Share your tales of going the extra mile for your DC with Mini Milk - you could win a £300 John Lewis voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

At Mini Milk HQ they have been busy reformulating Mini Milk - meaning Mini Milk is a fun treat parents can say yes to! They say "small but perfectly formed, the Mini Milk is a firm favourite within the Wall's range of ice creams. With a choice of three delicious flavours -Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate - it's a perfect tasty treat you can feel confident giving to your kids this summer"

They'd love to now hear what you have done to go the extra mile for your kids out of sheer love, to put a smile on their face or - let's face it, to demonstrate your Mother-Superior (or Father-Superior) - parenting skills to the teacher/ other parents . Or even what you let slide so that your DC are happy.

For example: Have you ever found yourself working on a World Book Day costume in the wee small hours of the morning? Or spent days tracking down a toy or piece of clothing you know your child will really, really love? Maybe you've gone slightly OTT on your child's most recent project, or found yourself booking days out just so the class bear can give a good account of his time spent with your family. Have you allowed 'treats' just to make them happy?

If you've gone the extra mile, dug especially deep to pull something amazing out of the bag to be show your self as a great parent, or let your normal standards slip just to make them happy, we want your stories here!

Add your comment to this thread and you'll be entered into a prize draw where on MNer will win a £300 John Lewis voucher.

Please note Mini Milk / Mumsnet may use your comments - anon of course - on their pages on MN, on social media or possibly elsewhere - please only post if you're happy with this. Standard Insight T&Cs apply.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Always putting money in her piggy bank even if I don't have a lot myself. And all those early mornings :)

When we were posted to Germany I drove all the way back to England just to get the right Xmas present for my autistic son - through 4 ft snow drifts! It was worth it to see the smile on his face though

I think the time I went the extra mile most for my son was when he was fascinated by the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. He was hoping to see them which I said wasn't possible. He said he wanted to see in the morning if there was any sign they had been. So at 1am, my husband and I (after drinking Santa's sherry and mince pie) got the ladder out and with the help of talcum powder made some snowy 'hoof prints' having researched them on Google on the house roof

Going on holiday to a well-known brand of 'campsites' - staying in the flimsiest apartment ever! Windy, rainy, no sleep for anyone, all so that we could see Sooty for DD!

When dd was a toddler she used to like smelling the herbs and spices while I was cooking.

One day she sneezed while she was smelling the smoked paprika and it blew into her eyes. She immediately started screaming and for some reason I find unfathomable now, my instinctive reaction was to shake some into my own eye so I could find out how bad it was for her!

Well, it was absolutely agonising and I couldn't open that eye so I ended up frantically squinting at my phone to google a cure (milk incidentally) whilst comforting dd with both of us crying!

I have 9 children so there have been a lot of times where I've had to really push myself that bit further to sort out something for one of them and to try to make things right when something has gone wrong or I've tried to really brighten their day.
My eldest is 15 and has been very ill for the last 2 years. He has had 3 operations and complained that his life was really boring and depressing feeling ill all the time with just a long stream endless hospital appointments, so I arranged to take him to go to a Comic con convention recently. It might not sound much, but hHe is really into Gaming, comic books, Anime and Japanese culture so it was just what he was interested in and I knew he would love it. Arranging to get him there was very tricky as he wasn't well and is constantly exhausted, but somehow we managed it. He had the most amazing time and on the way home he said it was the best day ever and how he wanted to go again! He was totally shattered afterwards for days, but it was all he could talk about for weeks. It was just good to see him happy after such a long difficult time for him.
Also having one sick child, I've had to make sure that all the other children have had a fair share of attention too, so I do go above and beyond it quite regularly to bring some fun into ordinary days for the others - even just simple things like stopping by Poundland after school and buying bubbles for them all to use in the garden when they get home.

Last Christmas did a Christmas party for all his little friends, party crafts and made cakes, and even sewed Christmas tree decorations for the children (stuffed reindeer's) a week before having all my family (13 in all) round for my first ever Christmas as host! I was stressed! But It was so fun - I loved it. I've decided to make my son a new Christmas tree decoration every year from now on!

