Mum, I'm not enjoying my holiday!

She's not enjoying her holiday. That's what came out of the mouth of my 6-year old after 5 weeks of:

• Christmas preparations and Christmas festivities
• Zoo
• Play dates with friends
• 1 movie outing with the whole family 
• 1 movie outing with "justMum"
• a 3-day trip to an island full of lovely swimming beaches
• 15 trips to the school pool
• movie nights at home
• art projects
• museum
• strawberry picking
• cooking lessons
• trips to the playground
• shopping for clothes
• fighting with her brother (sibling rivalry?)
• ....
• ....

Is she over-stimulated? 

Are summer holidays too long?

Is she manipulating me to get her way?

(Please leave a comment to let me know what you think. Honestly!)

Perhaps she's inherently an unhappy child? Googling the topic (and failing to resolve the problem), I did manage to find this fascinating article about why today's children are unhappy. It provides superb insights into how parents who try too hard create even more problems for their children.

By the way, if you have the opposite problem, if you think you're doing too little, take heart knowing other mums also have bored children....

Cooking with kids

Do you enjoy cooking with your children? If not, I know how to change that: offer to tutor a 3-hour long holiday programme lesson for 10-15 children, most of them not your own.

You will discover what a superb mum you are, because:
Your children are the only ones who know the basic safety rules around the kitchen.
Your 6-year old knows what ingredients go into soup.
When you ask how to make muffins, your child does not pipe up: “Open the packet, add water”....

Also, after three hours of helping 10-15 pairs of little hands crack eggs, mix honey with peanut butter and knead the yeast dough that “smells yucky!”, after scheduling 5 food-related physical activity games to break up the monotony of the actual cooking, after jumping in and out of the pretend fruit smoothie going whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr about a hundred times... after all that, you will definitely appreciate making the rainbow cake in your own kitchen with your own kids.

The rainbow cake is the easiest thing in the world to make. Take an equal weight of butter, sugar and flour (e.g., 200g), add 1 small egg per every 100g, add vanilla essence and a teaspoon of baking powder. Split the dough into as many bowls as you have food colouring, put a few drops of colour into each bowl, then slap the colourful dough into the pre-greased baking tray. Bake as you would a normal cake.

Looking for more recipes? Try the Kidspot Recipe Finder. That’s what I use!

Did you know that children cook according to their learning styles? Read about your child's cooking style.

Guess what my mother in law said...

Mothers in law (MIL): the good, the bad and the ugly (figuratively speaking, that is... or not). Sometimes they can be helpful. Sometimes they have too many opinions. Sometimes they are still number one, with you a distant second.

I’ve trawled the Internet for some good MIL jokes, and all I found were bad ones. Still, I couldn’t resist quoting a few, heavily censored, that is.

New story line for some of our favourite TV shows:

• Survivor: Stay at home and vote to keep the MILs on the island forever.
• MIL Hunter: Go Down Under and watch as one man gets close to nature and risks getting his head bitten off by one of mankind's oldest and fiercest enemies.
• Family Law: In this episode, a woman fights to divorce her MIL while remaining married to her husband.
• Unsolved Mysteries - Missing MILs: MILs are disappearing all over the city... and no one is looking for them!
  

(Speaking of TV, have you ever wondered how to make smart TV choices for kids? Have a look at these tips for kids and TV watching.)

My own mother in law is all right... I mean, she must be. My husband always tells me I’m just like her.... But seriously, she and I like the same books and the same actors, we have similar values and life philosophies. Still, from time to time she manages to say something to remind me of the power battle between us.

My favourite has to be the time she asked me when I would get a real job... because a mother of two preschoolers who works from home doing stuff she loves can’t possibly be doing a real job, right? Fortunately my husband piped up in my defence: “She does have a real job: she earns more than I do!”

Do you have a story about your MIL? Like, this uncontrollable desire you get to lock yourself in a room or closet every time she visits? Come share it on Kidspot Social.

Oh, and if you ever feel like selling your mother in law, Kidspot Market is the place other mums go to look for goodies, LOL.