The Parenting Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

This thread is for the discussion of parenting; to pool together the collective knowledge and experience of members who are already parents and perhaps assist those of us who are aspiring to become parents in the future. :)

The following is an article from "Sydney's Free Child", a free magazine for parents published by Web Child (http://www.webchild.com.au/).

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In Other Words

Many parents in Australia are raising their children to speak two or more languages, writes Klay Lamprell.

Dinner conversation att he Soave household could be a little confusing if you only speak English. Italian-born Alex Soave and her German-born husband Alexander are raising their children, Leon, Oliver and Penelope, to be trilingual. "I only ever speak Italian to them and Alexander only ever speaks German. The children speak all three languages to each other, depending on the situation."

Alex says that she and Alexander used the languages of their different heritages from birth with their children, now aged six, four and two. "We want our children to speak easily with their family overseas, some of whom don't speak English, and we want them to be culturally aware."

According to British linguist David Graddol, parents who raise their children to be multilingual are not only teaching cultural sensitivity, they are also providing an employment advantage. In his comprehensive report on the future of the English language, English Next, Graddol says that the majority of the world's population is already multilingual. Speaking English and at least one other language is fast becoming the norm. He comments that young people in countries like Australia, whose educational system does not strongly promote multilingual fluency, "face a bleak economic future."

Multilingualism advocate Professor Michael Clyne, author of Australia's Language Potential, says that in addition to employment opportunities, numerous studies point to the cognitive benefits of raising children to be multilingual. "Children who develop more than one language early develop an extended range of ways of understanding language," comments Clyne. "They are more versed in the principles of language and ultimately may do better in English than monolingual children."

Clyne, who was born and raised bilingually in Australia and raised his child to be bilingual, says that monolingual children and bilingual children develop different ways of understanding representational symbols. "If you ask bilingual four to six year olds whether you could call a dog a cow, tehy are likely to think, 'There could be another language in which a dog is called a cow.' Monolingual children will tend to think it is just a silly idea. Bilingual children, when they can't express something in one language, switch to the other language, so they become more divergent thinkers.

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Alex and Alexander are essentially practising a method of raising children multilingually known as "une-personne; une langue" ("one person, one language") system as per the studies of Maurice Grammont and Jules Ronjat (Reference (http://www.opol4us.com/grammont/index.html)). I've personally seen it work with some parents and their kids. My wife and I have discussed how we could apply this theory to raise our own future child(ren?) trilingually.

[roller]

The Prof. Roller Academy of parenting and social engineering says on their homepage:


"if your going to be naughty your gonna get whacked!"

its worked for the past 2000+ years, you gotta teach em discipline boy!

None of this namby pamby negotiations or bribes of sweets

1. teach your kids another language young, dont deprive them of being excluded in the playground gangs, if you dont speak the lingo, your out!

2. Make sure your kid knows everything about modern technology, if not, little Timmy wont be a successful lawyer,politician,business tycoon

3.Even if your kid is in the wrong, stand by them and claim that by saying otherwise is an affront to your parenting skills, then they'll let joey off and issue you an apology

4. Being bossman No.1 is crucial in this era. Hold the most extravagant birthday party-doesn't matter if there only 2 yrs old, you will wow the other parents and may eventually be permitted into the country club.

Finally, always mix with the right crowd

oh, and get your in laws to help. this way you avoid changing smelly nappies-this enables you more time to play with TFs

:)

[Saintly]

bi-lingual if possible.

have the in-laws or parents nearby. the quality of childcare is detoriating.

was talking to a friend's wife. she had started toilet training once she came back from the hospital her daughter. make those sounds. some babies are naturally talented that way. she said she is a bad mother.

men, be prepare to do the night-shift if bottle-fed. may get away with 1 feed during the night if you time it well.

the first sh-t always smells the worst!

[GoktimusPrime]

The Prof. Roller Academy of parenting and social engineering says on their homepage:


"if your going to be naughty your gonna get whacked!"

its worked for the past 2000+ years, you gotta teach em discipline boy!
I basically agree with that - though not literally. I'm an advocate of Choice Reality (http://www.choicetheory.com/) as the basis of behaviour management. It's all about teaching responsibility.

[roller]

such thinking...can only lead to the Dark side of the force

[Vector Sigma 13]

Ahhh if only it was that easy.... :confused:

[GoktimusPrime]

When it comes to behaviour management with students (and even my cat) - I find that being very persistent helps. You gotta be consistent too. If something is against your rule, then it's always against the rules - no exceptions. As Ultra Magnus says, "Consistency is the key to victory."

Yeah... last time I had a student teacher I told her to read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. She laughed at the suggestion but later took my advice and found it quite useful. :)

I have all these theories about parenting, much of which is based on my experience in teaching, but of course, none of it from actual parenting experience (since I'm not a parent yet). Time will tell if I'll stick with my current theories or completely change them. In my graduate paper I spoke against streamlining classes and selective schooling - but since I started actually teaching I've done a complete 180 and I now support those things. So it's possible that I might do a 180 on some of my parenting theories too... I won't know until I become a parent of course. As Kup says, "Experience lad, you should learn to appreciate it."

Everything in life you can learn from Transformers. :)

[liegeprime]

1. Always have a box of gloves and rediwipes... man, it's quite unsanitary cleaning poopies with bare hands yah know.

2. Dont whack a kid in the wrong just anywhere - ONLY in the buttocks, have them lie face down and give one smack at the buttocks, doesnt have to be strong whack, just very AUDIBLE one - THIS works more of a psychological effect not a physical one, THEN after the whack ask them why they got a smack, let them answer dont feed the answers, this way THEY know what they did was wrong. Start early not when their like 5-6 yrs old, by these age as the old Filo saying " the bones have already set" - wont make much of a difference no matter how you whack sense into them.

3. Give your children boundaries, otherwise they will just continue to test your limits and if you always just give in, that's no discipline AT ALL. YOU as parents WILL PAY for this in the future.... either by being disgraced or by having to live with uncontrollable self centered SOBs

4. Watch what your kids are watching and eating.....

5. Always let them know who's the boss - if youve been watching supernanny - no matter how she explains it, it boils down to that. The kids are out of control coz the supposed bosses ( parents) of the house are manipulated always to give in to the mewlings of the kids, uh uh. Clearly define what their role is and what your role is in the household. This also works with dogs and other sociable pets ( except fish for obvious reasons:p)

6. Understand that there is a "no" period in childhood - around ages terrible two and troublesome three. This is a normal phase of children learning to assert themselves so Dont overdo it by giving them a whack and saying "bad boy" to everytime, learn to differentiate which "NO" is valid and which one if left uncheck will lead to having a juvie in the future - stop saying/thinking as well "aww isnt that cute, he/she's saying NO" - that's a little monster in the making if left unchecked.


Disclaimer:
I for one am NOT a parent and have no intention ATM of being one. But these tidbits of info are gleaned from aunts/uncles and my mom ;) so I know it works. If it was ever just me, my discipline would involve a rope and a heavy rock and a boat in the middle of sydney harbor ----"So you don't wanna eat your veggies ei? Throw a tantrum and embarrass me in front of everyone in the department store ei? Sayonara baby - we can always make another one:D its the fun part anyway" :p:p;):o I certainly have "NOOOOO" patience and tolerance for kids.

edit: added a crucial word in the last sentence ;)

[GoktimusPrime]

1. Always have a box of gloves and rediwipes... man, it's quite unsanitary cleaning poopies with bare hands yah know.
Bah! That's a woman's job! <chauvanistic.chortle.with.pipe.in.hand> :D :p


2. Dont whack a kid in the wrong just anywhere - ONLY in the buttocks, have them lie face down and give one smack at the buttocks, doesnt have to be strong whack, just very AUDIBLE one - THIS works more of a psychological effect not a physical one, THEN after the whack ask them why they got a smack, let them answer dont feed the answers, this way THEY know what they did was wrong. Start early not when their like 5-6 yrs old, by these age as the old Filo saying " the bones have already set" - wont make much of a difference no matter how you whack sense into them.

Yeah - that's part of choice reality therapy. Rather than saying, "Don't do that! That's bad!" you ask them, "Why do you think that might not be a good thing to do?" "How could you do it better next time?" etc. It also elicits them to think about their actions rather than have you dictate to them what they can and cannot do all the time. It also helps them understand why your rules exist.


3. Give your children boundaries, otherwise they will just continue to test your limits and if you always just give in, that's no discipline AT ALL. YOU as parents WILL PAY for this in the future.... either by being disgraced or by having to live with uncontrollable self centered SOBs
Absolutely. And children actually like boundaries really. Sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind.


4. Watch what your kids are watching and eating.....
I agree. Our computers are in the lounge room which is where I intend to keep them. No way would I allow them to have computers in their bedrooms.


5. Always let them know who's the boss - if youve been watching supernanny - no matter how she explains it, it boils down to that. The kids are out of control coz the supposed bosses ( parents) of the house are manipulated always to give in to the mewlings of the kids, uh uh. Clearly define what their role is and what your role is in the household. This also works with dogs and other sociable pets ( except fish for obvious reasons)
Supernanny's great - another great example of choice reality in action. She always makes the kids know that there are always consequences for their actions. Good deeds are rewarded (e.g.: praise, awards, points etc.) and bad deeds are punished (e.g.: time-outs ("naughty corner")). She's fantastic. :) And it's always interesting watching her work with the same children as their parents - kids who are absolute devils whom she quickly turns around into angels - all from teaching them this thing called responsibility!


6. Understand that there is a "no" period in childhood - around ages terrible two and troublesome three. This is a normal phase of children learning to assert themselves so Dont overdo it by giving them a whack and saying "bad boy" to everytime, learn to differentiate which "NO" is valid and which one if left uncheck will lead to having a juvie in the future - stop saying/thinking as well "aww isnt that cute, he/she's saying NO" - that's a little monster in the making if left unchecked.
Those are acts of direct and open defiance and insolence. Absolutely no way for a child to talk to an adult. Part of the Positive Behaviour Learning programme (based on Glasser Choice Reality theory) that a lot of schools are implementing now emphasises the use of positive cues rather than negative ones (e.g.: saying "No!"). So instead of saying, "No running!" when kids bolt past me in the corridor I say, "Walking!" - still in a loud stern voice, but I'm not using a negative cue. It's not always possible at all times (because often we are reprimanding children spontaneously and unscripted) - but yeah, it's good to try and avoid being too negative in correcting kids as they pick it up and will turn it back on you.


"So you don't wanna eat your veggies ei? Throw a tantrum and embarrass me in front of everyone in the department store ei? Sayonara baby - we can always make another one its the fun part anyway" I certainly have patience and tolerance for kids.
Or do what that mother did in that TV commercial and have a bigger tantrum on the supermarket floor! I loved that "What'choo got?!" look she gave to the kid too when she finished. :)

[roller]

i can smell hormones in this thread

parental hormones!

[liegeprime]

Bah! Sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind.


Cant I just be cruel and leave it at that:D:p what's this BS about being kind.;)

Oh and Ive edited my post btw, I forgot the BIG NOOOOOOO on patience and tolerance part for kids, sorry about that.:o I like cute fat cuddly babies but once they start becoming annoying kids, nah, cant have that!

[MV75]

This is how it goes and the transformation:

Pre-pregnant: (idealistic)

We'll do this and this and other (insert whatever flowery wanky thing here) for our child

Post-birth: (bogan)

Aww little shite keeps me up all night, no time to do anything. Now where the F--- is our government payments for havin' this kid? We need a new plasma to unwind in front of while the kid is sleepin', f---'n centerlink.

[turtle boy]

If you don't want to buy your child toys cause you will steel them. Door knobs and light switches are an excellent substitute. I do that with my mates child, he wants to touch my tfs. I show him the light switch or door knob and he forgets the toys completely.

[liegeprime]

Ooooh look kid a blender!!:D:D

[The_Damned]

i just wing it as every day is a new adventure...

[MV75]

Ooooh look kid a blender!!:D:D

Will it blend? Take uncle turtles toys and find out!

[Bartrim]

I find that kids (well atleast my kid) is only interested in a toy until they know how it works. My son has a sh*tload of toys he doesn't use because he has worked them out and he'd rather be outside with me cleaning/working on my car/pool/bbq, doing the mowing whatever the weekend chore may be.

Maybe it's the way I've raised my son but having a child is very full on. I can't understand these people who have kids just for the government money. They must have very docile children or great babysitting contacts.

PARENTAL BRAG COMING UP

Although my son is very full on and ALOT of work I am proud to say he is 2 years old can say the alphabet, count to 15 in English, 10 in italian, knows about 20-25 words in Italian and their English translation. (Not saying he only says 25 words. He only says 25 words in Italian) has advanced passed basic nursery rhymes and prefers to sing songs like "Farmer in the Dell" and knows the basic fundamentals of driving a car.

[Vector Sigma 13]

i just wing it as every day is a new adventure...

Now theres someone with a sense of adventure!

Seems you can try to program or manipulate your kids into becoming whatever ya want them too. Doesnt always work though. I think its just better to encourage them at whatever they want to do and try to give good guidance.

In all truth toys are crack for kids- that doesnt mean they dont get any but i see much better results/ outcomes from giving my kids good life experiences and encouraging them to know that the world is their oyster and will be what they make it.

I think Bartrim mentioned his son enjoys going out and helping him with dad stuff- these are the experiences that your child will remember (and hopefully cherish) for the rest of his/ her life.

Oh and while we are on the topic of advice- let it be know that two kids are easy and three are not.

Ill let you know what having four is like in July!:confused:

[GoktimusPrime]

Yer a suckah for punishment. ;) :D <friendly.ribbing> :)

Great to hear such positive comments from people's experience as parents, and very heartwarming to see Bartrim beam with parental pride. Your son sounds like he has an amazing sense of duty and responsibility at such a young age. And you _should_ be proud... in my experience as a teacher I've learnt that in the majority of cases, kids are the way they are because of their parents.

Crap parents = crap kids, Good parents = good kids

And kids are usually much easier to teach when they have good supportive parents who instill them with a strong sense of self-responsibility. So thumbs up to you Bartrim and all other parents who are doing this for their kids! :) If more parents were like you guys, my job would be a LOT easier. ;)

[Vector Sigma 13]

Yer a suckah for punishment. ;) :D <friendly.ribbing> :)

Crap parents = crap kids, Good parents = good kids

And kids are usually much easier to teach when they have good supportive parents who instill them with a strong sense of self-responsibility.
;)

Youve hit the nail; on the head with that comment!

Ive got a few teacher mates that would agree with you on that one totally!:)

And yes im a sucker for punishment and yes i have a lot more grey hair now but its worth it!:D

[Golden Phoenix]

Crap parents = crap kids, Good parents = good kids

And kids are usually much easier to teach when they have good supportive parents who instill them with a strong sense of self-responsibility.
Ah if only common sense was common

[Bartrim]

Yer a suckah for punishment. ;) :D <friendly.ribbing> :)

Great to hear such positive comments from people's experience as parents, and very heartwarming to see Bartrim beam with parental pride. Your son sounds like he has an amazing sense of duty and responsibility at such a young age. And you _should_ be proud... in my experience as a teacher I've learnt that in the majority of cases, kids are the way they are because of their parents.

Crap parents = crap kids, Good parents = good kids

And kids are usually much easier to teach when they have good supportive parents who instill them with a strong sense of self-responsibility. So thumbs up to you Bartrim and all other parents who are doing this for their kids! :) If more parents were like you guys, my job would be a LOT easier. ;)


Thanks Gok. I often have doubts about my parenting ability because my kid has a wild temper when things don't go his way (mainly due to my dad letting him get away with blue murder) but overall he understands right from wrong. He hits or kicks me or deliberately tips his food out he knows he gets 2 minutes in the cot then has to say "sowwy" and give me a cuddle or if he's naughty while we are visiting Grandma and Poppy or Nonna and Nonno that we go straight home.