Learnt to do everything (including washing my hair!) with a baby strapped to my chest when for the first four months of his life his reflux was so bad he couldn't stand to be put down.and.my husband was away with work a lot.

I put all my spare time into comping and facebook selling sons old stuff so he never wants ( within reason). Ive won nearly every electrical item we own over last 7 years or we never been able to have them
I do spoil him but i waited 10 years and more than a dozen miscarriages, i do say no but he will always have my last rolo

I have three wonderful children, The oldest one finds school life hard, the middle one finds school life easy, and the youngest, he is non verbal autistic, and a whole different kettle of fish.

I regularly find myself sleep deprived but still playing taxi for the older two boys, after school clubs and extra curricular activities, I do most things i am asked of, washing clothes at short notice, helping out one of their friends, or having unexpected complications arise with life in general. All the while, making sure i am available, and interacting with my youngest ASD boy.

My children never want for anything they need (and thats the clincher there NEED!) My partner works hard to make sure they always can have those school trips, or clothes or pocket money if they NEED it.

I don't spoil my boys they do have to do jobs to be allowed bigger things or items they really don't need. But coming from a struggling family where i had to wait often for the little things i do try not to make my children experience that.

This of course really only applies to my older two children as my youngest doesn't want for anything, He's happy playing with his cars, daddy's toy lightsabers or even just watching a DVD or playing on the iPad.

But i will bend over backwards to make sure they are all happy.

hi spent hours 1 evening trying to recreate the school logo on some cupcakes for cake day they were far from perfect but the headteacher loved them earned some brownie points for the kids ;)

i think the biggest challenge for me when i went the extra mile was building an EXTREMELY complicated marble run type thing for my daughter when she begged to play with it. It took well over 2 hours to build (she was remarkably patient and watched me throughout), it also involved various texts and emails to daddy for advice (as marble runs are definitely NOT my strength) and although i rarely swear, a few little swear words may have passed my lips too.

Anyway several hours later and we had a marble run that worked, complete with it's motorised lift chain thingy working too! I was so proud of myself as i sat back and watched my daughter play with it.

PRECISELY 4 minutes later my daughter announces 'I've had enough now' and wanders off to play with something else! grrr.

I take Christmas very seriously and plan for it all year long to make sure the kids have a magical time. We're not flush with money so I have to be very careful and very wise to make sure we can afford the big food shop and the presents and decorations. I make a 'Christmas Eve' box every year with things like Christmassy pyjamas and books and dvds in it, and pretend that Santa left them a present a day early because they had been extra good! We have all of the usual traditions and I even plan out which days we will watch which Christmas films for maximum feel-good feelings, haha!

Not sure why I love it so much - I guess it feels like the one time of year when everybody is together and happy and generous with their time and money, it makes me really happy and I love passing those feelings onto the kids and seeing the joy on their faces :)

I've had the 'pleasure' of helping out with plenty of homework/essays in my time, normally at the last minute. Massive amount of brainpower/work required from me, especially as I wasn't that great at schoolwork when I was their age!

Working nightshifts so we could get our first computer for the girls, it was worth it as they had so much fun and have happy memories of their first computer!

inviting their friends over :)

Making a yellow power ranger the evening before the village scarecrow festival. I had to ring a friend to sew the costume and another friend o help make the body. We were up half the night but it was ready for the next day. It wasn't great but my son thought it was so it sat in our garden for next few months.

My dd was struggling with what she could take to show and tell. After a few days of wondering what to do I decided I'd organise something with the school. I used my contacts and brought in circus performers and a pony for rides. It's possible some of the parents didn't believe their dc's when they told them.
DD was the happiest girl in the world!

Getting up an hour before her (5am) to get everything ready for the park!We go straight after breakfast and pretend the park is all ours as the sun comes up

Thanks for all your comments! The winner of the prize draw is shoebedo434 - congratulations :)