The Only Girl in the House

How to Keep Kids Safe Online – Home & Away with F-Secure TOTAL {Sponsored}

How to Keep Kids Safe Online – Home & Away with F-Secure TOTAL {Sponsored}

I don’t know about you, but by the time the kids have bamboozled me with VPNs and V-Bucks, I feel a bit out of my parenting depth when it comes to keeping the kids safe online. But I’m pretty sure I’m not alone as a recent Net Mums survey found that nearly a third of parents let their kids use the internet without any restrictions. I’ll hold my hand-up to admit we’ve been guilty of that, leading to the “Sherril Coles boobies” search history discovery of 2015.

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Class of 2018 – Year 6 Leavers – A Parents Guide to the Emotional Turmoil of Leaving Primary School

Class of 2018 – Year 6 Leavers – A Parents Guide to the Emotional Turmoil of Leaving Primary School

The tears started rolling last October when Hugo’s year group sung with 7k other school children at the O2; I defy any parent with tweens not to shed a tear when they break into Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on the Hill’ en masse! Since then, it’s fair to say I’ve been a bit of an emotional wreck – not just due to Hugo’s perseverance to stay in school (read: not get his troublesome arse suspended), but the year of proud moments and revelations that come, unexpectedly, with year 6.

I just wish someone had warned me last September that Year 6 would knock my mothering socks off – house captain nominations, singing at the O2, SATs revision, SATs exams, school residential trip, school productions, SATs results and leavers events. Not to mention the currently gentle lapping waves of hormones which will inevitably become a tsunami in the not too distant future!

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How to: Make a Rainy, Sick Day Better {Sponsored}

How to: Make a Rainy, Sick Day Better {Sponsored}

It started on a murky, drizzly Wednesday morning in mid-January. The skies were grey, cosy Pjs were clad, Casper’s temperature was high and his nose was running an iron-man style marathon. He’d had a good night’s sleep, so while drowsy, he was still up for being entertained, toddler style! For a long time now we’d watched, re-watched and had the theme tune ear-worms of all the Casper friendly TV shows our subscriptions had to offer – and as pay day still loomed a couple of weeks away, buying my way out of what looked like another day of Paw Patrol series 1 bingeing wasn’t an option!

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Why We ARE Doing Presents This Christmas

Why We ARE Doing Presents This Christmas

Last year when I boldly declared “we’re not doing presents” I felt relieved, wholesome and that my soul had been relinquished from the consumerist-Demogorgans that feast on the festering flesh of Christmas morning aka our children. A touch dramatic? Perhaps! But hopefully this conveys the modicum of hope this brought to my festive season of 2016. I’d, of course, hoped this would become our Christmas tradition and our children would shed their greed nourished, Philistinian skins to reveal Swallow & Amazon-esque delights – charmingly feral, lacking in materialistic desires; but then I realised I’m not 21 and my pelvic floor is shattered, so promptly readjusted my expectations.

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Go-Go Gadgets | Alba Collection at Argos #Ad

Go-Go Gadgets | Alba Collection at Argos #Ad

I think it’s a bit late for me to wave from my moral stead regarding my kids with gadgets – after all, I was on national TV openly admitting that I let my kids watch pads/TV/their phones when they’re eating dinner (sometimes!). But just ‘cos I let the herberts get their daily dose of Peppa/The F2 while chowing down on their grub, doesn’t mean I’ve gone completely bonkers when it comes to free roaming of the internet on extortionately priced gadgets.

That’s why, when the gang from Argos got in touch about their affordable, easy to use, child-friendly gadgets from their Alba range, exclusively at Argos – my electronics ears pricked and I was intrigued. But, I’m not sure if you’ve met a kid these days, they tend to rate high on the fussy-factor and scale-shattering on the knowing-what-they-want-ometer! They’re also pretty keen to conform – what their friends or big brothers have, they want/need too! So, while the Alba range tickled my gizmo fancy, I was a bit worried I’d be met with the impenetrable, toddler/tween brick wall of “NO!”.

I think it’s a bit late for me to wave from my moral stead regarding my kids with gadgets – after all, I was on national TV openly admitting that I let my kids watch pads/TV/their phones when they’re eating dinner (sometimes!). But just ‘cos I let the herberts get their daily dose of Peppa/The F2 while chowing down on their grub, doesn’t mean I’ve gone completely bonkers when it comes to free roaming of the internet on extortionately priced gadgets.

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