But I'll continue to try to lead by example and make sure my boy stays an Autobot and doesn't become a decepticon.

[Saintly]

Thanks Gok. I often have doubts about my parenting ability because my kid has a wild temper when things don't go his way (mainly due to my dad letting him get away with blue murder) but overall he understands right from wrong. He hits or kicks me or deliberately tips his food out he knows he gets 2 minutes in the cot then has to say "sowwy" and give me a cuddle or if he's naughty while we are visiting Grandma and Poppy or Nonna and Nonno that we go straight home.

But I'll continue to try to lead by example and make sure my boy stays an Autobot and doesn't become a decepticon.


I can relate to that. I caught my 2yr old hitting his 9yr old brother then blames his 9yr old brother for hitting him... I send him straight to the timeout area with him kicking and screaming

[1orion2many]

Yer a suckah for punishment. ;) :D <friendly.ribbing> :)

Great to hear such positive comments from people's experience as parents, and very heartwarming to see Bartrim beam with parental pride. Your son sounds like he has an amazing sense of duty and responsibility at such a young age. And you _should_ be proud... in my experience as a teacher I've learnt that in the majority of cases, kids are the way they are because of their parents.

Crap parents = crap kids, Good parents = good kids

And kids are usually much easier to teach when they have good supportive parents who instill them with a strong sense of self-responsibility. So thumbs up to you Bartrim and all other parents who are doing this for their kids! :) If more parents were like you guys, my job would be a LOT easier. ;)

That is a generalisation which I consider very poor Gok, once kids reach a certain age their behaviour is more to do with the social group they associate with and less to do with their parents. If you blame parents for everything that there children do i consider you very short sighted(which I don't believe you are).

[Bartrim]

That is a generalisation which I consider very poor Gok, once kids reach a certain age their behaviour is more to do with the social group they associate with and less to do with their parents. If you blame parents for everything that there children do i consider you very short sighted(which I don't believe you are).

I imagine that could be true but since I only have a 2year old his social circle doesn't really effect his behaviour.

This is the reason as to why I'm scared if we have a daughter. If she grows up to be a pretty and popular (by social standards) teenager then I'm concerned I'll be such an "old fart" not letting her do things that she wants to. Honestly if some of these teenage girls I see when out and about were my daughter I'd be having pink fits.

[1orion2many]

I understand you have a younger child bartman but Goks comments were as i said a generalisation which I strongly dislike and disagree with. I wont have any teenage daughters after this year:o, still have a teenage son:rolleyes:.

[turtle boy]

Will it blend? Take uncle turtles toys and find out!

Just try it! :D It's more like daddy turtle atm:( I look after him all the time and mummy looks after me;) LOL
If he blended one of my toys, I'd be both very angry and very impressed ahhah.

[Vector Sigma 13]

I guess parental opinion is relevant to the age of your kids. I find as my three get older (eldest has just turned 5) i have to re adjust my tactics as their character changes/ matures that little bit.

Lol, its good if you like surprises! I must admit though i do look forward to when each child shows a new talent or attitude, keeps life interesting. My eldest is just at that age where he pretty much looks after himself which is quite good.

My middle son has Down syndrome which can throw a few challenges up every once in awhile and although he generally is no different to the others he does have some health issues and is probably a little slower than the others. I tell ya i could write a book about his life journey (and hes only three)! But ive seen some kids that are "normal" which have more issues than he does.

Bartrim, I wouldnt panic too much about the hitting- he may well grow out of it. My five year old went through a stage like that and the two little fellas are are going through it now. They dont call them the terrible twos for nothing!

[GoktimusPrime]

Yes, my previous comments were just a very broad generalisation; based on my personal observation and experience - and as a teacher, not a parent. So while I am eager to learn more about the world of parenting I sadly have no experience in this field. Yet. ;)

And I have come across quite a few exceptions to that generalisation, and I honestly do feel very sorry when I see good, caring and very supportive parents at their wit's end dealing with very challenging behaviour from their kids. But in my observation/experience the generalisation is true for the majority of kids I come across. It's not to say that they're all like that though.

I don't blame parents for everything when it comes to kids - ultimately everyone is responsible for themselves - but I think that parents certainly do play a very large role in shaping what kind of person a child will become. I suppose it's the whole "nature vs. nurture" argument.


once kids reach a certain age their behaviour is more to do with the social group they associate with and less to do with their parents.
That's a very good point. Glasser's Choice Therapy basically says not to look at children as necessarily good or bad people, but to examine the choices that they make as good or bad decisions.

I know the frustration of seeing kids make unfortunate decisions despite everything you do for them. But ultimately it's their lives - and they have to live with the consequences of their decisions, for better or worse. That's life. And sometimes kids need to make the wrong decisions in order to learn things (after all, Albert Einstein failed school ;)).


still have a teenage son
I have fond memories of meeting your son. Seemed like a decent young man to me. :) :)

[turtle boy]

once kids reach a certain age their behaviour is more to do with the social group they associate with and less to do with their parents. If you blame parents for everything that there children do i consider you very short sighted(which I don't believe you are).

You see. For me, when I was growing up, my dad was never around, he was out in his truck paying the bills and all that stuff. Fare enough. But, me not having a farther figure for the first 10 years of my life did affect me, I'll be honest, it did. I wont go into it, but I do blame him in some ways, cause when he was home, all he did was come down from the high that the speed gave him he used to stay awake. And slept until he needed food or to go back to work.

While I was getting older, 12, 13 and 14, I was out with my friends skating, dad didn't see the point of it. So yelled at me for it, and when he did try take interest, he didn't do a very good job, he just nodded and said mmm but never even looked at me or asked questions.
Now from what I remember, I didn't like that at all, and in the end when I actually got attention from him, be it good or bad, I was happy. There was more bad then good cause doing stupid/bad things would get his attention before anything good ever did. So I started to mess up at school, when I went. I lashed out at most people.

Later on in life, the present time, My dad and I are good mates at the best of times, we still argue and i tell him to get f***ed, he does the same, then an hour later we're drinking beer together working on our car, He still hates the skating and the transformers, (only cause it wont benefit him in anyway shape or form... Ever) And he knows it. He still does the fake interest thing, he asks how work was, I tell him, I could stop mid sentence and he wouldn't notice.
But all in all, even though he didn't have anything to do with me for 10 years, another 5 of them years I severely hated him, and now 6 years on, we are mates.

So it's no always the people the child hangs around with, its a whole mess of things that affect them from say 2 years of age up to 16.

[loophole]

also what you are eating can affect children as well because in my young primary school days i was little s**t. I always getting into trouble and generally causing having havoc where ever i went, i got the wooden spoon alot :D

but anyway at some point i had alot of allergy testing done to me and it was found out that i was allergic to quite a few things but the biggy was MSG which can be found in alot of chips and that sort of stuff. After removing MSG from my diet i calmed down right down and i wasnt causing as much trouble as i was, and generally being a good little boy that i should of been.

[Bartrim]

I have a similar relationship with my dad TB. I saw my dad for maybe 2months a year while growing up as he was out fishing from Port Lincoln to Hobart then up to Port Stephens. and our relationship isn't very good at the best of times. We argue constantly about raising my son as he has very little idea because of what little time he spent with us kids growing up. I don't want to blame him completely but all of us (me, my brother and my sister) have all had problems in the past. My brother and I are well adjusted now (except for my whole collecting toys thing:D)but my sister still has plenty of issues.

Actually out of the fans that around the world quite a few have father issues. Guess thats why we are fans of transformers. Optimus Prime comes across as such a strong leader/father figure.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, definitely it's all kinds of things that helps mould a child: genetics, parents, friends, diet, poverty/wealth etc. - it's a mixed bag. Genetics is something you can't help, it's a lotto. As parents we can help teach them how to make the right decisions in life. We can help give them a good diet and in early years we have a say over their friends (Bartrim, your son does have a social life right now, it's you (and your wife)!) - and hopefully when they get older we can trust them to choose good friends (part of making right decisions). And a lot of this comes from modelling good behaviour too.


Now from what I remember, I didn't like that at all, and in the end when I actually got attention from him, be it good or bad, I was happy. There was more bad then good cause doing stupid/bad things would get his attention before anything good ever did. So I started to mess up at school, when I went. I lashed out at most people.
That's becoming an increasing problem - a lot of kids who feel neglected become desperate for attention, any kind of attention, and desperately seek it. And like you said, bad attention would be better than no attention at all (Corey Worthington (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23063147-2,00.html) is an example of a shameless attention seeker). I think that's the important of enforcing positive attention. Most kids would much rather receive praise and reward rather than punishment - but in the absence of consistent praise and reward they might turn to seek punishment purely as a form of attention seeking.

A lot of parents and educators go by the adage of "spare the rod spoil the child," and while I do think there's a lot of truth in the importance of negative reinforcement for inappropriate behaviour, there's the other adage of, "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" - which is the importance of positive reinforcement for good behaviour. As adults we do become sharply attuned to catching kids out for being bad, like a radar sense. I know I certainly do that in my work. But we also need to remind ourselves to catch kids out for being good too - and it's often harder to do because good behaviour doesn't grab your attention as much as bad behaviour. It's a balancing/juggling act.

[Saintly]

you got that right, Gok!

I going through the stages with saintly legend about attention seeking who does alot of good for most times but when it comes to "increase praises" he throws a bad day in the mix and I feel that he could be looking for something more than the average praise!?!?

[GoktimusPrime]

Choice Reality isn't foolproof. In my experience I find that it works by making the assumption that the subject cares and deep down wants to do the right thing, which most people do most of the time. But of course, we're dealing with children who are not always rational. It's the very reason why children don't have the same liberties and rights that adults do (e.g.: cannot vote, forced to attend school etc.). Adults are rational agents; children on the other hand are quasi-rational agents (sadly some immature adults too :/).

There are often times when - at the time you are attempting to counsel with a child - they just don't give a damn. And it's times like this where I find Glasser/Choice-Reality kinda falls short. There are some times when I find it better to go old-school and fall back to the old authoritarian model - tell them to shut up and do as they're told.

As I mentioned in post #7, managing behaviour in children requires a lot of tactical and strategical thinking and manoeuvring - hence why I told my former student-teacher to read The Art of War. You need to be able to quickly assess a situation and think about which strategy you need to use. A kid's not being cooperative, should you go hard and yell at them or go soft and reason with them? It depends on a whole lot of things like what's actually occured to lead to this situation, their emotional state, your emotional state, what the actual misbehaviour is etc etc etc. It's too simple to say that there's one method that works all the time in every situation.

And I've found that some methods work better with some teachers than others; and with some students than others. I imagine that parenting might be similar - those of you who have more than one children may have found that a certain tactic might work really well with one of your kids, but less so on their sibling - so you need to use a different strategy with them.

I remember talking to my cousin about this, and he thought that the comparison of behaviour management with military tactics was a bit far fetched. I then compared it with sport strategy (e.g.: football, basketball etc.) - you need to know when to play aggressively, when to play defensively, when to maintain possession of the ball or when to pass etc. He immediately understood what I was saying after I made that analogy. :) And I find it's the same with managing kids - sometimes it's better to be the "good guy" and go soft and try and reason with them, other times it's better to be the "bad guy" and just yell at them. All depends on the situation.

One good thing about teaching teenagers is that they seldomly cry when they get in trouble... cos I'm a big softy and when kids cry in front of me I want to cry too - but I gotta maintain a tough exterior and keep chastising or yelling at them... you just remind yourself that it's for their own good. And I believe it is... I can't stand kids who are spoiled rotten and can "do no wrong" in the eyes of their parents. Not surprisingly they're also _very_ painful children to teach.

[turtle boy]

My brother and I are well adjusted now (except for my whole collecting toys thing:D)but my sister still has plenty of issues.

Actually out of the fans that around the world quite a few have father issues. Guess thats why we are fans of transformers. Optimus Prime comes across as such a strong leader/father figure.

My brother and sister have both known my dad longer then myself, and I'm the eldest.
My brother and dad argue all the time, but only cause he gets spoiled and never gets in trouble from parents.
He also gets given pretty much everything he wants, cause my dad wants to live thew him cause of his mx riding.
My sister, I don't even consider her a sister anymore, by name only.

With the optimus thing, I totally agree. One reason I think I held prime a farther figure, is he's a truck, my dads a truck driver, my dad's a big bloke(strong), as is prime.

[Burn]

If there's one thing i've learnt about raising kids, what works for one parent doesn't work for another. Some methods may work perfectly for some, and only help out a little for another. Kids, are bloody unique and very much have their own minds.

Just because they're young without any degrees or certificates, does NOT make them idiots. Talking to them, not in an adult way, but not belittling them either, goes a long way.

That, and you really shouldn't spoil them ... well not too much anyway.

Tough love also doesn't hurt either. Send 'em to the naughty corner, take their favourite toy off them, whatever gets the message through that they've done something wrong, but take whatever moment you can get to remind 'em how much you love 'em.

[GoktimusPrime]

If there's one thing i've learnt about raising kids, what works for one parent doesn't work for another. Some methods may work perfectly for some, and only help out a little for another. Kids, are bloody unique and very much have their own minds.
Too true. You gotta find what works for both you and the kid. The results matter more than the method.

I guess it's kinda like when people ask me which is the best kind of martial art to learn. In the end, it's whatever works for you. i.e.: if you can fight with it, then it works. ;)

[Burn]

And sometimes the most simple things, are the most enjoyable.

Like today, teaching my nephew how to make a toasted chicken and cheese sandwhich, it's a simple thing to do but damn it's fun teaching him to do it! :D

[Bartrim]

.
My sister, I don't even consider her a sister anymore, by name only.



I know where you are coming there TB

[turtle boy]

I know where you are coming there TB

Yeah, it's not a nice thing, but how it is sometimes.

My dad an I had an argument today, it was over something stupid. He told my brother to mow the lawn. My brother said no, so, my dad, told me to do it.

I'd have no problems with this, except that he did nothing to my brother for saying no the way he did.

I remember when I was about 13. My mate and I, we were bored
We bust out the Nintendo 64, Tom(my mate) had found his Rumble Pack, we used some battery's from a remote. We had gone back to Tom's house. Dad rings up screaming about the battery's and grounds me for a month, for taking battery's. I asked mum first.

My brother speaks to him like he's a joke. Nothing happens to him, and i get told to do his job, I take battery's, get grounded for a month.
Any one see any sense in that at all?

[jacksplatt11]

Any one see any sense in that at all?

I'm sure Gok has read a book or a theory about it

[turtle boy]

I'm sure Gok has read a book or a theory about it

lol:D

[Vector Sigma 13]

If there's one thing i've learnt about raising kids, what works for one parent doesn't work for another. Some methods may work perfectly for some, and only help out a little for another. Kids, are bloody unique and very much have their own minds.

Just because they're young without any degrees or certificates, does NOT make them idiots. Talking to them, not in an adult way, but not belittling them either, goes a long way.

That, and you really shouldn't spoil them ... well not too much anyway.

Tough love also doesn't hurt either. Send 'em to the naughty corner, take their favourite toy off them, whatever gets the message through that they've done something wrong, but take whatever moment you can get to remind 'em how much you love 'em.


Couldnt agree more!

[Thanatos]

See this has been a very interesting read for me because unlike many of you, I'm actually the child of the relationship, seeings as I'm only 19 and live at home (Ah, the joys of the uni lifestyle).

That aside, a lot of what everyone says in this thread is totally true, because there is no proper way to raise a child as each child is such a unique little being. I know for a fact that my mother used a totally different style to raise me in comparison to my siblings, as each one is just so different. Similar traits, but just different ways to manage each one.

