Mum, Dad just broke the private rule..

This post isn't an easy read or very funny. It contains a meaty issue, a paranoid woman who's sometimes on the edge of running away to an Amish village and bringing her kids up in a 'safe' place, and a mental woman in toys r us.

All this thinking started in my head a few days ago, after a certain conversation- the one below- and i wanted to put this out there, to see what people think, to gather advice from other parents. But mainly for someone to say i am not alone.
 

"Mum, Dad just broke the private rule"
Me: What do you mean love? What private rule?
Bobby: "He just touched my bum".

I had 3 initial responses to this. My first was what the chuff is the private rule? Secondly i just wanted to laugh, that it was his dad that had broken the Private rule. Thirdly i was relieved. Relived that what i had been saying to him was going in.

We've been having issues recently, we're trying to teach our son who has no concept of privacy that his "bits" are his bits. That they are private, they are his and no the whole of Morrisons don't want to see them.
 
This is a subject that i think is close to my heart. I worry about bad things happening to my kids. When i say bad things i mean bad things by bad people. We teach our children that there is no such thing as monsters. Yet i know differently. For a fact. There are actual monsters in this world.  Its such a difficult subject to write about, i think because its such a horrific thing. I choose not to think about it, but just because i choose not to think about it,it doesn't mean that its not an issue. I'm not sure what to teach my kids about paedophiles. urgh i cant believe i wrote that word. Obviously i don't want to bring them up to fear people but i think there should be a certain amount of 'stranger danger'.

I read articles about victims and i think how can i stop this happening to my child. When they were both small i could keep them so i was always watching them but now they are getting older I'm not sure i can.

We are staying on a caravan site and i don't like Bobby playing in between the caravans, he ask why and i tell him its because i want him to play where i or his dad can see him. His dad is much more relaxed than me, i want him to be able to roam free too but all i think about is we don't know who is in those caravans. I start to get a bit panicky and make a new rule that the kids can only play on the decking which is around our caravan. I know in my heart of hearts that this restriction has a shelf life. I cant keep my children so close to me all their lives.Nor do i want too. I don't want them to grow up in fear but i want them to grow up empowered.

Also I'm aware of something someone professional told me recently. When you suffer from a type of trauma, and are faced with everyday situations which may trigger a memory of your experience then you may not be able to deal with it in a rational way because a chemical is released in the front of your brain which causes you to panic and you cant see past this situation without relating back to the trauma.Therefor you cant act or think rationally. Or how you would think or act normally. I'm not sure of all the science in this or biology for that matter, I'm just going on what a trusted friend has told me. Plus it makes sense to me. So when i think of how i acted like a mental woman when we lost Bobby in toys r us for a few minutes, i was screaming his name and shouting at people that id lost my son (those poor people!!), It now makes sense to me that all i could think was that someone was walking out the door with him.


Im writing this and thinking "whats the point in sitting here, bringing all these feelings up, no bodys going to want to read this anyway beacuse it will make them feel uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable writing it. I feel vulnerable writing this. No one likes to feel vulnerable. Im sat here at my dads caravan, One of my kids is napping and the other is out walking with his dad, so im putting this post out there. What i want to know is how do other people, parents, grandparents feel about this. do you worry too? Am i on my own in this?

I'm sorry that this post is so rambled. I've hovered over the post button with this post more than any other but this is a bit of an issue for me and i want to know what other people do, what do you teach your kids about strangers or appropriate privacy?  I'm going to link this post to my face book but if you'd rather not comment as that's too public,please message me.

Thank you for reading, Lucy x

Paddling..

Today we stopped by a tiny village called Hutton-le-hoe. There was much confusion of the name as our very yorkshire caravan neighbour recommended it but we though it was Huttonly hole.

It had this gorgeous little stream running through it so we thought it would be rude not to have a little paddle. Here are some photos of us, mainly trying to control George as he was like an absolute nutter trying to race across it,throw himself in and was shouting BAFFF at the top of his lungs,it was VERY slippy! I've no idea how he didn't fall. Bobby got all 'marine biologist' on us and spent most of the time taking water samples(!!).
George also threw his shoe down stream. That had to be my highlight..

Ten on Tuesday, Holiday edition..

1. George is officially one of those kids which, when you let go of their hand they shoot off at 100 miles an hour, in which ever direction they fancy.

2. I am officially one of those mothers who you see flying after her lunatic child.

3. How do people actually manage with more than 2 children? I mean we've got 2 adults and 2 hands so it seems to me that it's obvious how many children we should have. Apart from the longing for a huge family, children running around everywhere, living in a general mad house and wanting my kids to have as many siblings I have.. Hmmm that's the problem.

3. We are on holiday! Huzzah! Thank you God for my dad and his amazing mobile home (caravan) in the best location.

4. The further I go into my motherhood journey the more It's dawning on me how paranoid I am. I worry if my kids go out of my sight for more than a few seconds. I know it's ok even appropriate with George, but Bobby is nearly 5 now.. Does anyone else with blogs worry about wierdos on the internet too? Or am i alone in my paranoia???

5. My brother has spent a good year being operations manager for beacons festival. It was last weekend and he put
us on the guest list. It was brilliant, I was and am very proud.

6. We are going to the seaside tomorrow. Very excited. Then York on Friday. Love holidays.

7. Today George ran at full speed through a cafe straight to the counter, behind the counter and through the kitchens. I was mortified. Every single eye was on me as i did the walk of shame back through the cafe. Every single one.

