Introducing Flexible Parent Time

Posted on November 24, 2012 by cambridgemummy

I have often referred to Flexible Parent Time – I’m sure I’ve read about it in a book somewhere, where it basically means that if you say you’ll be somewhere at 10am, you could arrive at any point between 8am and 12 noon and no one will think anything of it. Here’s an example of it in practise:

Before Children:
I’ll see you at 10am meant either:
1. I’ll be there at 9.50am, and will get the coffee’s in.
2. I’ll either be there at 9.50am (see 1) or at 10.10am, because I will have been having some frankly fabulous Saturday morning shenanigans with the other half. You can still get the coffee in if you’re there first.

After Children:
I’ll see you at 10am means either:
1. I’ll be there at 8.30am, because we got up at 5am and the little twinkle needs what they think is their mid morning nap. I’ll get you coffee when you text me that you are en route because I’ll be busy eating all the carbs and savoury snacks the coffee shop sells.
2. I’ll be there at 9.50am, will realise I’ve forgotten kit the baby needs / my phone / my handbag and will return home to get back to you, for 10.30am, crying, dishevelled and with a confused, tired and het up baby/toddler in tow who has been wearing a coat that makes them too hot, in the car since 8.30am. They’ll be hot, because I will have had the heating on full blast – because I can’t find a coat myself and don’t want to rock up with my nibs sticking through my bra.
3. I’ll potentially not turn up at all. Because I may have forgotten we were meeting, or I’ve been up since 5am and fallen asleep whilst the toddler watches Mr Tumble on CBeebies.
4. I’ll arrive at 10.40am, just as you are giving up on me and leaving, because it’s all gone to rat shit at home – even though the day started out well, and was still going to plan when we texted to confirm at 8am. It’s amazing how quickly things can unravel, isn’t it?

Can’t think of anything else right now, but I’m sure it will come to me :)
What does Flexible Parent Time mean to you?

Cambridge Mummy on … proud mummy moment

Posted on January 30, 2012 by cambridgemummy

I’m just mid conversation with Liz Fraser on twitter, about being a proud mum. She’s got her son learning long multiplication and I’ve sat with E today, learning “we”, “like”, “go” and “you” which apparently, are tricky with phonics, so we’ve got to basically learn them rote. I think. It’s usually R who does this with him, every day, after school. But I’m on parenting duty for 90 mins whilst Lovely Bloke is out – at “gym club”. Or that’s what E calls it. I’m working tonight as I’ve not seen much of the boys in the last week. She says, writing away on her laptop. Ahem.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that Parent Power is alive and well, and how grateful I am to Lovely Bloke for sitting down with E every night after school, helping him learn his word pot words. God willing W will adapt to this in September – right now he’s laid on the sofa, fluffing and giggling. And he just did a burp!!! Both ends. He thinks he’s the bee’s knees. I do too :)

The Cambridge Mummy blog: Baby names…..

Posted on June 11, 2011 by cambridgemummy

Image courtesy of http://humanfertility.net/picking-baby-names/

Am not sure why, but how you choose your baby’s name is on my mind this afternoon…

With our first baby, we didn’t know if it was a girl or a boy, so we had boy names and girl names on a shortlist. When a son arrived, we were so grateful that it had all worked out in the end (there’d been a rush towards the end of the process and an emergency c section…) that the name didn’t feel like such a big issue. Nonetheless, we had to pick between Elliott and Max. We went with the former as the relatives were bounding down the corridor desperate to meet him.

With our second child, we knew we were having a boy, but there was still the shortlisting to do. But the problem was that we didn’t have hours of sitting around debating names. And Lovely Bloke felt that we couldn’t use any of the names from our other shortlist because that would be wrong, it was not giving our second child his own name, but more one that was a left over from the first time around. So we were debating William or Oliver. And in the end, after he arrived, I wanted Oliver and Lovely Bloke wanted William, so that’s what he was called, as I’d had two blood transfusions (I’m not great at the whole giving birth thing) and felt too weak to argue that much…

The things that drove our choices were:

1. We wanted something that other people weren’t picking. [That worked for E but not for W, bless him]
2. We wanted a name that wasn’t a family name, we wanted our boys to be their own people, without the burden of someone else’s history. [That worked for E, but not W, bless him. Although I only found out after we'd told everyone his name, when my mother in law helpfully announced it....]
3. We wanted a family name for a middle name. [Thankfully, we managed that one on both occasions...]
4. We didn’t want something that would sound too kooky. [I think we just about managed that as well. Time will tell I suppose]

What confuses me, is how parents pick baby names that they say up front, are after a pop star, famous person, or someone in the public eye? Aren’t most people in the public eye there for a fleeting moment of time, so why pick that name? And usually, it’s not their really name, it’s something designed to get attention, a stage name, instead of their real name.

What also confuses me , is how parents to be choose a baby’s name before they arrive. Lots of people do it, but to me, it seemed alien because I wanted to see my babies to check if the name would “fit” them…

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. How did you choose your baby’s name?