That and I do Psychology at uni and this stuff is very fascinating.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'd like to remind some folks here about the original intention of this thread being: "This thread is for the discussion of parenting; to pool together the collective knowledge and experience of members who are already parents and perhaps assist those of us who are aspiring to become parents in the future." - let's try to keep things on topic.

Also, as I've already stated before, I'm not a parent nor am I any kind of expert on parenting. I'm not trying to present myself as anything of the sort. In fact, I made this thread so that I could learn more about parenting from members here who are already parents. Now of course I have several ideas and theories (re: dreams) about parenting... but these are just my personal opinions - I am not trying to present myself as some kind of expert on the matter.

I do have some expertise and experience when it comes to the behaviour management of adolescents because it's part of my job. It's something that I studied at a post-graduate level and continue to study in my line of work. I also use these theories in practice. Having said that, I fully understand that while there are some similarities between teaching and parenting (parents are a child's first teachers and teachers sometimes act as surrogate parents), there are also many differences too. Please don't think that I'm trying to naively suggest that everything that works in teaching must work in parenting and vice versa - I know that this isn't true. I think that there are some things that are the same, but there are also numerous things which are not. So I'd like to point out that I'm not here to 'preach' parenting to anyone - I'm actually here to learn from those of you who are already parents.

Time will tell me how much of my current personal theories/ideas about parenting will prove to be applicable or not in the future. I'm more than willing to change and adapt my outlook on parenting as experience teaches me. For example, when I was a university student I had several theories and ideas about teaching. Some of which I now agree with, but others (including one which my post-graduate paper* was based upon!) I now disagree with.

As others have said, different things work for different parents and children. As I said before, what matters is the results - if you think that your parenting practice works, then keep at it. It's utterly useless for me or anyone else to prescribe a course of action if it doesn't work for you! And most parents are doing the best they can and have only the best of intentions in their hearts.

So let's now get back on topic and continue discussing parenting. I like to hear people's different views etc. of parenting. :)

--------------------
*This paper garnered a high distinction and attracted the attention of the university's school of education to the point that they offered me a position to write an Honours thesis. My professor was very impressed with my writings and I must admit that I was quite proud of what I'd achieved - but since I've begun teaching I've come to completely disagree with what I wrote!

[Vector Sigma 13]

Its ok Gok we know what your getting at. :)

Im sure youll get some great ideas on this topic on here!:D

[Vector Sigma 13]

My littlest is not quite two and he is saying Tansforma! Ahh looks like another fan in the family. The joys of parenting...

[loophole]

My littlest is not quite two and he is saying Tansforma! Ahh looks like another fan in the family. The joys of parenting...

let the brainwashing begin muawahahahahahaha

[Tabias Prime]

when did this thread start...i'm not sure if i should take advice from people who buys kids toys:D:D:D:D

but seriously we fond the babywise method worked well for our kids and considering my oldest is mildly autistic, its been a blessing as routine works well for him..dont believe everything you hear about babywise.

[Vector Sigma 13]

when did this thread start...i'm not sure if i should take advice from people who buys kids toys:D:D:D:D

but seriously we fond the babywise method worked well for our kids and considering my oldest is mildly autistic, its been a blessing as routine works well for him..dont believe everything you hear about babywise.

Dont have to actually take the advice...:rolleyes:

Nice to hear that we are not the only family on here with a special needs child. My middlest son has Down Syndrome.

[GoktimusPrime]

I find that set routines works well with most kids, not only those with autism/Aspergers - although routine is definitely a big thing with autistic kids and you gotta be careful with introducing changes to their routine. Also depends on the severity of their condition too - some autistic kids handle change better than others. :) And heck, most adults like set routines too - who here doesn't have their own set routines and quirks? And toy collecting's like a form of OCD - the fact that I blew $25 on a stupid effing Mighty Mugg this week proves that! :p

[Tabias Prime]

hehehehehe I'm not even that silly to buy a mighty mugg...i think one of the biggest problems with kids and some adults theses days is they don't have routines.it sets boundaries and certainly gives Archer a sense of security on what's happening.. archers at the lower end of the spectrum for autism. it was diagnosed early so he got the help he needed b4 it was to bad.thank you autism association of W.A

[GoktimusPrime]

i think one of the biggest problems with kids and some adults theses days is they don't have routines.it sets boundaries and certainly gives.....a sense of security on what's happening..
Let me shake your hand! :)

I'm thinking about joining an Australian parenting forum to discuss parenting in further detail. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[shokwave2]

I believe in disciplining kids. A smack always lets a child know whos in charge and it worked with me as a child. I think that's half the reason why so many kids are roaming the streets at night causing trouble, disrespecting the elderly, police, the laws, etc. It all comes back to their parents letting them get away with it.

Although i rarely smack my daughters anymore, only if they're really, really naughty. I've found that i can scare them more and make them do what they're told by getting down to their eye level (they're only 6 and 3) and telling them eye to eye to eat their dinner, etc, in a nice strong, not-too-loud, deep voice. Throw in a threat of throwing out their toys and everything works out fine. ;)

Also the best advice on bringing up kids was from my mother in-law. She said to us "you'll get 1001 tips on how to raise your child, just do whatever feels right to you".

[GoktimusPrime]

Pregnancy, Babies and Children Expo (http://www.pbcexpo.com.au/)

The Sydney one is coming up next week. Check the link for information about the expo for Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne and get a free ticket! Adelaide already happened last month.

:)

[TheHandsomeCrab]

5. Always let them know who's the boss - if youve been watching supernanny - no matter how she explains it, it boils down to that. The kids are out of control coz the supposed bosses ( parents) of the house are manipulated always to give in to the mewlings of the kids, uh uh.

God I wish I could print this on a hammer and beat people with it. I work in childcare and have no end of problems with this one. There's one kid who was terrible for this when I started working there (he even said once "They're only adults, you don't have to do what they say"..) because his parents have almost no boundaries, spoiled only child etc. I've actually managed to turn him round in the last year and he's mostly a pretty good kid, but the sad part is he respects me more than his own parents. You can already tell he's going to have no end of problems growing up.

Sadly some of the older ones need a better man than me to sort out their issues. Trouble is the parents have let them rule the roost since day 1, by the time they're 8/9 years old it's beyond me to undo that. And the parents always say "I don't know why he acts like this!". Because you're an incompetent mother, you fucking bogan.

[Vector Sigma 13]

I was unfortunate enough to have a bad experience when i took the kids to a "Kids Flix" movie/ fun day (run for families with kids that have kids with disabilities etc) at our local theatre about two months ago. A woman absolutely lost the plot with her son (i think he was around three years of age or so ) because he must have woken her infant son or got restless or something. Mind you there were probably 100 people/kids in the theatre!

Any hoo she decided she was getting out of there so she hooked the toddler up to a strap attached to the pram and proceded to try/ drag the kid and find an exit that she could get the pram out of easily. No luck with that so she draged the kid up the stairs and told him to F$%king sit down and not to F%$king move. She went back down and grabbed the pram and carried it up the stairs (infant was still in it). A elderly woman was coming down the stairs so the mother told her to "get out of the F^%king way you stupid old lady"! Which of course upset the elderly lady somewhat.

So anyway the lady dissapears after her outburst.

Turns out she must have said a few more words to the ushers/staff there. The Police rolled up when we left.

Next thing i know Im watching the local news and find out shes had the kids taken away and shes in the slammer!

No BS i swear to god!

The point of the story i guess is- that she was in a theatre full of kids and crying babies and no one gave a rats arse what her kids were doing! No one would have known the difference- There was probably more too it i suppose and i felt sorry for her in a way.

I was going to offer to help this woman with her pram as were quite a few others but as soon as she lost it they all said stuff that!

If your a parent and your that stressed- either walk away and take five. Or see some sort of help- theres plenty out there. And dont get me wrong- lots of parents can get to that agro stage but the trick is to not let it get to you and deal with it sensibly.

Anyway i just thought id share that experience.

[GoktimusPrime]

...and if you can't handle that kind of responsibility - don't be a parent!. (-_-) I feel your pain guys, and I've seen more than my fair share of awful parenting.

[Vector Sigma 13]

...and if you can't handle that kind of responsibility - don't be a parent!. (-_-) I feel your pain guys, and I've seen more than my fair share of awful parenting.

Im not sure its always as easy as that Gok. I know where your coming from and agree- however some people kinda find themselves becoming parents in some cases. Our first son was not planned (not all forms of contraception are 100% effective:o) so naturally it was quite a shock!:eek:

So here you are becoming a parent with less than 9 months to get used to it! I did get used to it but i wouldnt say it was easy!:rolleyes:

I dont like to credit myself but i think im a pretty good dad.

I guess its unfortunate that there are some people who dont care about contraception and create a life that is basically not wanted- they just think they are stuck with the kid and go with it much to their dislike ( I think the woman i spoke about may be in this category but i could be wrong). Then on another hand similar sort of people just keep having the kids because they can get money from the government.

I can imagine you would see plenty of sad cases at your school. Ive got friends/ family in the teaching profession that mention sad examples all the time.
I would assume you (Gok) have done all the child protection/ mandate reporting because of your job and must find it difficult at times to work out whos got issues and who hasnt. Ive done all that stuff through my role as a Scout leader and unfortunately i have been involved with child protection incidents and its not fun. Its sad that kids are put in these situations.

[enforcer888]

The ball-and-chain and I looked after my best mate's 4 y.o cousin today... Parents and guardians who do the job right are absolute saints. Still recovering.

[Vector Sigma 13]

The ball-and-chain and I looked after my best mate's 4 y.o cousin today... Parents and guardians who do the job right are absolute saints. Still recovering.


Better check for grey hairs!

[GoktimusPrime]

Here's a question as a parenting noob... why the hell are babies NOCTURNAL?!

Here's Yuki sleeping like a log during the day. A bomb could go off and she won't wake up. My wife and I literally spent half an hour once trying to wake her up so she could feed her. It was exhausting.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_facebook_day3_6.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_facebook_day3_6.jpg)

After sundown - she's awake! And crying! And pooping! JOY!! :p :D
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_facebook_day3_8.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_facebook_day3_8.jpg)

Baby nocturnalism = http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/jam_pain.jpg

The joys of being in a hospital in Western Sydney -- teen parents. In the bed across from ours was a teen mother. She was nice enough. Her partner on the other hand... first of all, he looked like the pimple-faced teen from the Simpsons - like literally. The girl's mother - if she ain't a junkie then I'll eat my hat. He was there with some friends and every sentence they spoke (in a room full of mothers and babies) had swear words. But anyway, I just kept my mouth shut and tried not to stare at them - who am I to openly judge these people who I don't even know, right? Yet these people saw fit to judge _me_ for doing this..

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_facebook_day3_5.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_facebook_day3_5.jpg)http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_facebook_day3_4.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_facebook_day3_4.jpg)

While I was reading books to my daughter they made snide remarks loud enough that everyone in the ward could hear them. One of them even went "SSHHH!" really loudly, then they all laughed like it was a big joke. (-_-) I didn't want to make a scene in the maternity ward, so I just ignored them.

Bogan teen parents mocking me for reading to my bub = http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/jam_shoulders.jpg(chk chk boom)

Thankfully they were discharged this morning. To avoid any more potential issues, I went to another room to read to my bub. And while I was there, a midwife was giving some first time pregnant women a tour of the post natal ward, and when she saw me reading she came up and praised me and pointed out to the mothers-to-be that this was good parenting practice. That made me feel all warm, fuzzy and good - cheered me right up. :)

Warm happy feelings = http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/jam_jam.jpg

Other fun things I did for the first time today:
+ Helped to bathe bub
+ Helped to change nappy

[i_amtrunks]

Good on you Gok, the whole reading thing is a great practice to get into, and hopefully becomes a way to calm the bub down.

[Bartrim]

Good to hear your enjoying it Gok.

Babys are nocturnal because they know we are not... simple:D

Our baby had what is called silent reflux. Which is reflux without the vommiting. It is considered twice as bad as the baby suffers an acid burn up AND down there throat. It is also hard to detect as there is no physical evidence (ie: baby vomit). So young Marcus screamed for about 3months straight giving my wife and myself approx 1-2hrs sleep a night. while trying to work what was wrong I had to sleep on the lounge as I did alot of driving with my previous job and I needed the rest. The doctors only decided something was wrong when my wifes milk supply dried up and he still wouldn't take bottles. THey actually admitted to us that they originally put it down to us being first time parents and not being able to handle it:mad: The other problem now is the psychological damage it caused my son. Now in his infant mind food=pain because everytime he ate he got sick. He now has a very fussy pallette and will remain that way until he is old enough to comprehend what happened to him.

You using cloth or disposable nappies Gok? Because my brilliant wife found an amazing cheap and easy solution. She found cloth nappies that are cut to suit and have velcro tabs like a disposable. So they are easy to change and you don't waste a fortune on disposable nappies. The only downside... A whole lot of washing:(. But the savings are worth it. Also have you changed the first "dirty" nappy? What experience that is. The substance (I can't remember what it's called... they have a medical name for it) is like tar. It took us about 45minutes to clean our son the first time:o:p

I'm surprised that how difficult it can be raising a baby that there are a many bogan teen parents as there are.

[i_amtrunks]

I'm surprised that how difficult it can be raising a baby that there are a many bogan teen parents as there are.

it is the ones who are having number #2 and #3 before turning 20 that get me, you would think that they would have learnt from the experience from #1 to be more cautious... :confused:

[liegeprime]

it is the ones who are having number #2 and #3 before turning 20 that get me, you would think that they would have learnt from the experience from #1 to be more cautious... :confused:

Its all about the Centrelink benefits Trunks.... have you seen the way the kids are dressed and how they treat their kids, its like shouting is the norm, no normal "commercial" like mother child interaction. I've seen it too often in train stations here

mom: "Bleep" you little "bleep" stay the "bleepp" still. Stay here NOWW!
kid: just keeps on fidgetting like there's no tomorrow and its its first time to see daylight.
mom: I swear "bleep, bleep"

well you know the rest.....

I say dont spare the rod on both the mom and the kid......

[Bartrim]

Its all about the Centrelink benefits Trunks.... have you seen the way the kids are dressed and how they treat their kids, its like shouting is the norm, no normal "commercial" like mother child interaction. I've seen it too often in train stations here

mom: "Bleep" you little "bleep" stay the "bleepp" still. Stay here NOWW!
kid: just keeps on fidgetting like there's no tomorrow and its its first time to see daylight.
mom: I swear "bleep, bleep"

well you know the rest.....

I say dont spare the rod on both the mom and the kid......


I actually saw a classic a couple of months ago in Nowra (I'll give everyone a moment to sit down from the shock:p) My wife and I were at wollies buying some lunch stuff on the way to her parents and in the checkout next to us there was a young mum and a young boy. The boy was begging his mum for one of the "impulse buy" choclates at the register and the Mum quite loudly said "No you can't have it because I only have $7 left am I getting a Woodstock". Nearly all the checkouts stopped and just looked in disbelief.

[roller]

I aNo you can't have it because I only have $7 left am I getting a Woodstock". Nearly all the checkouts stopped and just looked in disbelief.

hahahahaha classic!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kup]

Its all about the Centrelink benefits Trunks.... have you seen the way the kids are dressed and how they treat their kids, its like shouting is the norm, no normal "commercial" like mother child interaction. I've seen it too often in train stations here

mom: "Bleep" you little "bleep" stay the "bleepp" still. Stay here NOWW!
kid: just keeps on fidgetting like there's no tomorrow and its its first time to see daylight.
mom: I swear "bleep, bleep"

well you know the rest.....

I say dont spare the rod on both the mom and the kid......