8. My cousin got married on Friday, it was brilliant. Maaaan my family know how to party. Altogether now.. NEEEEVVEERR FORGET WHERE YOU'VE COME HERE FROM.. It's safe to say we had an absolute ball.

9. If you call your child some sort of posh (poncy, ridiculous) name and you come to Castle Howard for an expensive day out (we have a annual pass ((free obv!)) ) that's fine, I will try really hard not to judge you. But please don't judge my kids. Ever. They are kicking off in the cafe because their hungry, because they've been running around like mad men in the adventure play ground. They have mucky faces because, well same as above. And finally they leg it into a cafe kitchen because, well I'm not too sure but please don't judge me for it.

10. This Ten on Tuesday is created using a blogger app on my iPhone. Excited much. Who knew?!

Ps please ignore my horrendous spelling. I'm not sure how to spell check on my app..

Camping. The photo edition..

Here's a few cheeky photos I took of us camping. We went to a church confrence called New Wine. It was great, I actually really enjoyed camping which totally surprised me! I'm more of a stay in a bed kinda girl..

Ten on Tuesday. Blocked toilets and rude paintings..

1. Our toilet is blocked. B.L.O.C.K.E.D. After a couple of days of trying to unblock it ourselves, Our lovely land lord is coming in the morning to do it. How much are you betting George has thrown something down there?

2. Pete has had a painting sent back to him because one of the little people in the painting had a bit of inappropriate trouser action going on. It was just a smudge when he was painting apparently...

3. Bobby is being so naughty at the moment, we've been a bit slack on pulling him up on things recently due to other stuff going on and it really shows. If we carry on at this rate me and Bobby will not be on speaking terms..

4. Total contrast to the point above we got Bobby's report from nursery yesterday. It was very cute. He is doing very well if anyone is concerned with his education.

5. George has to go for a CT scan of his skull in a couple of weeks and Ive got a feeling he'll have to be still for it. Yeah think we'll be knocking Bear Grills out for that.

6. I'm in a bit of a funny -weird not ha ha- mood tonight, you can probably tell from my writing.So sorry if the blogola is a bit all over the place tonight.

7. Sky1 have been cranking out some cracking comedy recently. Both the shows Stella and Starlings were brilliant. I'm currently watching re runs of the first series of Mount Pleasant, Sally Lindsey is brilliant in it.

8. On Saturday night i will be staying in a very plush apartment in Wakey, having dinner with one of my sisters and my brother, Then sleeping over and actually having a sleep in on Sunday morning!!! Waahoo. Thank you Husbando for looking after the kids and making this possible. Can you tell I'm excited?!

9. I wish i liked to eat Lettuce. And i wish apples tasted like chocolate.

10. After telling my brother that i went to the gynaecologist today he asked me "why? do you want a designer vagina?" Oh how we laughed.



Linking in with lovely Hannah

Ten on Tuesday

1. Sometimes Bobby really does my head in.

2. Other times he is very cute. Bursting out of Sunday school this week he asked his dad really really loudly 'Did you know dad, that God can turn water into beer!!??'

3. George has decided that he no longer wants to use a high chair. Other parents who use a high chair to kinda imprison their toddlers,especially in public will empathise.

4. I went back to slimming world last night, haven't been for a couple of months. I lost 2 stone doing slimming world last year but sort of lost the vision. Now however I'm on it like a car bonnet. You don't want to know what sort of damage Ive done these past couple of months..

5.Love this picture of Bobby and George in Torquay last week.

 6. The Olympic torch came through Halifax last weekend, so we battled the crowds and went to see it.

 Bobby got quite close to the front..

7. I wanted to show a bit of blog love this week and share some of the blogs i love reading. So here's a few. I love this blog, written by a girl called Kate about her sister- Shes just my sister. Hilarious read. I also love A party of seven.Written by Sarah,a mum of 5 and amazing photographer who i know from Liverpool. Lastly check out Nathalie at Easy Peasy Kids,She's a Children's behaviour consultant in Melbourne.

8.What is with the noises that come out of the women tennis players. I mean really?

9.We are coming to the end of west wing soon. I know i will feel bereft when we finish it.

10.I'll leave you with this song.Love it at the moment.

For other 10s check out Sarah Hannah and Helen

Boys, beach huts and saying good bye x

Sadly My husbands grandad passed away a couple of weeks ago. His funeral and thanksgiving service were last week, so we packed our bags, filled the car, phoned nursery to get bobby a week off and travelled down south for 5 days. We tried to treat it as a little holiday, here are some pics..

We stayed in a cute apartment which had the most beautiful gardens,

Perfect for the kids to play in, Trees to climb..

 

Cricket to play..

 

And best of all very close to the beach..

 The beach huts provided lots of entertainment..

 Boo!

 Great grandparents x

Typical British weather!

 The sea!!

 Love this photo, He wrote his name with a stick. I know its a bit sad but this makes me very proud!!

 

One of the bestest best things was  having a baysitter so i could have a cheeky date night with my man!

  

Little drink down at Torquay harbor. It was lush.

 Saying good bye,


A month ago we went to visit Grandad Chapple in hospital, He was his lovely chatty self. I think however he sensed it was time to say good bye. We both left the ward in tears. He told Pete how proud he was of him and how much of a great artist he was. He loved seeing our boys. He was such a good man. And his legacy lives on in his grandson and his great grandsons. I for one am proud to have his name.

This is his house which he designed (he was an architect) and built. We went on Thursday after his thanksgiving service. It was lovely to show our kids the house where Pete had spent much of his childhood.