Can someone please explain to me why it is such a problem to have three kids in a hotel room with you?
99% of hotels will allow two adults & two children and if you have a third child, you have to get an extra room which makes a family holiday extremely expensive. I understand Michael O’Leary’s (Ryanair) frustration with the €10 travel tax, but I would think that having to double the cost of your hotel accommodation because you exceed the child allowance is certainly a bigger financial consideration for a lot of families when choosing a holiday destination.
Ireland has so much to offer families spending their holidays here. Given the apparent availability of hotel rooms during the recession it might be an idea to consider knocking through a couple of walls to make connecting rooms with a family rate rather charge for two rooms.
Countless studies have concluded that food additives can have an adverse reaction in children who have a sensitivity to artificial chemicals in food. Children who are easy to manage and well behaved can suffer a personality change following ingestion of a cocktail of additives that are found in everyday treats as well as in our normal weekly food shop.
I am not an expert in this area so my opinions are purely based on my experience of raising a child who certainly has a high sensitivity to food additives. While all additives used in foods are approved (otherwise they would not be allowed to use them) I strongly believe that insufficient testing has been completed on the combination of consuming multiple additives. I also believe that they build up in the system as it is practically impossible to avoid them completely.
If plain solid additive free food is not eaten regularly to in some way counterbalance, the result is a child who really has very little control over his/her behaviour and all the books, advise, cajoling and negotiating will get a parent/carer absolutely nowhere until their digestive system has processed it.
Perhaps the next time you are tempted to judge a screaming, kicking child in a supermarket or wherever, try not to automatically assume that they are simply being difficult out of choice, it may well have been something they ate!
Articles that may be of interest:
12 Food Additives to Avoid by Jean Weiss for MSN Health & Fitness
http://health.msn.com/nutrition/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100204508
Food Additives
http://www.vhi.ie/hfiles/hf-465p.jsp
Thanks to Mari who introduced me to www.hillbillyhousewife.com. It’s a great site for everything from family recipes, to menu planning and especially for great suggestions on how to use those food items that stalk the back of your cupboard waiting to be chosen.
Recently I came across a lovely idea for a rainy day or a sunny day. Get out just one box of Family Pictures. Many of us look at a box of family pictures the same way we look at a sink full of dirty dishes; just another task that needs doing. If pulling out a box of pictures makes you tense up, don’t panic.
This is not about starting the frustrating and time consuming project of organizing your pictures, it’s just about enjoying them. So just grab a pile of pictures today, any old pile that makes you happy and take a trip through your life, your family’s life, your dog’s life, your cat’s life or anywhere you can find a smile or two.
And when you’ve finished, put them all back just the way you found them, without feeling guilty that you didn’t create a neat album with your pictures. Because, the truth is, you did create something… you created a wonderful warm moment for yourself.
Caring for children, particularly pre-school children, while rewarding, can also be very isolating and lonely with little opportunity to meet other parents/carers.
The outing to meet your friend for a coffee with your little darlings can turn into a torture trip as kids generally have little patience for their parent’s social needs.
Well, next time why not meet at Chuckies and let the kids play while you café. Relax and enjoy catching up with a friend or simply allow yourself the indulgence of that elusive 5 minutes peace to savour your cuppa.
Did you know that testing your skills on the Rodeo Bull is an excellent way of improving your balance? It is not easy to do. To get up on it requires you to bounce a few times to gain height and then to co-ordinate a jump so that you will land on the bull’s back.
At Chuckies, our aim is to keep you on the Rodeo Bull as it moves so as to build confidence and we will only go at a speed that the child is comfortable at. Once you start moving, it’s like the thrill of the rollercoaster, it’s scary but it’s fun.
Kids are concentrating so hard on shifting their weight, their legs and their arms in order to stay on, that it isn’t until the bull stops that they allow themselves that beaming smile of satisfaction. It’s quite an achievement and who would have thought that leaning a new skill could be such fun!!
Play is the most important thing a young child can do. It is vital to a child’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, creative and language development. It is a powerful learning vehicle and centrally important to a child’s healthy development. It exercises the brain as well as the body.
Energetic Play can help combat obesity and helps a hyperactive child to expel their excess energy and express themselves. Play helps a child to make friends and to learn about interacting with other children. The value of Play cannot be underestimated.
At Chuckies, we have chosen play equipment which is designed to enhance the play experience for children of all abilities because real Play, imaginative play, takes place in a child’s mind, we simply provide the platform to allow them to get on with the business of being a child.