When I used to catch the train to study and work, I used to see that sort of scenario disturbingly often. Since the Government started handing out money to women having babies, I begun to see a lot of teenagers and very young women at shopping centers with 2-3 very small children and sometimes I see one of these mothers treat their kids with a very unattached attitude or if they were an unwanted after product as in 'I got the money so you have served your purpose'.

[i_amtrunks]

I actually saw a classic a couple of months ago in Nowra (I'll give everyone a moment to sit down from the shock:p) My wife and I were at wollies buying some lunch stuff on the way to her parents and in the checkout next to us there was a young mum and a young boy. The boy was begging his mum for one of the "impulse buy" choclates at the register and the Mum quite loudly said "No you can't have it because I only have $7 left am I getting a Woodstock". Nearly all the checkouts stopped and just looked in disbelief.

Wow, the inhabitants of Nowra and Cronulla are the same!

[Fungal Infection]

What's a woodstock? Sounds like either alcohol or smokes I'd gather from the response.

[jacksplatt11]

Cheap ass terrible bourbon in 440ml cans

[i_amtrunks]

Cheap ass terrible bourbon in 440ml cans

Left all over the beaches both North and South of Sydney every summer.

[enforcer888]

Congrats with your baby Gok, she's adorable.

[Bartrim]

Left all over the beaches both North and South of Sydney every summer.

And anywhere else underage kids lurk after dark:p

[GoktimusPrime]

You using cloth or disposable nappies Gok? Because my brilliant wife found an amazing cheap and easy solution. She found cloth nappies that are cut to suit and have velcro tabs like a disposable. So they are easy to change and you don't waste a fortune on disposable nappies. The only downside... A whole lot of washing. But the savings are worth it.
Disposables. The washing is a massive turn off for us. Although the mother-in-law is currently doing the laundry for us atm <evil.grin> :D (jkz :p)


Also have you changed the first "dirty" nappy? What experience that is. The substance (I can't remember what it's called... they have a medical name for it) is like tar. It took us about 45minutes to clean our son the first time
No! I missed that! I'm allowed to stay in the hospital between 08:00-22:00, and Yuki did her first poopie outside of those hours... so when I got there the next morning, she'd already done it. My wife told me about it. Sucked in. :p

It seems that all my reading of Transformers books is finally starting to indoctrinate her. Earlier today I caught her doing Revenge of the Fallen impressions - check this out!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_skids.jpg
Spot The Difference! :D

[TheDirtyDigger]

Around 50% of Australian children are suffering from iodine deficiency. Iodine deficiency can lead to cretinism and thyroid problems. Nearly all of or vegetables are grown in soil lacking natural iodine but we used to receive our iodine from milk because the milk vats were cleaned with it. Since the mid 90's milk corporations replaced iodine as a cleaning agent with cheaper chlorine. The Krudd Govt. were talking of legislating to force bakeries to add iodine to all bread recipes but I am unsure of where that's at at this stage.

I am loathe to add salt to children's diets as Western diets are usually high in it anyway but in this case a pinch of iodised salt here and there puts my mind at ease. The healthiest (or least harmful) option is iodised rock sea salt.

[Vector Sigma 13]

The substance (I can't remember what it's called... they have a medical name for it) is like tar

Maconium if i recall. Not terribly pleasant stuff! Our first son let that rip before he came out and ended up looking like the green goblin for awhile!

[Vector Sigma 13]

Cheap ass terrible bourbon in 440ml cans

Gives me heart burn!


Originally Posted by Bartrim
You using cloth or disposable nappies Gok? Because my brilliant wife found an amazing cheap and easy solution. She found cloth nappies that are cut to suit and have velcro tabs like a disposable. So they are easy to change and you don't waste a fortune on disposable nappies. The only downside... A whole lot of washing. But the savings are worth it.

We used these for a long time- dont know why we ever stopped really?

Congrats Gok! :D
I didnt even know you had a girlfriend!:confused:

[Bartrim]

Thats the stuff VS13. I nearly lost my drink when I read your Green Goblin comment:D.

Gok have you done the research into cloth nappies? The saving is quite phenomanal. I was all for disposables until I researched and found out the savings. It's all up to choice but when someone has a hobby such as ours any saving is a good saving because it means more money for TF's:D

[GoktimusPrime]

Finally got to take mum and bub home last night! We were meant to come home on Friday, but got held up an extra day due to jaundice, but it cleared up by Saturday morning - but we got held up for another 9 hours due to hospital bureaucracy. :mad:

I mentioned cloth nappies to my wife last night during a nappy change and she was like, "Do you want to wash them?" :p I see what you mean though - sometimes when I throw out a nappy due to just a bit of pee-pee or discharge where there's no poo it feels like a waste. I kinda wish she'd actually do a poo just to get our money's worth for each nappy!

I think right now we're kinda too tired and a bit overwhelmed as first time parents where we're just gonna go with the convenience factor, but maybe later on when things get easier with practice we'll revise cheaper options like cloth nappies. :)


It's all up to choice but when someone has a hobby such as ours any saving is a good saving because it means more money for TF's
^most convincing argument for me! :)

[Vector Sigma 13]

It's all up to choice but when someone has a hobby such as ours any saving is a good saving because it means more money for TF's

Now that is devotion!

I think we found as we had more kids there was a time factor (takes time to clean wash and dry the nappies) which led us to move to disposables. I was thinking about this topic last night and i think we stopped with the velcro tabbed cloth nappies because the little guy would get chaffed if you didnt get to him quick enough when he did a wee. If i recall they dont hold the mess in as well as disposables which can lead to soiling of the outer clothing. Its not a big deal but i guess its up to the individual. I guess if bubs grows quick too you may be left with a lot of nappys you cant use because they dont fit him. Im sure though if you do the sums you would still come out on top! Which brings me back to Bartrims quote...

Oh and dont forget there is a very good reason to go cloth nappies from an environmental perspective- to reduce this stuff from going into landfill and/or the water table

[GoktimusPrime]

I guess if bubs grows quick too you may be left with a lot of nappys you cant use because they dont fit him.
Which can be a blessing for others! On Saturday some friends came over and gave me a box load of leftover newborn size disposable nappies! ;) My dad called this morning telling me that Babies R Us are having a sale on nappies, and my wife looked at me saying that we really don't need any new nappies. We've also been stockpiling on nappies too during the pregnancy - so yeah, we're currently up to our necks in disposables for newborn. We might have to give some excess away to the next person who has a bub. :p

Baby's been drinking nothing but breast milk since she was born, but now you-know-who is getting sore you-know-where. So I bought an electric pump yesterday but it pumps really slow (unless we crank up the juice, but then it's really painful and even draws blood) - so today I bought formula. We kinda feel guilty about it because we do feel that breast is best... but I think that there are just some times when you gotta use bottle. For us it's until the you-know-whats can recover. It's purely a supplement to breastmilk... we do still prefer to feed breastmilk, but we're finding that formula comes as a handy backup.

Look at me justifying this... can you tell how guilt-ridden I am over this? :(

[Bartrim]

Now that is devotion!

I think we found as we had more kids there was a time factor (takes time to clean wash and dry the nappies) which led us to move to disposables. I was thinking about this topic last night and i think we stopped with the velcro tabbed cloth nappies because the little guy would get chaffed if you didnt get to him quick enough when he did a wee. If i recall they dont hold the mess in as well as disposables which can lead to soiling of the outer clothing. Its not a big deal but i guess its up to the individual. I guess if bubs grows quick too you may be left with a lot of nappys you cant use because they dont fit him. Im sure though if you do the sums you would still come out on top! Which brings me back to Bartrims quote...

Oh and dont forget there is a very good reason to go cloth nappies from an environmental perspective- to reduce this stuff from going into landfill and/or the water table

Yes it's true cloth nappies aren't as good as holding the waste as they don't have gutters you can counter that by using pilchers. Of course sometimes even disposables don't hold everything in sometimes. We actually are quite fortunate as our baby got into a habit of pooping at night. This of course didn't happen every night but it happened about 95% of the time so we used disposables of a night time. It worked out really well for us:)

[GoktimusPrime]

Before bub was born, changing nappies was one thing I was really dreading about being a parent. But I gotta say that changing your own baby's nappies really isn't that bad, and in a way... it's kinda fun! I also started bottle-feeding for the first time. Heh, it's funny - each time I do these seemingly mundane tasks, they're kinda exciting (I guess cos it's all new and novel right now), and I can see that I'm really not good at doing it, but at the same time I can feel myself - intentionally sounding nerdy now - gaining experience points! Every time I change a nappy I feel like there's text running up saying, "You have successfully changed her nappy. You gain 3 experience points and 0 gold. There is a door to the east." ;) Pretty soon I'll hit level 2 and I can finally stop dungeon-crawling! <nerdish.snort.laugh> :D

[Vector Sigma 13]

Before bub was born, changing nappies was one thing I was really dreading about being a parent. But I gotta say that changing your own baby's nappies really isn't that bad, and in a way... it's kinda fun! I also started bottle-feeding for the first time. Heh, it's funny - each time I do these seemingly mundane tasks, they're kinda exciting (I guess cos it's all new and novel right now), and I can see that I'm really not good at doing it, but at the same time I can feel myself - intentionally sounding nerdy now - gaining experience points! Every time I change a nappy I feel like there's text running up saying, "You have successfully changed her nappy. You gain 3 experience points and 0 gold. There is a door to the east." ;) Pretty soon I'll hit level 2 and I can finally stop dungeon-crawling! <nerdish.snort.laugh> :D


Its all part of the fun Gok!

You think your having fun now- wait to they crawl/walk and talk and get little personalities! These are very enjoyable and satisfying milestones for you to reach with your kids. I always found the little babies a bit dull, lol- they spend most of their time sleeping or eating.:)

When they start talking its great... until they learn to say NO!:eek:

Question- Do your children use pacifiers (dummies)? Our kids have had mixed experiences with them. They are often reluctant to say goodbye to them when the time comes. Some of the hissy fits our current "little" guy has had over us taking it off him have been unbelievable.:confused:

[GoktimusPrime]

No dummy use yet. Have been thinking about it though, but my wife's been worried about it becoming an addiction. :/ After reading your story I'm beginning to have second thoughts about introducing dummies for mine. Eep!

I'm enjoying bottle-feeding. It allows me to have a chance at feeding my girl. :)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20090608a.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_20090608a.jpg)

I'm a complete noob compared to my wife when she breastfeeds though - hence why I've attached a bib onto Yuki there cos there's occasional spillages. :p In this shot I'm feeding her breastmilk, but other times I've fed her formula too. <<guilt>>

Hey Bartrim, I vaguely recall you mentioning that your kid understands some Italian? (that was you right?) - how's that working out for you? Two friends of mine had a baby nearly a year ago, and I convinced them to raise their bub trilingually using the "une-personne, une langue" ('one person one language') method. They've stuck to it, and so far their boy who's coming up to his first birthday is able to understand his parents in English, Tagalog and Japanese. ;) My wife and I have started doing the same thing with our bub too (we intentionally gave Yuki a trilingually compatible name for this purpose), although my mother-in-law is throwing a fourth language into the works! :D

[i_amtrunks]

The healthiest (or least harmful) option is iodised rock sea salt.

Time to get the kids a salt lick!

Iodine, calcium, iron, all are minerals/vitamins that kids seem to be deficient in these days, hell we'd all be fluoride deficient if it wasn't in the water...

[Bartrim]

We didn't start with the Italian until Marcus started speaking We did have a few hurdles (for instance he thought uno came after ten for a while:D) but (again parental brag here) doctors have told us that Marcus' vocab, comprehension and memory is way above what it should be for a 2 and a half year old so we really haven't had too much confusion with the language thing.

Oh VS13 on the whole "no" thing all I can say is QFTx10000000000000000:D

[GoktimusPrime]

I love how springah actually says "affirmative" and "negative" in real life instead of "yes" and "no." :D

[GoktimusPrime]

When Yuki was still in hospital, staff used alcohol wipes to clean her belly button after the umbilical stump fellrotted off (eww). They gave us some sodium chloride to use when we went home, but since that's run out I bought some Isocol rubbing alcohol from the supermarket and have been using that with cotton balls to continue cleaning her belly button. I spoke to a colleague of mine who's an ex-nurse who said that was fine. My colleague also recommended using saline solution (the kind you use to clean contact lenses with) - but I'm just sticking with the Isocol for now.

I'm curious to know how others have dealt with cleaning the post-umbie belly button.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

OMG, just found out Gok has a baby! I can hear the Hasbro executives rejoicing now...seriously, congrats dude.:) Don't guilt out over the milk thing, you have to consider your and her needs as well as the bub's (not that I'm a parent or anything, God forbid, but you two still have to exist somewhere too). Key words = as well as.
Since the Government started handing out money to women having babies, I begun to see a lot of teenagers and very young women at shopping centers with 2-3 very small children and sometimes I see one of these mothers treat their kids with a very unattached attitude or if they were an unwanted after product as in 'I got the money so you have served your purpose'.The baby bonus = worst idea ever. I don't want people who think $6000 for a baby is a good deal having babies - I can fill my own petrol tank thanks.:rolleyes:

For those with older kids struggling with the birds and the bees, the best 'sex talk' I ever heard came from a father of 3 and went along the lines of "Don't get knocked up, and don't catch anything."...:D

[Firecracker]

Hey Gok belated congrats on your new family member.

After occasionally looking at this thread I'm gonna add my bit; 16 Months of full time Fathering under my belt. :D

Nappies - Cloth nappies are the way to go. Yes you will have to clean them, but its not a big deal. After the few different brands we've tried these (http://www.bumgenius.com.au/shop/nappies/one-size-pocket-nappy/) are the best. After 16 Months of continually use, the 18 we bought are just now showing wear. That only being the elastic in the leg which is easily replaceable with a little sewing know-how. That is only 18 nappies; I'd recommend 24 minimum.

Dummy/Pacifier - Stay away if you can. If you have to go for one this is recommended (http://www.nestbyswanky.com/item_65/Natursutten-Natural-Pacifiers.htm). My son never had one. If your bub is crying/whingey there is a reason. Try and find it and resolve it.

Milk/Formula - I'm glad to hear your both keen on having bub breastfed, it is the best. There will be time when its really difficult for your partner, but with most difficult things baby they pass quickly.

Umbilical residue - Make sure nappies stay away from that area. The rubbing can make it become unclean. Like all healing wounds open air and kept dry is the best. Warm water and cloth should be all you need to clean.

We had our son here at home. Water birth. We are actually what you'd call modern hippies. I'm a bit of a hypocrite being a Transformer collector though.:D

[GoktimusPrime]

Thanks for the congrats and tips Firecracker!

We had Yuki in hospital, and I'm personally really glad. The hospital staff were absolutely invaluable, especially showing the ropes to total noobs like us. :D I also met another father-to-be at the birthing unit who was wearing a shirt with a Decepticon insignia; I of course was covered all over in TF paraphenalia as usual (;p), so I struck up a short conversation with him. :) But there were downsides to being in hospital too such as restricted visiting hours (even though fathers have extended hours, they're still limited), other babies crying (although it was nice talking to other parents), people smoking on hospital grounds* even though they're not supposed to (ggrrrrr!), hospital buraeucracy (gah!) and of course, the bogan teen parents from post #63. ;)

--------------------------------------
*In Japan it's worse... people smoke inside hospital buildings. There's a smoking room, but the door's open so the ciggie smoke just wafts all over the inside of the hospital! :mad:

[Saintly]

Hey Gok, good to hear that Yuki is doing well...

not sure if everyone (that has had kids) can agree, formula tends to produce heatiness and more solid poops... so make sure you give a dose of water after feeding.

breastmilk-fed babies tends to recover from illness quicker because of all the nutrients.

manual breast pumps tends to be easier on the -you-know-what- as you have more control, so less soreness. Try Avent brand, uses the same bottle for feeding as for pumping

[GoktimusPrime]

The novelty of nappy-changing is starting to wear out on me now and is beginning to feel like a chore. What can I do to bring back the romance to nappy changing?

