To be fed up with Barnaby the Sodding Bear aka Mum's Homework!!!!!!!!

[MilaMae]

So dtwins were in rec last year and they bought said bear home 3 Xs each if I remember correctly. So that's 6 nights of trying to give Barnaby a good time in order for him to have a vaguely interesting diary.

Accompanying 3 grumpy kids home,watching them stuff cookies whilst watching Oggy and the Cockroaches does not an interesting diary make.

Having to take,download photos and extract something drawn/written out of a 5 year old boy to liven up Barnaby's diary after a day at school is no mean feat.

The one time we had Barnaby for the weekend and were actually doing something interesting (train,boat and double decker in London along with a trip to Tate Modern) we forgot him!!!! Dp was gutted as he wanted a pic of Barnaby floating down the Thames.

Anyhow 2nd week of term and guess who gets the 1st go with Barnaby's older brother Barnaby the bear who hangs out in Y1 yes that's right dtwin1. I was the mother getting all the sympathetic glances whose heart sank as her son came racing out with an extra rucksack.

So last night I was up until midnight trying to download photos of Barnaby errrr eating cookies and watching Oggy again This was after an evening of dtwin 2 winging because he hadn't got Barnaby and all 3 dc fighting over him. Anyhow I get up in the morning only to find dp has already written Barnaby's diary and there is no way it can be sent to school if you get my drift,it may have been funny 9 o'clock last night but at 8 o'clock this morning I was not best pleased. So I quickly re-write it and manage to get a picture out of dtwin1 only to find he's now bonded with Barnaby and is in floods of tears as he doesn't want him to go back. Manage to gently prize him off it in order to ram him back in his rucksack. Get to school(dtwin1 has gone from sobbing to quiet sniffing by this time),then foolishly warn the teacher that handover might be tricky only for her to reassure dtwin that she'll make sure he has him back soon noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best bit is dd has just started rec this year so by my calculation we'll be having Barnaby and co 9 times this year-yay!!!!

[IdrisTheDragon]

There isn't Barnaby at DS's school which surprises me a bit but I suppose it does prevent this happening to me.

Have to admit to giggling over the diary entry your DP wrote - would you like to share it?

[twirlymum]

I feel your pain.

Barnaby is a regular guest at our house too. He has outstayed his welcome here.

The worst bit is reading what the previous hosts have done (and I can't help but compare handwriting, then fret over dd's being awful).

[AitchwonderswhoFruitCrumbleis]

someone on here once advised sticking red circles onto him and giving him the chickenpox. lots of opportunity for dc to dress up and stick thermometers into his mouth etc.

[Sherbert37]

That brings back memories of competitive soft toy entertaining. We never had anything to write either and no digital camera to record 'events'. At least when we took the school hamster home we weren't expected to entertain it and report back.

[EyeballsintheSky]

Sorry I only have a toddler so am not clear on all this. Who is the diary for? I mean, if Barnaby was brought home and, say, backchatted you on the way home and was sent to bed without any supper, what would happen then? Are they really expecting you to climb Kilimanjaro on a Monday evening?

[MilaMae]

I swear every time I won't read the previous entries but it's like picking a scab. I'm still in that some mothers bake with their dc after school.

Idris dp's diary started with "Ah, a new year and a new class. A right bunch of herberts they look too....."

[willali]

THe best one upmanshiop on this kind of thing was when one girl took the bear on holiday to.........HAWAII

This was the first entry in the book so no-one could avoid seeing the pictures of bear and surf and sun and smug children

No point in competing after that one....

[AitchwonderswhoFruitCrumbleis]

i think saying that barnaby was uncharacteristically cheeky and sent to have a think about his behaviour is very funny. i'm going to do that.

[EyeballsintheSky]

Seems easy to me. Take a photo of him lying face down on the bed sulking and you're done. If you feel really adventurous you can take a picture of him later sitting next to a plate of crusts and a mug of water!

