Just for fun: A journalist spends a whole WEEK with her 3yo!

[SDeuchars]

I thought we could all use some light relief.

Budget: Family fun for £10 a week

It's budget day on Tuesday ? Gaby Hinsliff gets a head start on austerity by seeing how much fun she and her son can have for as little money as possible

That toddler needs more friends.

Babycinno?

WHAT?

second the FFS

'[I]wonder whether the constant novelty with which I bombard him is really for his benefit or mine.'

Good question. Some of my best memories as a child are of being by myself, quietly, discovering or reading something, not 'Let's go to the park! Let's look in the museum!' etc. ad infinitum. I think a lot of people insist on doing orchestrated activities with/for their children so they can say to other's 'Oh yes, little Fernando absolutely ADORES his baby Mandarin lessons

I thought the telling bit was:

Day five: We would normally go to Tumble Tots this morning: ... Instead we go to the playground ... it's noticeably harder work for me: no standing around while someone else does creative things with a hula-hoop.

I read this in the park whilst ignoring my toddler this pm...

babycinno?

I mean really???

surely noone would buy that ever

Babycino's are meant to be free! It's a tiny bit of frothy milk to make a kid feel they're all grown up. She is a mug if she pays for them.

They're free in our local cafe, thought that was the whole point.

But mostly I read this article and thought - but she's describing my normal day to day life. It's almost as good as the 'how to have a credit crunch baby' from a few weeks ago that took no account of the loss of earnings/childcare that makes up most of the figures when they work out how much a baby 'costs'.

• BUT only as a very occasional treat, and only in cafes where they give them away free or for nominal fee - not for 1.50 for heaven's sake.

I thought it was quite a reasonable article actually - she seemed pretty self-aware and there's some insightful stuff in there. But I stopped relating to her when she admitted a preference for Tumbletots over going to the playground. And they both need more friends.

I'm feeling smug that my DC have never had a babychino.

this is not journalism

Yes, don't think there was a reference to having friends round to rampage around the living room while you hide in the kitchen trying to drink tea. That's quite a large part of our social calendar atm (and free, bar wear and tear)

It's nice that the reporter is finding a different, counter-consumer-culture way to be with her DS (although the rest of us are sitting here reading thing going, well, duh.)

The thing that pisses me off about these 'sort your finances' articles though, it's like the ones which suggest I give up smoking/stop buying glossy magazines/start making packed lunches/stop spending a fortune in Starbucks... FFS (the third one), can someone just once suggest something I don't already do?

I sympathise with the playground-hard-work thing though - it's brilliant now my DS and DD1 are old enough that they can run around together. Any day now they'll work out what to do with their legs on the swings...

DD's have babycino's when they have gone blue from swimming in the (free) lido, it's just hot milk though, I feel like a twat ordering it. Especially as they call it a Babbyccino

'But a trip to our lovely local wildlife park is an eyewatering £31 for all of us, ice creams not included.'

Where does she live? Hahahaha, have never paid into a park!

yy robber

Also, don't go to hairdressers dye it yourself, walk instead of car, go to library instead of buying books, run in teh streets instead of a gym.

Check, check, check fucking check.

Surely she has just described a normal week with a toddler, rather than an "austere" one.

Mine ask for a babycino and a 'pain au chocolat,' when we go to a cafe.

In fact, if we go to the park and don't go to a cafe they are and at this attack on their human rights.

I was trying to find some words with which to defend myself. But there aren't any. I hold my hands up.

missus, actually, that's an expensive week, we do playgroup x 2, pta coffee morning, museum and library at least once a week depending on rain, park lots, beach, lido.
£4.

swimming is a treat!

Saturday Guardian is running with some weird articles recently.

Anyone remember the one from a woman on how to get all your baby things on the cheap? Not only was she smugsville that she had bought everything second hand or been given it/ cash by rellies, but she hadn't even had the sodding baby yet so surely had only the faintest grasp on what she would actually require. I wondered if they were going to follow it with "20 things you need to know to climb Everest" written by someone who was planning to climb it next month.

Anyway, I too was utterly bemused by this article today. Surely by the time you had taken your toddler to free playgroups at Children's Centres, then to walk the dog, play in the garden, playground, libraries etc. and spent the afternoon lolling around at home, then.. that's it. Free. What most of us do all the time. Still, don't suppose there's any article in that.

And FFS woman, babycinnos are free in most chains eg. Starbucks, Cafe Nero etc.

I think the point about combining adult and child social lives is a good one.

I've read some of the earlier posters too about going round to friends' houses and letting the children 'get on with it' with envy.

As lots of other parents will be able to relate to, I've already moved 3 times with our 18mo (OK, so maybe most people don't move so often post-baby but lots move now for uni, jobs etc pre-baby), and going to groups has been my only way to meet other parents and for DS to meet oter children. I'd love to be able to do more free stuff but then it'd just be the two of us in the park on our own. Groups are a bit of lifesaver (although I do seek out the free ones wherever possible!).

I often have a whole week where I don't spend anything like £10 on my FOUR children's activities. Let me think:

Monday - friend's house or play at home or walk in park/picnic or free museums or library

Tuesday - DH's day off. Sometimes we'll go swimming but that's expensive, so most weeks we'll do similar to Monday

Wednesday - HE group. £3 per family

Thursday - Go to mum's house but essentially do as on Mon and Tues

Friday - as other days except older two do badgers in the evening £2 in total.

There! £5 most weeks! Woohoo! For FOUR children! She's a daft, silly, bint!