Best suggestion I've had so far from a co-worker: do it less often. ;)

[Bartrim]

Hey Gok, good to hear that Yuki is doing well...

not sure if everyone (that has had kids) can agree, formula tends to produce heatiness and more solid poops... so make sure you give a dose of water after feeding.

breastmilk-fed babies tends to recover from illness quicker because of all the nutrients.

manual breast pumps tends to be easier on the -you-know-what- as you have more control, so less soreness. Try Avent brand, uses the same bottle for feeding as for pumping

We used Avent when we expressed. My wife found them the best. We had to resort to bottle feeding unfortunately when my wifes milk supply dried up due to the stupid effing early childhood nurses not diagnosing my sons reflux. :mad: Also bottle fed baby poop stinks ALOT worse then breast fed baby poop

I wonder how many possible future fathers we are discouraging with our discussion:D

[i_amtrunks]

I wonder how many possible future fathers we are discouraging with our discussion:D

Maybe you should start a Tour that goes to High Schools to scare the bejesus outta High School kids... :D

[shokwave2]

We used Avent when we expressed. My wife found them the best. We had to resort to bottle feeding unfortunately when my wifes milk supply dried up due to the stupid effing early childhood nurses not diagnosing my sons reflux. :mad: Also bottle fed baby poop stinks ALOT worse then breast fed baby poop

Also, if you start giving your little one formula, for the love of God don't taste-test it. I would rather drink puddle water in a back alley of a XXX theatre than drink baby formula. But i guess it's full of goodness so it musn't be that bad. Luckily their taste buds haven't fully developed yet other wise they'd be spitting it back in your face.;)

[GoktimusPrime]

When I was in school I never saw that childbirth video. They always showed it when I was away. But I would always remember the next day all the other kids would be freaked out and all the girls were saying that they never want to have babies. I now know why they felt that way. :p

[Saintly]

Also bottle fed baby poop stinks ALOT worse then breast fed baby poop

I wonder how many possible future fathers we are discouraging with our discussion:D

yeah i couldn't remember what it smell like with Tim & Marcus got to drink breast-milk for 20 months, then hop straight to luke-warm fresh milk. Before the fresh milk, marcus hated the formula & rejected it.

i believe "Elevit" tablets help with the breast-milk production& the growth, so much so that mrs saintly is always expressing & putting it into milk bags then put them into the cold freezer.

if you need to feed the milk, always use the bottle warmer & not the microwave.

[GoktimusPrime]

Also, if you start giving your little one formula, for the love of God don't taste-test it. I would rather drink puddle water in a back alley of a XXX theatre than drink baby formula. But i guess it's full of goodness so it musn't be that bad. Luckily their taste buds haven't fully developed yet other wise they'd be spitting it back in your face.
I test-tasted some formula milk, wasn't that bad. Wasn't that good either. What I find worse is baby food. I was doing my post-grad study at uni when my wisdom teeth came out, so being unable to eat any solids I subsisted on baby food. Weird, I remember loving Heinz baby food when I was an infant, but when I had it again as an adult it was FOUL. I had to douse it with salt just to make it palatable! At first I thought that Heinz must've changed their recipe in some majorly horrid way, but after thinking about it I realised that it's more likely because my taste buds have changed. :p


if you need to feed the milk, always use the bottle warmer & not the microwave.
Yeah, I'm avert to using the microwave with anything to do with the baby. I bought a steam-steriliser instead of a microwave one which would've been a lot cheaper. We usually use either the bottle warmer (which I find is really slow) or pouring hot water over the bottle. We seldomly use bottles anyway - at this stage Yuki is primarily feeding straight from the breast.

[enforcer888]

You guys tried Farax? Ugh. Had a swig of farax mixed with Nesquick that was intended for a kid, wrong mug at the wrong time, bloody hell...

[Golden Phoenix]

The novelty of nappy-changing is starting to wear out on me now and is beginning to feel like a chore. What can I do to bring back the romance to nappy changing?

Start doing EXTREME nappy changing

[shokwave2]

I test-tasted some formula milk, wasn't that bad. Wasn't that good either. What I find worse is baby food.

I used to love the taste of the choc custard and banana custard baby foods. My wife would have to buy double the amount of cans just so me or the baby wouldn't miss out at meal time.:D I think i even took some to work oneday to have as an after dinner suprise.

[GoktimusPrime]

Start doing EXTREME nappy changing
lol! :D

[Burn]

Okay I just gotta throw in a recommendation for those who might actually like to introduce something other than TF's to their kids.

Yeah yeah, i'm a heathen, deal with it. :p

Balsa Wood Airplanes.

Got one from the hobby shop for $4. Nephew and I have had heaps of fun with it, but it is balsa wood so it eventually succumbed to the repeated crash landings.

But for $4 they're cheap and great fun, and you get to teach them how the winds work and everything.

[GoktimusPrime]

No need for heresy - you can combine both passions with Masterpiece Jetfire (http://www.cliffbee.com/reviews/jf.php)! :)

[Burn]

pfffffft! That's far too elaborate! It has wheels!

99% of the fun with balsa wood planes is smashing them into things to break them!

The other 1% is trying to get them to smash into the back of my sister's head so my nephew can really laugh at his mother. :p

[Vector Sigma 13]

Okay I just gotta throw in a recommendation for those who might actually like to introduce something other than TF's to their kids.

Yeah yeah, i'm a heathen, deal with it. :p

Balsa Wood Airplanes.

Got one from the hobby shop for $4. Nephew and I have had heaps of fun with it, but it is balsa wood so it eventually succumbed to the repeated crash landings.

But for $4 they're cheap and great fun, and you get to teach them how the winds work and everything.


I used to love the foam planes of a similar style, cost about $1.00. Lasted about 7.5 seconds.

[Vector Sigma 13]

Ok guys- we are just about to head to the hospital for bubs no 4. Here we go again...

Wish us luck!

[GoktimusPrime]

Good Luck! http://sango2.hp.infoseek.co.jp/cara/4_kamazi.jpg :)

[GoktimusPrime]

I've decided to change Yuki's "TF name" from Time Warrior to Yukikaze (http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Yukikaze_(G1)). Her function shall be 'Time Warrior.' ;)

[Vector Sigma 13]

Well guys, i have a new little boy in our ranks. He is healthy and liveley. The delivery was very much a text book case. His name is Jett.

Now im going to bed....

[GoktimusPrime]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/boratverynice.jpg Congrats! :)


His name is Jett.
So perhaps his TF name should be Jettfire? ;) :D

[Vector Sigma 13]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/boratverynice.jpg Congrats! :)


So perhaps his TF name should be Jettfire? ;) :D

All bar our eldest has a story behind one of their names- Jetfire may have something to do with it!

My partner and the little guy should be home tomorrow so that should be interesting!

[loophole]

Well guys, i have a new little boy in our ranks. He is healthy and liveley. The delivery was very much a text book case. His name is Jett. .

Congrats Dude!!

[shokwave2]

Congrats on number 4!!

I wanted to name my son Jett, but i ended up with 2 girls and Jettalina doesn't sound that good.

[Vector Sigma 13]

I want to publicly advise that i will no longer be having anymore children! Lol.:eek:

It was like WW3 here today and Jett is yet to come home. I think a good word of advice is to space you kids out a little further than we did- Eldest is 5.5 yr,s youngest nearly two days now.:confused:

[Bartrim]

I want to publicly advise that i will no longer be having anymore children! Lol.:eek:

It was like WW3 here today and Jett is yet to come home. I think a good word of advice is to space you kids out a little further than we did- Eldest is 5.5 yr,s youngest nearly two days now.:confused:

LOL congrats on number 4 you brave man:D

I've already told my wife that if our next one is girl (due date Jan 13) then that is it. I hope it is as we can't agree on any boys names at the moment:D

[yukitora]

It seems like some people are trying to produce enough protoforms to start a new Colony on Mars! I have 1. yes, just 1. No 2 got... dooomed.:( but hey, the world goes on and it makes me more creative with the only one i have.

Today the little one told me that 'she wanted to drive the big bumblebee, because he was her friend and friends go shopping!?' What have i done?! I've infected my own with my Camaro Concept BB obsession!:rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

More piccies of bubby. :D
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20091010a.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_20091010a.jpg)http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20091015.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_20091015.jpg)http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20091021.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_20091021.jpg)http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20091023.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_20091023.jpg)

[Tabias Prime]

[QUOTE=I've already told my wife that if our next one is girl (due date Jan 13) then that is it. I hope it is as we can't agree on any boys names at the moment:D[/QUOTE]

trust me, 2 kids are more than enough. 1 of each is all you need..:p:p:p

[GoktimusPrime]

I wore my blue Soundwave tech specs motto shirt from Jayjays for the first time today and Yukikaze spewed all over it! It's so weird how babies are such happy vomitters; quite the opposite of what it feels like for adults. :p

[OrionPax]

haha bad luck dude. Sounds like she's quite a handful

[GoktimusPrime]

T'was my fault. I was playing around with her just after she had a feed. :D

[GoktimusPrime]

Is it still okay to use formula milk powder after the seal's been broken (but the lid has obviously been kept on and it's been stored in a cupboard) up till the expiration date? A friend of my wife has told her that formula milk should be discarded shortly after the seal's been broken.

Obviously prepared formula shouldn't be kept too long, but I thought the actual powder could be kept until expiration.

What do you guys think?

[Lint]

If its an expiration date then you shouldn't use it anymore. If its a use-by or best-before then its probably still safe to use but will taste like crap or have diminished nutritional value. Since the seal's been broken it has had plenty of time to break down despite being in a cupboard all this time.

Given that you want your baby to have nutrients you're arguably better off going fresh. Unless your wife has a poor diet herself, you're even better off not using formula at all. :p

[Tabias Prime]

I wore my blue Soundwave tech specs motto shirt from Jayjays for the first time today and Yukikaze spewed all over it! It's so weird how babies are such happy vomitters; quite the opposite of what it feels like for adults. :p

Generally if a adult if throwing up its because they've been drinking to much...it usually through self infliction that makes them unhappy...

[Bartrim]

trust me, 2 kids are more than enough. 1 of each is all you need..:p:p:p


We found out it is a boy, but we still think we'll stop after him.



Is it still okay to use formula milk powder after the seal's been broken (but the lid has obviously been kept on and it's been stored in a cupboard) up till the expiration date?

What do you guys think?

Thats fine Gok. We never had any trouble.

We are toilet training our son at the moment but we put a nappy on him at night time. Last night I was putting him to sleep and he sat up and said "Daddy am I wearing a nappy?" I replied "Yes you do." and he replied "Good, I need to do wee wees" Then I saw this look of relief wash over his face as he went... So cute:D

[GoktimusPrime]

Until you've experience this kind of thing with your own kid, it sounds totally disgusting! But I know what you mean. Atm we usually can't tell the difference between when Yukikaze is either doing a poop or just chucking a massive fart; they often sound (and smell) the same. But yesterday she made a big noise from her bottom and I saw her face actually strain! Sooooo ccccuuuuuute!! :D

[yukitora]

yep. when the day came that alex knew when to 'go', and you hear that loo flush, you can't help but grin and be proud of yourself. and still to this day, i feel relief when i hear the flush noise. cause i know, the bed is safe for another night :D Although, there are still some misses some nights. and thats only when mummys passed out and has fogotten to get the kid up in the middle of the night!

as your view on milk. its lives as long as normal tin milk. basically, when it starts not to disolve properly, is when you throw it out! i used it when alex thought it was funny to suck mummy dry outta both sides!, or not suck at all so i ended up making cream! insted of breast milk! :eek:

[stencilator]

Can I please join your club within a club? I am a Transformers fan and I now have a baby!

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n113/stencilator/Heidi.jpg

This is our daughter Heidi having a crack at Dad's (that's me!) finger while we wait for Mum to get back with the goods.

She was born last Tuesday so I don't have any wisdom to share that you guys don't already know and so far I don't have any questions... I just wanted to announce our latest aquisition/artistic creation.

[Bartrim]

Marcus turns 3 today!:D Can't wait to get home so I can give him his Devastator RPM trackset with bonus Ironhide and Sideways RPMs.

BTW congrats Stencilator:)

[GoktimusPrime]

awww, congratulations stencilator! :) When I saw that picture and before I read your text beneath it, I really wanted to reply with "Whoa, her fingers are huge!" :p :p

Today Yuki was playing around with Legends Universe Jazz at a restaurant we were dining at tonight. She picked it up and dropped it on the floor a few times, and one time put it in her mouth.

[GoktimusPrime]

A personal Xmas miracle for me... on Xmas Eve Yuki was able to sit up on her own for the first time ever!! She still can't actually get herself up, someone has to put her into this position, but the fact that she can actually sit there without falling over is a significant turning point for her. :D

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/port%20stephens/yuki_20091224.jpg

[OrionPax]

wish her congratz on my behalf :)

[Bartrim]

Yes I know he was incorrect but still a big smile (like this):D appeared on face tonight as I was taking Marcus to bed he walked over to the RPM trackset and said "Good night Optimus Prime"

[Bartrim]

Just want to announce to everyone that Joshua Noah Puglisi was born today at 10:10am:D:D

[GoktimusPrime]

JOY! http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/betty.jpg

Man... it must be baby season now. My cousin (well his wife) had a baby in late December, and just last week a friend of mine had a baby too! :cool:

[Bartrim]

Something to make my fellow nerds jealous (a co-workers husband has already shown his envy) Josh is a binary baby. His date and time of birth is 10/01/10 at 10:10:D

[Tabias Prime]

Something to make my fellow nerds jealous (a co-workers husband has already shown his envy) Josh is a binary baby. His date and time of birth is 10/01/10 at 10:10:D

Truely a Bill Gates in the making...:D:D:D

[GoktimusPrime]

lol!11100100010111!~

[kup]

Just want to announce to everyone that Joshua Noah Puglisi was born today at 10:10am:D:D

Congratulations!

[Lambert29]

I've heard that it is better to teach your kid one language during his/her to avoid confusion on his/her part, which language will he/she needs to use. Then you can eventually teach them another language when they reach the age when they can already process things easily. Around 8 years old or above maybe.

[GoktimusPrime]

That's a misconception that occurs because in the early years multilingual children will confuse words between languages. This is because during infancy children are often unaware that the different languages that they're speaking are actually different languages, thus they will mix them up, leading adults to think that they're becoming "confused." For example they might ask you, "Daddy, where's mein Buch?" ("Daddy, where's my book?") - in this case blending English and German into the same sentence. The child may not be aware that it's unconventional to blend languages together like that. After all, they're still learning about the conventions of the adult world; but give them time and they'll quickly learn to separate the two.

And this is where the "une personne une langue" (one person one language) principle becomes useful; getting one parent to consistently speak in one language to the child, and another parent to speak another language to that child. For example, the father may speak only German while the mother may speak only Spanish. The key is to keep things consistent and the child learns to switch between the languages as a form of code switching.


Around 8 years old or above maybe.
Not necessary IMO. I once met a family who had a 7 year old daughter. Her father always spoke to her in German and her mother always spoke to her in Chinese. Father and mother spoke to each other in English. By age 7 their daughter was already fluent in English, German and Chinese. We were taking a road trip and they were sitting in the back seat with the daughter in the middle. At one stage she turned to her father and asked him, "Ich möchte Wasser trinken?" (asking to drink some water), and he told her, "fragen Sie Ihre Mutter." ("ask your mother"), so she turned to mummy and asked her, "媽媽，我想要喝水". This 7 year old girl switched between speaking to Daddy in German and Mummy in Chinese _effortlessly_. I was quite amazed at how she could do this, and her father explained that both he and his wife have been applying Une personne une langue since she was born.

