it was irresponsible for me to suggest that it is ok for adults to encourage small children to keep secrets from their parents.  Please don't try this at home Folks.