Kidz Things

Bubbalicious - New site for young parents

2009-09-27T19:58:40Z

This site was launched today by The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID). The UK’s leading baby charity working to prevent sudden deaths and promote health.

It offers advice and help and includes a social networking section.

http://www.bubbalicious.co.uk/

National Family Week

2009-05-26T08:35:45Z

Just a reminder to everybody, if you didn’t already know, that this week (25th - 31st May) is the UK’s National Family Week. In its first ever year, this new initiative has one simple aim - bringing families together!

With sponsors, schools, community organisations, government bodies, charities, local councils, sports clubs, associations, celebrities and even the Prime Minister behind the week, the only thing missing is your family! Families like yours all across the country can enjoy hundreds of events and competitions, offers and promotions to make National Family Week fantastic fun for the whole family. Family is something we all have in common. Regardless of age or stage, shape or size, belief or background, National Family Week promises something for everyone!

This new national occasion will encourage families to play, learn, eat, read, compete and - most importantly - spend quality time together. Join in the fun with your family and celebrate National Family Week!

National Family Week is already the largest coalition on family issues in the UK. Charities, community groups, statutory bodies, schools, sporting and faith networks are all coming together to celebrate family life.

http://www.nationalfamilyweek.co.uk/

Missing or Exploited Children

2009-04-28T16:22:29Z

Sadly, every year there are thousands of children worldwide who are exploited or go missing. In many missing cases, keeping profiles high and getting the information to the right places are very important to help generate new leads, interest and perhaps that decisive key to locating a missing child or stopping further children being exploited.

HFMC - Help Find My Children is an International volunteer group working with parents, grandparents and friends dealing with missing cases of runaways, stranger or family child abduction, grooming or suspected kidnap.

Can I ask you all to visit HFMC. You may be just the one person who can help one of these children.

http://www.helpfindmychild.net/

Well-being Study shows UK Kids are Unhappy :-(

2009-04-28T11:48:43Z

A recent article on the Yahoo! News website* reported that UK children were ranked 24th out of 29 European nations surveyed to establish their overall ‘happiness’. Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta were the only countries to show lower levels of childhood happiness than us. Factors that were considered to contribute to this result were the high number of unemployed parents, poor local environments, lack of adequate education, poor immunisation rates leading to ill health, and lack of communication with parents. In response to the study, the Government’s Children’s Minister said that many changes had been made to factors affecting children’s well-being since the data had been collected for this piece of research. For more info, see the full article (link below).

Personally, I find this study really worrying. Thinking about the opportunities which are available to children growing up in a ‘first world’ country like the UK compared to the rest of Europe, especially Eastern Europe, logically our children should have a better quality of life and should therefore be happier? I know in reality that this is not how it works, but then we have to wonder about why that is. Surely our health and education systems are better than those in Eastern Europe? Perhaps its the old adage that we are just never going to be content with what we’ve got because someone else has always got something better that we will covet - like “they have a cooler car than us”, “Johnny next-door has the new Playstation game and my parents aren’t working at the moment so they won’t buy it for me - my life sucks!”.

I’m clearly just guessing here, but I reckon that a large amount of the unhappiness children may be feeling in the UK is related to the lack of material things they believe they need to be happy. I have other opinions on this, but actually I am far more interested in what other people think about the results of this study, so please do let me know your thoughts.

* http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090421/tuk-uk-kids-among-europe-s-unhappiest-dba1618.html

New Mums Spend 4hrs per Day Online!

2009-04-28T11:08:59Z

My local paper* recently featured the results of a Bounty (parenting club) study that surveyed 3,000 mums. It reported that new mothers spend an average of four hours online each day! This was broken down into the following:

43 minutes - chatting in forums and chat rooms (Kidz Things not included of course!)
42 minutes - looking for baby development sites
39 minutes - visiting health websites for medical advice
51 minutes - viewing parenting websites
42 minutes - shopping online
41 minutes - reading reviews for baby equipment

I’ve got to say I’m pretty impressed that any new mum has even two hours available each day to surf the Net! I remember when Mic was a newborn (feels like it was yesterday instead of 2 years ago!) and I barely had enough energy or time to myself to switch the laptop on, let alone spend hours chatting, searching and shopping.

Obviously the Internet is incredibly useful because babies have a habit of keeping you relatively housebound, at least for the first few weeks, so the WWW is a vital lifeline to the outside world during our hermitty (is that a word?) existence.

Anyhow, I just wondered whether there are any new mums out there who could corroborate or dispute the research results above based on their own online habits?

* Wimbledon Guardian (26 March 2009)

Peekaru!

2009-04-14T01:09:03Z

Hi!

Some of you have probably already seen the article in the Daily Mail regarding the ‘Peekaru’. This appears to be a great alternative to carrying a young child in the usual type of sling.

The designer, Melissa Radcliffe, was inspired by the kangaroo’s pouch when looking for a way to keep her baby warm as well as herself when out in colder weather and still feel comfortable.

It certainly looks interesting and appears to be popular and I wonder what other members think about it, particularly if you or someone you know has already tried it out.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169592/The-baby-fleece-inspired-Aussie-jumpers-little-ones-warm.html

(Photo courtesy of Daily Mail -13/04/09)

Pooh Bear Returns!

2009-02-23T17:19:15Z

Although announced in the press in early January, it is still exciting to know that, after more than 80 years since his first adventure, Winnie-the-Pooh returns in a new book, ‘Return to the Hundred Acre Wood’, due for publication on 5th October 2009, by author David Benedictus with illustrations by Mark Burgess.

There is something timeless about the characters created by A.A.Milne with original illustrations by E.H.Sheperd. Whether you prefer the original ‘Classic Pooh’ or the ‘Disney Pooh’ is a matter of choice. Each has their own charm and the characters in both allow one to be part of their adventures and simple Pooh wisdom in a way that stays with many of us long after childhood. I look forward to my copy of this new adventure.

Am I alone in my ‘relationship’ with Pooh & Co?

“If people were really superior to animals, says Pooh, they would take better care of the world!”

Words of great wisdom from a bear of little brain!