I've spoken to other parents who told me that they decided to try and teach other languages to their children later, but found that it was too late because by something like age 8 you've already firmly established family habits, routines, rules/expectations etc. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it could be quite difficult, unless the language you're instructing happens to be a dominantly spoken community language (in the case of living in Australia; English, e.g.: a migrant family switching to speaking English at home after speaking another language for the earlier years of a child's life). Because what you're suggesting is to enforce a language dominance shift in a child. Possible, but teaching a child multiple languages from infancy means that a dominance shift is unnecessary.

This site (http://www.squidoo.com/raising-multilingual-children) lists the advantages and disadvantages of raising children multilingually; as far as the child is concerned, there are only advantages. The disadvantage is that it's more effort (and possibly money in education) for the parent. I can understand the money part. Our daughter is only 7 months old now and already we have an entire bookcase dedicated to her that we intend to gradually fill with her books in three languages. I've already started looking for a Community Language Saturday School to enrol her in the future (I've already found one that's not too far from where we live, but I've yet to go and check the place out). But even if you can't afford books and tuition fees, simply speaking to the child in the target language is sufficient enough for them to become fluent (if not literate). Lots of children in developing countries are able to speak multiple languages even despite being illiterate in them. e.g.: a poor Tanzanian child who speaks Swahili and Arabic fluently (although may not be able to read/write).

See also:
+ Cognitive Advantages to Bilingualism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_advantages_to_bilingualism); "Current research leads to the belief that (fluency in two languages) can add to the cognitive flexibility of the child." / "results showed that...biliterates had the highest levels of literacy"
+ Multilingualism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism): "Despite the differences in theories, most studies agree that the earlier children learn a second language, the better off they are (cognitively speaking)"

[blackoptimus]

Curious to know, is it legal to have a kid at 16?

[Bartrim]

Curious to know, is it legal to have a kid at 16?

I think so... even though it shouldn't be.

[GoktimusPrime]

I believe you need to be 18 years or over in order to have legal custody/guardianship of a minor. I often come across students who are living with legal guardians/caregivers who aren't their parents, and I'm quite sure that they must be 18 or over. Laws may differ across states/territories.

[GoktimusPrime]

How much do others here pay for daycare? I'm hearing that it costs $250-300+ a week :eek::eek::eek: Are there more affordable options? :/

[Burn]

How much do others here pay for daycare? I'm hearing that it costs $250-300+ a week :eek::eek::eek: Are there more affordable options? :/

Grandparents. :p

Linky with some rough costs (http://www.careforkids.com.au/articlesv2/article.asp?id=77)

So it all depends on how long the kid is at the day care. (But roughly, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week = $300)

Centrelink does come into it at some point but i'm not sure who's entitled to that.

[Bartrim]

My oldest only goes 2 days a week. No idea what my wife pays

[GoktimusPrime]

Yuki Vs. Artoo Detoo! :)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yukivsr2d2.jpg (http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/?action=view&current=yukivsr2d2.flv)

[Vector Sigma 13]

How much do others here pay for daycare? I'm hearing that it costs $250-300+ a week :eek::eek::eek: Are there more affordable options? :/

That sounds about right to me- and yeah Grandparents if you have them nearby.

Perhaps you might be able to find a family daycare arrangement for a bit cheaper.

[Sleeve]

A big congratulations to Jaydisc on the birth of his daughter!

It was a tough labour, but Jay got through it with medicinals and dreams of the TFs he won't be able to buy for a while. :p

[Bartrim]

A big congratulations to Jaydisc on the birth of his daughter!

It was a tough labour, but Jay got through it with medicinals and dreams of the TFs he won't be able to buy for a while. :p

LOL Congrats Jay:)

[shokwave2]

We pay $80 for 2 days, meals included. Depends on where you live i suppose. Metro will probably be more expensive then country areas.

[GoktimusPrime]

For anyone interested in finding BPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A)-free bottles, Tommee Tippee (http://www.tommeetippee.com.au/news.asp) reports that they've been selling BPA-free bottles since July 2009.

[Bartrim]

My three year old wants a Pinky Ponk from in the night garden. It's the only thing that he'll trade the"dummy fairy" for his dummies. Only problem is I can't find one.:(

[VERT]

Just came across this thread. I have a 2.5yr old son & a 5yr old daughter. My daughter is obsessed with TF & SW :D Makes me very proud.

The idea's you may have about how you will parent completely go out the window when you actually have them. It is a learning experience every day. Some days are good, some suck, but all you can do is your best.

My kids are very full on, daughter is a Taurus, Son is a red head, wife is a red-headed taurus :S They are very strong willed, very smart kids who know what they want and won't give in until they get it, which makes for some very interesting times to say the least.

On the bi-lingual subject, I wish my kids could speak more than one language, but unfortunately both my wife & I speak only English. They do know a little Spanish & Chinese thanks to kids shows though :P If there was some way for them to learn another language we would jump at the chance, but living where we do, there is nothing like that.

On the pinky ponk dilemma try Kmart.

[Bartrim]

On the pinky ponk dilemma try Kmart.

Tried the local K-Mart and they have no "In the Night Garden" toys. My wife found one online so I had to tell my son that the dummy fairy rang me up at work to tell me the Pinky Ponk (stupid bloody names) would be a little while and that he hadd to be patient. He swallowd that:D

[GoktimusPrime]

My daughter's now 13 months old and she responding to some simple bilingual verbal cues/instructions (been doing so for about 3 months now). If my wife or I tell her to clap her hands in either target language (e.g.:" 拍手して！"), she does it. She also recognises her name being called out in either target language too. She responds to other cues between each target language, but so far the hand-clapping is the one cue she can fully respond to bilingually. I'm sure she understands a lot more, but the trick atm is getting her to respond to those cues.

[GoktimusPrime]

Playing with PCC Huffer while wearing an Optimus Prime top...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_pcchuffer.jpg

:D

[Hot Rodimus]

only just saw this thread and think it is very cool to read everyones experiences. i am the primary carer for my two and a half year opd duaghter work fulltime also though wrk can be very understanding at times.
sorry forgot who posted it but i have found the good days and sometimes bad days really rings true and it is super easy to get frustrated but when they smile or do something funny or say i love you it is amazing how good that makes you feel.

[LordCyrusOmega]

I have a 10 year old boy (not actually my son, my Gf's who i help with) who does nothing but play X-box and watch tv. I've tried to get him involved in other things but he just doesn't want to. He's taken a liking to my TF's so i showed him some of my comics and books but he refuses to read. He has a brain but doesn't want to use it. Are we seeing a pattern here?

What can i do to get him interested in other things and reading? I've seen where spending all you time on video games and tv gets you and i want so much more for him.

[gekisou]

Playing with PCC Huffer while wearing an Optimus Prime top...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_pcchuffer.jpg

:D

か。。。　可愛い！！！ OMG! She is adorable!!! My missus wants 2 kids... starting with a daughter... I'm personally not sure if I want children. I have a favourite saying... 'I love all kids, as long as their not mine.'

[GoktimusPrime]

What can i do to get him interested in other things and reading? I've seen where spending all you time on video games and tv gets you and i want so much more for him.
I think role modelling is heaps important. I'm personally trying to spend less time on the computer and get more active myself to become a better role model for my daughter. I've been reading to her since she was in-utero so I hope that will get her interested in reading.

But considering that your gf's son is already 10, perhaps you could find out what kinds of things he's interested in and get him reading stuff about that. There are a lot of books out there now based on video games, like:
Halo novels (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/517SFYZNE8L._SS500_.jpg)
World of Warcraft Novels (http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2010/02/warcraftnovels101.jpg)
Warcraft manga (http://i13.tinypic.com/52ee8ew.jpg) (I read one once, it wasn't half bad)

If he shares some interest in Transformers with you maybe read some Transformer comics or books with him. And as clichéd as this may sound, the Harry Potter books are meant to be quite good. I've only ever read The Philosopher's Stone and I loved it (a lot better than the film). If he's interested in other forms of fantasy maybe read him stuff like The Lord of the Rings. I'm currently reading "Peter Pan and Wendy" (Japanese version) to my daughter atm. :)

Years ago I had a year 7 boy whose reading age was that of a Year 2 or 3 student. I knew that he really loved climbing (he did indoor climbing as a sport and he was sometimes busted by the cops for climbing public buildings, like the top of shopping centres); and he had zero interest in reading any of the prescribed English texts at school. So I suggested to him and his father that he should start reading about climbing, which he did. The next year his literacy results improved quite significantly.

I also think it's important to get kids interested in being physically active too. Aside from keeping fit, a lot of studies show that it also helps kids mentally; active kids are found to be more attentive and focused in class and tend to perform better academically. Activities that coordinate left and right sides are said to help with focusing and attention too. Some studies also show that active kids are less likely to suffer from depression and other mental health issues too.

Have you been able to find any kind of activity that he may be interested in? If he's interested in shooting games then maybe just run around the yard or park and play shootings with toy guns. <shrug>

I think the key is to find something that can engage the child's interest. Good luck. :)

[jazzcomp]

か。。。　可愛い！！！ OMG! She is adorable!!! My missus wants 2 kids... starting with a daughter... I'm personally not sure if I want children. I have a favourite saying... 'I love all kids, as long as their not mine.'

I'm the opposite & don't like kids except mine. I remember my friends wanting to frame a pic of me & my goddaughter when i was younger. I really looked like I was uncomfortable with a baby ;)

[LordCyrusOmega]

But considering that your gf's son is already 10, perhaps you could find out what kinds of things he's interested in and get him reading stuff about that. There are a lot of books out there now based on video games, like:
Halo novels (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/517SFYZNE8L._SS500_.jpg)
World of Warcraft Novels (http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2010/02/warcraftnovels101.jpg)
Warcraft manga (http://i13.tinypic.com/52ee8ew.jpg) (I read one once, it wasn't half bad)

If he shares some interest in Transformers with you maybe read some Transformer comics or books with him. And as clichéd as this may sound, the Harry Potter books are meant to be quite good. I've only ever read The Philosopher's Stone and I loved it (a lot better than the film). If he's interested in other forms of fantasy maybe read him stuff like The Lord of the Rings. I'm currently reading "Peter Pan and Wendy" (Japanese version) to my daughter atm. :)

Years ago I had a year 7 boy whose reading age was that of a Year 2 or 3 student. I knew that he really loved climbing (he did indoor climbing as a sport and he was sometimes busted by the cops for climbing public buildings, like the top of shopping centres); and he had zero interest in reading any of the prescribed English texts at school. So I suggested to him and his father that he should start reading about climbing, which he did. The next year his literacy results improved quite significantly.

I also think it's important to get kids interested in being physically active too. Aside from keeping fit, a lot of studies show that it also helps kids mentally; active kids are found to be more attentive and focused in class and tend to perform better academically. Activities that coordinate left and right sides are said to help with focusing and attention too. Some studies also show that active kids are less likely to suffer from depression and other mental health issues too.

Have you been able to find any kind of activity that he may be interested in? If he's interested in shooting games then maybe just run around the yard or park and play shootings with toy guns. <shrug>

I think the key is to find something that can engage the child's interest. Good luck. :)

This thing is he's only interested in games. We've brought him Halo novels and other things that relate to the video games and he'll read 2 pages and thats it. Money not well spent. I've tried engaging him in other things But when we're outside he just complains about being bored or plays for a bit then bails.
I limit my play time when i'm around him. I spend more time doing things like work and study etc then i do with the fun stuff. I'm trying to let him see that the fun stuff is ok as long as the real work gets done first.
I know he can read cause he's read with me before.

[Sharky]

This thing is he's only interested in games. We've brought him Halo novels and other things that relate to the video games and he'll read 2 pages and thats it. Money not well spent. I've tried engaging him in other things But when we're outside he just complains about being bored or plays for a bit then bails.
I limit my play time when i'm around him. I spend more time doing things like work and study etc then i do with the fun stuff. I'm trying to let him see that the fun stuff is ok as long as the real work gets done first.
I know he can read cause he's read with me before.

my Sister had a similar problem with the nephew. the xbox and technology went bye bye...now he plays sports and all that sort of stuff and has his xbox back but then every case is different i guess

[LordCyrusOmega]

I think thats whats going to happen in the end. Just put a ban on all the digital stuff.

[Bartrim]

I think thats whats going to happen in the end. Just put a ban on all the digital stuff.

Thats what we had to do. My 3 year old would just there and watch DVDs all day. So we only allow a set time to watch DVD's. It worked for us. Now he is back into reading and playing with his toys and going to the park etc. Plus he is very excited that we are getting a pool.

[SamLoi888]

I think thats whats going to happen in the end. Just put a ban on all the digital stuff.

Don't waste time. Do it now. You're failing the child as long as you allow this useless behaviour to continue.

[Saintly]

I have a 10 year old boy (not actually my son, my Gf's who i help with) who does nothing but play X-box and watch tv. I've tried to get him involved in other things but he just doesn't want to. He's taken a liking to my TF's so i showed him some of my comics and books but he refuses to read. He has a brain but doesn't want to use it. Are we seeing a pattern here?

What can i do to get him interested in other things and reading? I've seen where spending all you time on video games and tv gets you and i want so much more for him.

Banning the digital age is the way to go and while you do that, what kind of games does he play on the xbox? Are we refering to shooting, puzzle, rpgs, etc?

You can substitute these with physical interest... ie. Shooting -> get a couple of nerf or buzzbee guns. Puzzle -> riddles or maybe try Lego Creationary (board game). RPGs -> story roleplay with dice (D&D style)

I too have a 10yr old and has limited console gaming to weekend only for a couple of hours strictly. He plays with his Legos, Transformers, Nerf, his 4yr old brother and rides his pushbike when he can't play on the consoles.

In terms of reading books, I let my 10 yr old pick the books HE wants to read and I just have to make sure there's at least 10 sentences in the book before buying them. A good place for books (or magazines or comics) is the local library, get a feel of what he picks out, see if it gets read.

[jazzcomp]

I think thats whats going to happen in the end. Just put a ban on all the digital stuff.


Thats what we had to do. My 3 year old would just there and watch DVDs all day. So we only allow a set time to watch DVD's. It worked for us. Now he is back into reading and playing with his toys and going to the park etc. Plus he is very excited that we are getting a pool.


Banning the digital age is the way to go and while you do that, what kind of games does he play on the xbox? Are we refering to shooting, puzzle, rpgs, etc?

You can substitute these with physical interest... ie. Shooting -> get a couple of nerf or buzzbee guns. Puzzle -> riddles or maybe try Lego Creationary (board game). RPGs -> story roleplay with dice (D&D style)

I too have a 10yr old and has limited console gaming to weekend only for a couple of hours strictly. He plays with his Legos, Transformers, Nerf, his 4yr old brother and rides his pushbike when he can't play on the consoles.

In terms of reading books, I let my 10 yr old pick the books HE wants to read and I just have to make sure there's at least 10 sentences in the book before buying them. A good place for books is the local library, get a feel of what he picks out, see if it gets read.

At least the younger kids aren't in school yet. But yeah I agree to this. my son doesn't want to go out and quite grumpy when he does because he can't play with his console. he always asks when are we gonna go home.

[SamLoi888]

I too have a 10yr old and has limited console gaming to weekend only for a couple of hours strictly.

That's an intelligent way to go.

[Saintly]

That's an intelligent way to go.

Yes it is, and he gets bonus time (an hour max.) on the consoles if he has done all his schoolwork by Saturday afternoon or completed certain milestones.

[GoktimusPrime]

Another suggestion is perhaps to use the games as a reward. For example, if he can play so many hours of sport (with satisfactory effort) and read so many pages of a book, then he can earn so many hours of gameplay. Maybe use a points system, e.g. reward him with so many points for every hour of sport played or pages of a book read.

