In a galaxy far, far away - or rather in a pre iphone/ipad world....
So before the world of ipads and iphones attached to childrens hands everywhere, there were stickers, 100s of pages of stickers. We took sheets of them everywhere. Be it to the café, pub or on a plane – it was the one thing that kept my child entertained - at least for a while.
Best memory was when sitting on a flight and snatching a 15 minute read/snooze whilst Dan was looking after a 3 year old Sienna. I looked up only to find Dan covered in stickers, the surrounding seats covered in stickers, several neighbouring children covered in stickers and a not so amused flight attendant covered in stickers!!! If you are ever sitting on a plane and see multiple areas of sticker residue - sorry I did try and remove them all before getting off the flight!!!
I seem to remember that I carried around sheets of stickers and sticker books on every journey – happily handing them out to other parents along the way, it was a great way to make friends so my only child might have a pal to play with for a while. Also there is something wonderful about seeing the relief on another mums face when you help calm/entertain their child by handing them a sheet of multicoloured dots!
In the beginning, I wanted to believe that traditional play things were the way to bring up a healthy and happy child – you know the wooden blocks cube, pull along wooden horse – and to be fair our daughter did love some of these things. But soon enough the lure of Peppa Pig took hold and watching it on the iphone gave us moments of peace. We still can be found singing the 'Bing Bong Bing, Bingy, Bongy Boo' words randomly for absolutely no reason!
There is absolutely no judgement here about giving your child an electronic gadget to play with – we live in a world that thrives via digital means. My daughter is rarely seperated from her phone (but then again neither am I). There was even a study to say that children who can build amazing worlds in minecraft can go on to become incredible micro surgeons because of their quick fingers and reactions. Please don’t quote me but I am sure I read that somewhere and if you want to know more about the benefits of minecraft look here - https://www.idtech.com/blog/educational-benefits-minecraft. This report made me feel so much better about the amount of time my child was playing on the computor! Whether or not you believe it is up to you!
However, when we got offered the chance to stock a more traditional art & craft range from Micador we thought why not! Especially with the whole work from home/home schooling situation over the past months. I fell in love with the genius of Bubabloon - so simple yet so perfect – combining colouring in, a ball, a balloon, reusable, portable – whats not to like and all for under a tenner.
I have got one for me to do next time we go away (whenever that might be!) - luckily no need for stickers anymore! Something to add here – our daughter Sienna was bloody terrified of balloons – ever since one popped near her when she was really young and frightened the hell out of her. This Bubabloon has the balloon inside the fabric so if it does pop the sound is muffled and the bits stay inside so no chance of choking hazards. See a video of the brilliant Bubabloon here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYu5Kik3M8k#action=share
Dan, Sienna and I were trying to remember what games she played with as a small child – the one that sticks out the most was the incredibly annoying and oh so noisy Hungry Hippos game – such fun if you like having a headache!! It’s the kind of game that kids love and parents suffer. Sorry Hasbro!
Love Julie x
PS The irony of the above story about stickers is that I bloody hate the things! Can't bear the stickyness - it really does my OCD head in!! The things we suffer for our kids hey!