[MissAnneElk]

My DDs school thankfully didn't have Barnaby or similar, but I did have the misfortune to babysit for a friend one night and when I got there her DD had Barnaby fucking bear sitting beside her. I swear this friend must have known the bear would be there and decided to go out so that I had to think of exciting things for the bear to do. IIRC Barnaby watched Eastenders with the babysitter and was then sent to bed...

[AitchwonderswhoFruitCrumbleis]

it could become a thing... you could raise it with the teacher. 'barnaby seems to be so well-behaved everywhere else but hell on wheels when he's at our house. are there any issues i should be aware of between him and dd?'

[andirobobo]

Oh this brings back memories - we had Scruffy! We were very lucky to be the third people in the class to have him, so no pressure, and had a good weekend lined up! So I did a fake photo film strip and printed out 6 little snaps of his weekend with us, and then DD did a written bit and a photo. Never saw it again thank goodness, and they dont do it in Juniors!

[potplant]

We had the stupid thing 4 times when my DTs where in nursery (twice each). We had to go out and find things to do just to take the stupid photos of it.

One of previous entries in the diary the bear was sitting with a can of special brew and a packet fags. This entry never made the diary wall they used to have

[sockmonkey]

We have Oscar the bear... my friend took theirs to a wedding and put photos of Oscar getting drunk, and dancing on the table.
You just have to get imaginative I guess.

[mel1981]

We have Barnaby too... only had him once last year but was kindly informed by DS's teacher that we will be seeing a lot more of him this year!! YAY!
We havent had to add photos etc yet rpobably be informed of that at the last minute this year.
We had to do a scrap book over the summer hols too. At least 6 entries of what the kids got up to photos, drawings & everything. That was fun trying to scribble down 6 pages of the not so exciting stuff we got up to over the hols in the last few days.

[OtterInaSkoda]

Barnaby the Bear's my name,
Never call me Jack or Jane,
My voice will be my fame,
BARNABY THE BEAR'S MY NAME!

Sorry for (deliberate) shouting.

[Bounder]

Thank you all. this thread made me laugh until I cried (especially the thought of him sulking on his bed). Sadly all mine in juniors now so won`t get to try out some of the ideas.

[MoonTheLoon]

We have similar and there is lots of talk amongst mothers of killing him off in various inventive ways or accidently losing him on a train. I didn't worry too much about the diary and would just lie until I found out the read it out to the class every day and then the children would correct what wasn't true .

Agree with the competitiveness and how many people get their kids to write in it just to prove how good their child is at writing

[mathanxiety]

We had a similar thing in school in the US. After 5th DC brought home the class mascot we decided to write fairly neatly in the diary that the cat had barfed all over it but not to worry because clever mummy managed to wash most of it off and dry it before school the next day. I heard he is now retired.

[curiositykilled]

Yes, it is a PITA as you don't get to choose when you have the bloomin' thing. They sent the preschool bear home with DS when I was actually bedridden with morning sickness and had just had a bleed they think was casued by my excessive straining during vomiting (having twins).

DH was trying to work from home and take ds back and forth to preschool as well as supervise dd all day. There was just no way I was taking it anywhere special nevermind 'taking pictures of his adventures' we brought it back late and with a written account of how he'd had to watch me vomit every morning then dd had messed around with him while ds was a t preschool

I couldn't lie, that would've defeated the object.

I like the idea in principle because it builds links between home and school but they need to ask if it is a good time rather than thrust it on you. DH was under the impression he just had to take it and didn't really know what it was.

[Ninks]

Didn't we have a thread about this and the MNer who had him promised to take him to a lap-dancing club and show us all the pictures she'd taken?

Maybe that was some other toy. It was funny though.

[MoChan]

Why are they all called Barnaby?

My SD has had her class one a couple of times and it's always a pain. Fortunately my own daughter is too young for school as yet...

[NoahDear]

its a LAZY LAZY shceme of work reused by idle teachers.

its SO OLD, they need to change it

[NoahDear]

BIl was a pilot.
got WELL hacked off with frigging barnaby