You may need to confiscate the controllers or power cord and keep them hidden and only give him access to them when he has earnt enough points to play his games. Likewise any negative behaviour would result in points being deducted.


He has a brain but doesn't want to use it. Are we seeing a pattern here?
Yes, I see this every day. (-_-) So many kids with potential but too lazy to do anything about it. Likewise there are a lot of kids who aren't that bright, but they achieve a lot just through a lot of effort and hard work. I much prefer having hardworking students of average intelligence than lazy gifted/talented students.

But yeah, they say you can attract more ants with honey instead of vinegar - so try some kind of reward system. Let him know if he wants his privileges (and playing computer games is absolutely a privilege, not a right), then he has to earn them. Also teaches the value of working to get what you want. It also teaches that there are consequences for his actions - both positive and negative, and it's entirely up to him whether or not he wants the positive consequence (game access) or not. If he refuses to read or get active, don't get mad - just say something like, "If you can earn X points then we'll let you play your games, but if you don't then you can't. It's all up to you mate, I'm not gonna force you." --- by letting the child know that he actually has a choice it actually makes him feel empowered and in control of his destiny; which most kids respond to positively. (re: choice-control reality therapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_therapy))

[LordCyrusOmega]

Thanks for the tips peoples. Much appreciated.
Gonna start making it a reward system rather then an everyday thing using his marks, chores and constructive activities.
He doesn't like it but he'll get use to it.

[GoktimusPrime]

As mentioned in the October Acquisition thread I got the Transformers Animated Collection (http://img.7netshopping.jp/bks/images/i5/1102906875.jpg) book... for my daughter. :p

It's one of those books entirely printed on thick cardboard pages (similar to other books for infants like the Hungry Caterpillar) which not only makes it easier for infants with more limited dexterity to turn the pages, but also lets them do so without wrinkling or tearing the book apart. My daughter's already torn one of my comic books apart (don't worry, it wasn't a TF comic ;)). I know those of you with older children and are old hats at the parenting game must be thinking, "well duh," but I thought I'd share this with my fellow parenting noobs. :D

That and I just wanted an excuse to talk about this book. Heh. It's basically a big advert for the toys - there's pics of each figure with a profile explaining who they are etc. Of course, I have every mould in the book 'cept Blackout. The book isn't persuading me to rush out and buy him... yet. ;)

[GoktimusPrime]

Something entirely unexpected happened tonight... while changing my daughter and getting her ready for bed, I started singing "Sakura Sakura" (Cherry Blossoms) to her as a lullaby and as I was doing this with my hands putting on her pants, she started signing "Sakura" in Nihon-Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language)! The funny thing is, she's NEVER been explicitly taught any sign language.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_20110121c.jpg Making the sign for "Cherry Blossom"

On a few occasions when I sing Sakura Sakura to her, I might sign the song just to make it fun, but I've never taught the signs to her as I would when teaching her spoken language (e.g. repetition, association, acknowledgement, praise, correction etc.) - at best she would've learnt this from just the occasional observation... and it's not something I've shown her too often, and it's also been ages since I've done it (I'd nearly forgotten about it until tonight). I know the more experienced parents here won't think much of this, but as a first timer I'm just astounded at how much children can learn by osmosis -- just by observing and absorbing everything around them, even without being instructed.

:)

[GoktimusPrime]

Possibly Lugnut's youngest fangirl (his only fangirl??)...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_lugnut2.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yuki_lugnut1.jpg <---working on her evil Decepticon grin :cool:

[GoktimusPrime]

Looks like she's moved on from Lugnut and found a new flame... chopper flame!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/2011_07_03_optimuskiss.jpg

[GoktimusPrime]

2 months ago Yukikaze started saying "Bumblebee" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvmSuye8S0I) (which she says as "Bum boo dee!" -- she now refers to all Transformers (and Voltron) as Bumblebee. :p She also now tries to sing along whenever she hears this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2aY4WKN7_g) :)

Earlier this week she picked up a new expression: "Beast Wars" (she says it as "Bee Whoa!") ;)

Good to see her learning all the important words. :cool:

[Sam]

Kids sure grow up fast Gok - I still remember when you had her in the pram that time some Sydney TF fans had a meet in the city...

We're expecting our first child (a girl) next March....

[GoktimusPrime]

Congratulations Sam! :) So good that you already know the gender. We wanted to know but whenever we did the ultra sound, her legs were crossed!! I remember my wife getting frustrated and asked the radiologist, "How are we gonna find out now?" and he replied, "The same way your grandparents did... when the baby's born!" :D :p

It was kinda annoying for us not knowing though. Having to buy gender-neutral colours, and when people kindly offered hand-me-down baby stuff, we accepted it all - so my daughter still has various baby blue clothes :p

But the most arduous part was picking the name!! :eek: I recommend getting that sorted if you haven't already... it's amazing how much you can argue over a kid's name! Especially for us because we wanted to choose a single name that was trilingually compatible - and of course, we had to choose a boy and girl's name! :rolleyes: Before we did this I used to wonder why some Asian parents choose completely different Anglophone and Asian names for their kids, and I thought that it was cool how some parents chose ones that were compatible across languages -- like one of my students, her name is technically Korean, but it's spelt and pronounced the same as an Anglophone name too; although I think it was a happy coincidence, don't think her parents had that in mind when they chose the name. But now I understand why most don't bother doing it -- it's a pain the bum!! :p

[GoktimusPrime]

Here's my daughter watching G1 this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXTk8S6L2Sk

Earlier this evening she was tapping me on the leg going, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Bumboodee! Bumboodee! Bumboodee!" -- I turned around to see that Target Xmas commercial that shows like a split second of a MISB Leader Class Bumblebee toy. ;)

[Bartrim]

Kids sure grow up fast Gok - I still remember when you had her in the pram that time some Sydney TF fans had a meet in the city...

We're expecting our first child (a girl) next March....

Congrats Sam :)

My youngest will be 2 in January the time really does go quick. I find it such a conflict. I kinda want them to be more independent as I am already completely exhausted but I also dont want them to grow out of that cute phase around that age.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, it's great having them so cute and cuddly, but then it's exhausting cos they're so entirely dependent on you for everything. Then when they get older they can do stuff for themselves, but are too "cool" to play with the olds. ;) :p

Although I think it's great how Saintly still plays Transformers with his boys. I hope his boys never grow out of that. :)

[Sam]

Congratulations Sam! :) So good that you already know the gender. We wanted to know but whenever we did the ultra sound, her legs were crossed!! I remember my wife getting frustrated and asked the radiologist, "How are we gonna find out now?" and he replied, "The same way your grandparents did... when the baby's born!" :D :p

It was kinda annoying for us not knowing though. Having to buy gender-neutral colours, and when people kindly offered hand-me-down baby stuff, we accepted it all - so my daughter still has various baby blue clothes :p

But the most arduous part was picking the name!! :eek: I recommend getting that sorted if you haven't already... it's amazing how much you can argue over a kid's name! Especially for us because we wanted to choose a single name that was trilingually compatible - and of course, we had to choose a boy and girl's name! :rolleyes: Before we did this I used to wonder why some Asian parents choose completely different Anglophone and Asian names for their kids, and I thought that it was cool how some parents chose ones that were compatible across languages -- like one of my students, her name is technically Korean, but it's spelt and pronounced the same as an Anglophone name too; although I think it was a happy coincidence, don't think her parents had that in mind when they chose the name. But now I understand why most don't bother doing it -- it's a pain the bum!! :p

Thanks for the tip - regarding names, we only need to pick two (one English, one Chinese), though the Chinese needs to sound acceptable in both Mandarin and Cantonese (since my parents are from China, and I would like to teach my daughter how to speak Mandarin). Thankfully it wasn't too difficult.

Know what you mean by gender neutral clothes, but I suppose it's not such a big issue for babies. :)


Congrats Sam :)

My youngest will be 2 in January the time really does go quick. I find it such a conflict. I kinda want them to be more independent as I am already completely exhausted but I also dont want them to grow out of that cute phase around that age.

Thanks - it's hard to have the "best of both worlds" huh? :)

[GoktimusPrime]

Thanks for the tip - regarding names, we only need to pick two (one English, one Chinese), though the Chinese needs to sound acceptable in both Mandarin and Cantonese (since my parents are from China, and I would like to teach my daughter how to speak Mandarin). Thankfully it wasn't too difficult.

You thinking about sending her to Saturday Community Language school? Couple of weeks ago we went to an Open Day for a Japanese SCLS - they had an information seminar for parents and art and craft for the little kiddies. Saw a few of my students there who freaked out when they saw me there (gasp - teachers have lives outside school!! :p).

[GoktimusPrime]

While I was trying to photograph my Encore Constructicons, someone decided to do a bit of photobombing!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/2011_12_01b.jpg

Proving that Transformers can indeed be educational... someone decided to start counting Constructicons!
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/2011_12_01c.jpg
"Six! Six Constructicons, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!" [thunder]

[mknell]

While I was trying to photograph my Encore Constructicons, someone decided to do a bit of photobombing!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/2011_12_01b.jpg

Proving that Transformers can indeed be educational... someone decided to start counting Constructicons!
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/2011_12_01c.jpg
"Six! Six Constructicons, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!" [thunder]

LOL that is so adorable!

[Sam]

You thinking about sending her to Saturday Community Language school?

Not 100% certain. I will probably speak it to her at home to encourage her, and hopefully she will be interested in learning (I don't like forcing things on people). Perhaps I will buy some dubbed anime from HK for the Cantonese aspect. :)

A question for all parents - currently when my baby cries I find it's usually because she's hungry or the nappy is dirty. In either case it is easily resolved. But sometimes I find she's just unsettled (even when I've burped her after a feed) and unhappy.

If you've come across a similar situation, how do you settle your baby? Thanks.

[GoktimusPrime]

A question for all parents - currently when my baby cries I find it's usually because she's hungry or the nappy is dirty. In either case it is easily resolved. But sometimes I find she's just unsettled (even when I've burped her after a feed) and unhappy.

If you've come across a similar situation, how do you settle your baby? Thanks.
There's different schools of thought about this. I would hold her and cuddle and pat her as I sing to her until she falls asleep in my arms (which sometimes would take a lot longer than other times). But others say you should just leave them in the cot and let them self-soothe and become more independent.

[Bartrim]

There's different schools of thought about this. I would hold her and cuddle and pat her as I sing to her until she falls asleep in my arms (which sometimes would take a lot longer than other times). But others say you should just leave them in the cot and let them self-soothe and become more independent.

I do what is called parental presence. Where you let them cry for 15 minutes or so. Then walk in, lay them down, give them a pat (never pick them up) if they have a mobile they like I put that on and leave the room. Wash, rinse, repeat. This worked well for me as my oldest boy was a terrible sleeper and nothing worked. This worked best for us and he now sleeps really well. So we did parental presence from day one with my youngest and he now sleeps 11-12hrs per night from the moment you put him down.:)

But every kid is different. You just have to experiment until you find what works for you and your kid.

[GoktimusPrime]

IMO vomit is the worst thing to clean up. At least poo is contained within the nappy and its vicinity... but vomit just gets everywhere and it's such a chore to clean (especially in the car); and after you clean as best you can, the smell lingers! :eek:

Any tips on getting rid of that post-chunder fragrance? :rolleyes: Thankfully most of it was on the child seat, once I removed that 98% of the smell had gone from the car.

[5FDP]

The last time someone vomited in my car I had to sell it because of the smell. Once it gets into the upholstery you can't get rid of it. True story.

[GoktimusPrime]

Thankfully almost all of the smell was absorbed by the child restraint-seat. So I'm trying to get the smell out of that. I quickly rubbed it down with baby-wipes and paper towels as soon as I got home, then sprayed it with Glen 20. My wife later wiped it down with warm soapy water, and that got about 90% of the smell off, but it's still there. When my daughter got into the car yesterday after day care, she said, "(ユキカゼ)吐く、ベビーチェアくさい!" ("I vomit(ed), child seat smelly!") :rolleyes: (at least she's accepting self-responsibility :p)

One of my colleagues recommended using vanilla :confused: I wonder if bicarb soda would work... <rubs.chin>

[Bartrim]

I am a sympathetic vomiter so I hate when my kids vomit. Kinda like Andy in The Office "When I see someone throw up, I throw up... and when I talk about throwing up... Oh God!" My oldest boy just had hand, foot, mouth disease. The worst thing about that for me is that it lasts for about a week and they just vomit at random intervals. He only vomitted 3 times over the course of the week but one was in his bed in the middle of the night. Thankfully my wife understands that she has vomit duty. Then for the rest of the week he slept in our room on a little fold out bed just in case. So one night my wife is working on the computer so I decide to "take watch" and sit on my bed near my son and watch a movie. Of course this turned out to be the next time he vomitted. I managed to get the bucket there in time but then I'm trying to hold the bucket under his mouth without looking and blocking my ears (I even hate the sound of people vomiting) Then I had to wash down the toilet... I am so proud of myself I did all that and didn't get sick... came close but managed to keep it down:D

Cars are the worst. Back when I worked at the local Mazda dealership My cousins girlfriend vomited in his Mazda3. Thankfully it wasn't much but no matter how many times they had the car detailed the smell was still there. We had to end up replacing the interior carpet. It was fun experience. I've got some photos, it looks totally chopped:p

[GoktimusPrime]

From this thread (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=13873):

iamirondude: I've been thinking about your situation for a while, particularly the recent events where you've hidden the child's newly acquired Transformers in an attempt to teach him a lesson in empathy and understanding -- and in that regard let me say that I understand why you did it. However, I think that this plan has the potential to backfire on you. Here are some issues that may arise from it - oh, and please don't take any of this personally - I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here. :)

+ The child and his supporters may perceive your actions as petty payback. I know it's not, and you were trying to instill empathy in him - which this child seems to sorely need more of - but it's possible for others to see it differently. They might see it as you stealing his toys because he stole from you first.

+ Rather than empathising with your feelings as you hoped he would, the child may engage in a contest of oneupmanship where he'll try to get back at you by stealing from you again.

+ The child and his supporters may argue that there's an element of hypocrisy in your plan. That you've used stealing as a means of teaching this child not to steal. It makes it difficult for you to maintain your moral highground when you have, in their eyes, done the same thing that the boy has done that you so disapprove of. So it can be seen as "Do as I say, but not as I do."

I think it's important that parents/caregivers and other adults need to role model the expected behaviour(s) that we want from kids. If a child swears at an adult and the adult replies, "You little <illegitimate.child>, now see? You didn't like that did you?" -- rather it can carry more authority if you say to a child, "I've never used that language at you before. I don't appreciate you using it at me."

Kids tend to respect adults more when they role-model the expected behaviour rather than behaving to the contrary. For example, I HATE wearing ties, but I wear one every day at school ('cept sports days) so I don't look like a flaming hypocrite when I penalise students for not wearing their school ties.

Remember that respect is always a two-way street. He disrespected you by stealing from you (and other stuff he's done). But the boy and his supporters might argue that you also disrespected him by 'stealing' from him. Again, I know this was never your intention and I'm not even trying to suggest that it was -- but it could be perceived that way from the child and his supporters (who seem to outnumber/outrank you :().

My suggestion: return the toys if you haven't done so already. Sit down with the child and his supporters and tell them that you realise that taking his toys may not have been the best thing to do, but explain that you did it because you felt angry and frustrated because the child had disrespected you by violating your personal property. :mad: Assure the child that you won't steal his property again, but likewise you expect the same level of respect and courtesy to be shown to you in return. Then discuss with his caregivers what suitable/agreeable consequences may be dealt should he repeat offend again.

