Category Archives: parent category

Back to reality 

children, kids, parent category, School holidays, sunmertime, teenagers

Can’t believe it’s Friday and another week is over! One more week and it’s back to reality!
I love school holidays, don’t get me wrong, but now that the kids are older, the summer holidays seem to go on and on. It’s been almost 10 weeks straight, that’s nearly a quarter of the year. No wonder they are getting bored! There is only so much sleeping in and playing video games or watching YouTube that any teenager can do. 
They don’t know it yet, but all the lounging around is about to end! This coming week it’s back to set bed times, getting books and bags ready and getting ourselves back into the routine of it all. 

It’s not going to be easy making the transition, but it’s got to be done. 

But for now there is still the weekend to enjoy. Have a good one everyone! 

School camp 

Adventure, camp, camping, Daughters, parent category, princess, School camp, school trip, teenage girls, Trip

My daughter is off to camp tomorrow morning, so today we spent the day getting everything she needed packed and ready.
True to female form, despite having a cupboard full of clothes she just couldn’t find anything she was happy to take along with her. We made a mad dash to our nearest shopping mall and spent a few hours shopping and laughing and came back with a few things that she was happy with. 
I’m so going to miss her and our girl time!! Our movie time!! Thank goodness it’s only two and half days!! 

The boys will miss her too I’m sure, so will her dad and all the pets. The house is sure going to be really  quiet. 

I’ve taken the morning off so I can see her off, I’m just hoping that I will not embarrass her too much by getting too emotional. Hurry up Wednesday!!! 

7 minutes to go….

children, feeling anxious, kids, life, parent category, teenagers, work

Sitting in the car waiting for my son to come out after his 4th shift at his first job ever, and I’m feeling a little anxious.He didn’t really want to go back to work today, not after Saturday’s shift when the grumpy manager kept telling him off. I’m hoping that either that same manager is not on night duty this week, or that he is in much a better mood and will cut him a little slack. 

Guess we’ll see soon enough, 7 mins to go till the end of his shift. Fingers crossed we are back on track!! 

Feeling a little disappointed 

adolescence, Adolescent, Disappointed, disappointment, Employment, Feeling disappointed, Job, kids, parent category, teenagers, work life

I was feeling a little disappointed yesterday. My 16 year old son has started his first job ever, and although he was a little nervous initially and apprehensive, he was also excited and seemed so positive. Anyone who lives with teenagers will tell you that positivity is not something you associate with adolescence. His first two shifts were good and he seemed to be fitting in ok and really embracing work, but yesterday – day three – was not so good. The manager is apparently grumpy and was giving him a hard time – I tried to explain that this may just be his character and that he should not take his comments to be a criticism but rather as constructive feedback,but in his mind, the manager simply does not like him.I can’t help feeling a little annoyed at the grumpy manager -perhaps it’s just my protective mother instincts kicking in – but I really think he should be encouraging and not discouraging new employees. A few kind words of encouragement would do wonders I feel and make anyone try harder. You would think he would know that. 

Winning is not everything!!

boys, City Sevens, Football, Kids sport, nemesis, parent category, Seven a side, soccer, Soccer game, teamwork, winning isn't everything

We played against our nemesis team at seven a side soccer tonight. This team is very competitive and very rough! 
Unfortunately we only had 6 players tonight as two of our boys were unwell, so you would think that the opposition would also play only 6 players to make the game fair but no they did not! That’s just what they are like.
You can’t imagine how good it felt then when our boys – the underdogs – scored the first goal of the match!! 

By half time the opposition has scored twice making the score 2-1 in their favour. They were so angry that our boys were fighting back, it was actually quite funny to watch. 

One of our boys actually told them to calm down as the whistle for half time sounded.

We lost in the end 6-1 but the score does not in the least reflect how awesome the boys played. I couldn’t have been more proud of each and every one of them. 

Strutting on the catwalk 

Art, Boxer shorts, Catwalk, Clothes, Creative, Daughters, Fashion, Fashion parade, Feeling proud, Fun night, girls, Modelling, Models, Parade, parent category, talent

  
After a term and a half of hard work, tonight the year 7 girls got to model the boxer shorts they made to all their proud parents and family in an awesome fashion parade.
Madelyn looked so cute modelling her yellow boxers with the Orange Paisley design and her new monster slippers were a big hit too. 

Here are just a few shots from what was truly a lovely evening. I have titled this post “strutting on the catwalk” but in actual fact the girls were under strict instruction that there would be no strutting and no pouting allowed! 

   
    
 

The Wiz

adolescence, children, High School Musical, kids, love, Musical, parent category, Production, Secondary School, Singing, teenagers, The Whiz, The Wiz, The Wizard of Oz

  

I’m feeling really proud tonight!! My beautiful princess appeared in her first high school musical tonight, and boy was it a fantastic show.

Madelyn was only one of four year seven girls to make it into the production which had a cast of 80, and after seeing the calibre of the performers tonight I can see why!!

After almost 8 months of constant rehearsals The Whiz finally opened to a sell out crowd!! 
All the girls were fantastic!! The singing was spectacular!! The whole production was so professionally put together that it didn’t feel like a high school play at all!! 

My baby was a star!! She appeared in three scenes and the closing scene and just lit up the stage!!

I couldn’t have been prouder!! 

That Sugar App

Advice, App, App store, Apps, children, Harmful, Healthy choices, kids, life, Mothers, parent category, Sugar, Sugar content, Sweets, That Sugar App

  
I discovered a cool little App called “That Sugar App” that tells you how many teaspoons of sugar there are in a particular food or snack or drink by simply scanning the barcode!!

This free App is a great way to monitor your daily sugar intake and very handy for pre packaged school snacks, it helps to take the guess work out of what to pack in your kids lunch boxes by disclosing just how much sugar content each item contains.

I did it!!! 

ball, challenge, character building, children, Competition, End of the season, kids, parent category, reflections, Teenage boy, Teenage sons, teenagers, Training session

Well I did it!! I managed to get through a whole season as basketball coach!! My job is not quite finished our final game is on Saturday, but tonight was the final training session, and we had a fun filled hour and a half!!
Looking back I have to say that the season did not come without its share of challenges, but the positives have out weighed any negatives by far!!

I know that I will look back on my time as coach fondly and will treasure the memories that I have shared with my son and his friends. 
There is a certain amount of pride and sense of self accomplishment that I can’t help feeling, that I’m sure will stay with me for a long while.