It sounds like this child may need some kind of behavioural contract where you list down all your expectations - and it doesn't need to be a long or complex list. It may be something as simple as "Show respect at all times" and each time he does something wrong, start the conversation with "Were you showing respect?"
e.g.:
+ Stealing your toys; "Were you showing respect?"
+ Cutting the brake lines; "Were you showing respect?"
+ Stealing money; "Were you showing respect?"
+ Cutting the hose; "Were you showing respect?"
...etc.

If he tries to get smart and says that he doesn't know what 'respect' means, then just say something like, "Respect is when you treat other people the way you want to be treated. You didn't like it when I took your stuff. Do you think I liked it when you took my stuff? Do you think other people like it when you take or damage their property?"

What you do is, rather than yelling at him or telling what he should or shouldn't do, just throw lots of questions at him about what HE thinks is the right thing to do. That way, the child becomes directly involved in creating the rules that govern his behaviour, which gives him a sense of ownership. You're not explicitly telling him what to do or how to think, but rather guiding him in the right direction. :) So rather than saying, "Don't do that! That's bad!" say something like, "Do you really think that was an appropriate thing to do/say?" / "What do you think might have been a better thing to do/say?" <---this second question helps the child to think of a better solution for the future and avoid repeating the bad behaviour.

Remember that when adults tell children what they should be doing/saying, it makes them feel disempowered. This child may be lashing out because he feels that he has had little control in his life. Allowing kids to dictate their own code of conduct makes the child feel empowered and gives them a greater sense of control.

This is what's called Choice Theory/Reality Control Therapy. Here are some links. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice_theory
http://wglasser.com/
http://www.angelfire.com/ab/brightminds/
http://www.choicetheory.com/
http://www.betteblance.com/Choice-Theory/

[GoktimusPrime]

...I was just looking at some photos of Yukikaze shortly after she was born. She was _tiny_... earlier today (yesterday) she stood in front of my Transformers height chart, she's about 87cm now. She was dwarfed by Fortress and Brave Maximus when she was born... now she's about 32cm taller than them! Can't freakin' believe it... :o

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/th_yuki_maximus_20090703.jpg

[Bartrim]

...I was just looking at some photos of Yukikaze shortly after she was born. She was _tiny_... earlier today (yesterday) she stood in front of my Transformers height chart, she's about 87cm now. She was dwarfed by Fortress and Brave Maximus when she was born... now she's about 32cm taller than them! Can't freakin' believe it... :o



Yep they grow up so fast. So when is number 2 being planned?;)

[GoktimusPrime]

Weird... my daughter can say Banana Cake (バナナケーキ) in Japanese just fine, but when she tries to say it in English it comes out as "Obama Cake!" :D

[Yukitora]

ahahahahahahahahaha weel we have this joke where we dibratly say things wrong, and Alex will correct us if shes taken any notice or listened to the order given. just a few words from the toddler years. like 'boooger' for burger, 'hoosh' for shoe (the 'sh' is at the end of the word insted of the beginning) and 'humbrella' for umbrella ect. sometimes when shes doing well she'll delibratly use the words to see if mummy and daddy are listening... too bad mummy and daddy just repete her words back to her lol! and then it just becomes a fun family game for the next 5 mins -.-;

[GoktimusPrime]

I sometimes pronounce words in a funny way in front of students. Like when I tell them to "Take out your books," I pronounce the "oo" like "u" in "Luke". ;) I'm not gonna do that with my daughter cos:
(a) At her age, she wouldn't detect it as a joke and she'd learn the incorrect pronunciation as being correct
(b) I don't speak to her in English anyway (but I'm definitely not going to mispronounce Japanese words to her... she already mispronounces a lot of them without my help :p)

[GoktimusPrime]

Happy father's day to all the dads out there. :)

[GoktimusPrime]

Hands up all the parents out there who struggle to find time to exercise? *raises.hand*
Here's a neat idea -- these exercises are designed to be tough but fun, because you're also playing with your child! :D Your kids will probably get more fun out of this than you, but seeing them laugh will motivate you to keep going! I've been trying this since last Friday, and my daughter loves it. She often asks me to 'exercise' with her!
http://primalhealth.co/workout-with-your-kid-11-exercises-that-are-tough-for-parents-and-fun-for-kids/

[GoktimusPrime]

From here (http://otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=15054) - pic of our newest parent, BigAngryTrev looking very chuffed with his protoform. :)
http://i1294.photobucket.com/albums/b615/BigAngryTrev/Orion2_zps53c78c14.jpg

[Bidoofdude]

Very nice. Looks like a very healthy baby to me.

[GoktimusPrime]

So what are people's plans for the kiddies during the Easter period?

We're taking our daughter to the Sydney Family Show this Sunday -- I find it's a lot more fun for kids, cos it's more about just rides and stuff for kids to see and do without all the commercialisation (i.e. agricultural promotion) of the Royal Easter Show. They have animals for kids to see and touch, but they don't have all those big fancy shows like sheep racing, pig diving etc. (nor those dog and cat competitions etc.) Having said that, we're going to the Easter Show too... Yukikaze hasn't been to one before, and also I've got an old friend coming from overseas who's wants to bring her kids too (her kids haven't been to Australia before). Not sure if there'll be an official Transformers showbag, but I'm sure if there is, it'll be greatly disappointing. Although I'll probably get it if it's the same as last time because my TF backpacks are falling apart and I need a new one! :rolleyes: Well, I do have another one that I got from my Hasbro prize pack, but it's kid sized and way too small for an adult! :o :p

If anyone else in Sydney feels like bringing their kids (or just yourself ;)) along... well... you'll know how to spot me. ;)

On another note... Yukikaze will be eligible to start Kindy next year (whether she will or not is yet to be decided, cos she was born in June, so it's a tricky decision -- we're gonna wait until the end of the year and see what her pre school teachers say). But in the meantime, we're looking around for a school, so any stories/advice from some of our more experienced parents here would be greatly appreciated in this regard. Our particular circumstances are:
1. We want to send her to a public school, as my wife and I support public education. :) (not meaning to rag out on those who prefer private education, but that's our preference)
2. But we don't want to send her to a local school... cos our local area is... yeah. *cough* Although the area that I work in is a better area, so we're looking at sending her to a school near my work, with the proviso of safety (i.e. if anything were to happen to her at school, I can get to her more quickly if it's near my work as opposed to near our home).

Anyone her have experience in enrolling their child(ren) at a non-local govt school?

[GoktimusPrime]

We recently bought a pair of Pororo training chopsticks (http://www.thekoreanbaby.com/sections/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/new-pororo-training.jpg) from a Korean store and Yuki loves it! :) We got the one with Petty (the girl penguin, pink chopsticks). Here's how they work (http://bestsmilering.com/Pororo/Chopsticks_Explanation_level1_01.jpg). The one thing that impresses me about this design are the thumb and finger rings that teach the child how to hold the chopsticks with the correct grip. It's such a simple but effective idea. :)

So yeah, for anyone wanting to help their kids learn how to use or improve their chopstick skills, I'd highly recommend getting these. The only downside is that they're not cheap - about $9-10 a pair. :o I really should get myself a pair of Star Wars Chopsticks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m25QS2zLLVA) :o (they're also pretty damn pricey too)

[GoktimusPrime]

Just went to our first Open Day as we're trying to apply for a primary school for Yuki next year. Our first choice is a public school that's out of area, but we want to enrol her there because:
a) It's closer to my work
b) It's one of the top ranking schools in NSW
c) It has a fully immersive bilingual Japanese programme (where Japanese is the primary language of instruction from K-3).

Gah! It's unbelievable how even enrolling a child into public education can be so competitive and stressful! :eek: :rolleyes:

[Bartrim]

Just went to our first Open Day as we're trying to apply for a primary school for Yuki next year. Our first choice is a public school that's out of area, but we want to enrol her there because:
a) It's closer to my work
b) It's one of the top ranking schools in NSW
c) It has a fully immersive bilingual Japanese programme (where Japanese is the primary language of instruction from K-3).

Gah! It's unbelievable how even enrolling a child into public education can be so competitive and stressful! :eek: :rolleyes:

Really ?!?! I had no problems. Guess its a benefit of my location.

I thought with public schools you had to use the one closest to your place of residence?

[GoktimusPrime]

You don't have to, but it's easier because all public schools legally have to accept all kids who live within their catchment area. But the schools we're trying to enrol Yuki into area all out of area (but close to my work).

Safety/welfare is another reason to have a child attend a school closer to a parent's workplace rather than residence, because my work is about 22km away from home, so in an event of an emergency (e.g. gets injured) it could take me up to an hour driving through traffic congestion to get to her, whereas I could get to her within minutes if she's at a school near my work.

[Sam]

Gah! It's unbelievable how even enrolling a child into public education can be so competitive and stressful! :eek: :rolleyes:

It can be, but it's fairly good here in Australia.

If you're in places such as Hong Kong, even to get into kindy the kid has to be "interviewed" by the school principal. If you are in China, it's ridiculous - you sometimes have to pay "gift money" (i.e. bribes) to the school because of huge demands to get into the good schools.

[GoktimusPrime]

A woman in Germany has given birth (naturally) to a baby bigger than Fortress Maximus! :eek:
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/girl-weighing-13-47-lbs-born-c-section-article-1.1411842#ixzz2aSrxUSqo

[jazzcomp]

How a parent feels! (http://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/video/dads-reaction-son-passing-maths-161306670.html) Could be on the teacher thread as well :D

Another link (http://http://kdvr.com/2013/10/22/dads-reaction-to-son-passing-math-is-priceless/)

[MayzaPrime]

Thats awesome! Proud Dad

I didn't notice this thread, I have 4 kids under 6yrs so you can understand why I may have missed it. :D

[jazzcomp]

Definitely understandable, mayzaprime :)

[Wheelie]

Thats awesome! Proud Dad

I didn't notice this thread, I have 4 kids under 6yrs so you can understand why I may have missed it. :D

Wow, just found it myself, a father of a 1.2 year old :)

[GoktimusPrime]

Took my daughter into her "big school" where she'll be starting Kindy next year. Fitted and purchased summer and sports uniforms (I'll buy the winter uniform later, they won't be wearing it until Term 2). Bought a combination of new and 2nd hand uniform because 2nd hand uniform is substantially cheaper (e.g. $28 for new school jacket, $5 for 2nd hand). Most of what I bought was new because a lot of the 2nd hand stuff was either sold out, didn't fit, or looked obviously worn/faded (or even had some minor damage). Sizing is interesting... you wanna get something a bit bigger for them to grow into, but not so big that it's going to be uncomfortable and way too baggy. :o Anyway, it was all very fun and now she's more excited about starting big school. :)

[Bartrim]

Took my daughter into her "big school" where she'll be starting Kindy next year. Fitted and purchased summer and sports uniforms (I'll buy the winter uniform later, they won't be wearing it until Term 2). Bought a combination of new and 2nd hand uniform because 2nd hand uniform is substantially cheaper (e.g. $28 for new school jacket, $5 for 2nd hand). Most of what I bought was new because a lot of the 2nd hand stuff was either sold out, didn't fit, or looked obviously worn/faded (or even had some minor damage). Sizing is interesting... you wanna get something a bit bigger for them to grow into, but not so big that it's going to be uncomfortable and way too baggy. :o Anyway, it was all very fun and now she's more excited about starting big school. :)

Word of advice. Keep one uniform spare for photo day. I can't believe how dirty Marcus gets compared to pre-school/daycare days. Sometimes I pick him up from school and I look at him as he comes running out of the classroom and I think to myself "Did you just lay down in the dirt all lunchtime?"

[GoktimusPrime]

We have 2 sets of the uniform so far, and we intend to get a third one later - and we'll wash-rotate throughout the week. Yuki won't be wearing the same uniform for more than a day in a row. I know some parents let their kids wear their uniform for 2 days before swapping over, but when I mentioned this idea to my wife she gave me that look of...
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/whatchootalkinbout.jpg
...so that was the end of that discussion and she'll be wearing a freshly cleaned uniform every day. :p

[Bartrim]

Yeah but some stains don't come out. Between the painting and other arts and crafts messes are made. Believe me some massive messes.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah but some stains don't come out. Between the painting and other arts and crafts messes are made. Believe me some massive messes.
Heh, fair point. :)

[GoktimusPrime]

My daughter's first attempt at writing in Latin:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/20131215b_zps7f773761.jpg
"qui docet discit"

[GoktimusPrime]

I've added a poll to this thread to see what the gender distribution of our kids is like. :)
To clarify...
Boy(s) = you only have a boy or all your kids are boys
Girl(s) = you only have a girl or all your kids are girls
Both (even) = you have an even number of boy(s) and girl(s)
More boys = you have more boys than girls (e.g. 2 girls, 1 boy)
More girls = you have more girls than boys (e.g. 2 boys, 1 girl)

:D

---------------------------------------------------
P.S.: A few days ago my daughter kept asking me what "suffer" means. I thought it was quite strange that a preschooler would even know this word. I asked her what she thought it meant, but she said she didn't know and kept on asking me. I eventually realised that she was asking me what "ça va?" means! :o (there are French kids in our neighbourhood that she sometimes plays with, so it seems that she's picking up some Français from them) -- ouh la la!

[MayzaPrime]

I have 3 boys and 1 girl

5,4,3 and 1 in that order

[iamirondude]

i only just noticed this thread. i've got 8 kids.. 5 boys and 3 girls. the eldest is 18 and the youngest is 3.

[GoktimusPrime]

A few months ago my daughter participated in a survey at her preschool involving multilingual children from a target language group. In the pre-survey information form we were asked to fill out, one of the questions asked what generation our child is, and there were two tick boxes that said "1st Generation" and "2nd Generation." So I drew another box and wrote "3rd Generation" next to it before ticking it. ;) Somewhat interesting that the PhD students running this survey didn't think that they would draw any multilingual kids from beyond 2nd generation. :o

[Megatran]

On the weekend my 5 year old niece asked if big tits (her words) was important. Not having children of our own yet and with the wife out doing the grocery shopping, I kinda didn't really know how to respond. So I said to her that it's not nice to make fun of people with big teeth ...... hoping to change the subject. But she reverted the conversation back to big tits (again her words). So I began to tell her the story (analogy) of when her younger brother, herself & I baked a chocolate cake about a month ago. We didn't have any chocolate icing on the cake but it tasted just as good. Having 'icing on the cake' does not make it better, nor does a cake without icing detract from the wonderful taste.

To all you parents out there, how would you have handled the situation?

(By the way, I did correct her on the use of the word tits).

[Bartrim]

On the weekend my 5 year old niece asked if big tits (her words) was important. Not having children of our own yet and with the wife out doing the grocery shopping, I kinda didn't really know how to respond. So I said to her that it's not nice to make fun of people with big teeth ...... hoping to change the subject. But she reverted the conversation back to big tits (again her words). So I began to tell her the story (analogy) of when her younger brother, herself & I baked a chocolate cake about a month ago. We didn't have any chocolate icing on the cake but it tasted just as good. Having 'icing on the cake' does not make it better, nor does a cake without icing detract from the wonderful taste.

To all you parents out there, how would you have handled the situation?

(By the way, I did correct her on the use of the word tits).

Don't know... I have boys. Thank God lol.

[Gofigure]

Taken back by the language.....from a 5 year old :(

Saddens and disappoints, even just the use of the word. The question is even more of a worry at that age.

Speechless.....but also glad to have 2 boys!

[GoktimusPrime]

I find it utterly bizarre that a 5 year old would even think about such things! :eek: You were right to correct her on the inappropriate use of that word, Megatran. I would probably answer the question with, "I don't know," and then distract her attention by moving onto another subject straight away.
e.g. "I don't know. Hey, did you know that the next Transformers movie is going to have Dinobots in it?" ;)

------------------------------------------

Speaking of language in an entirely different manner, since our daughter started school this year I've been increasingly meeting a whole lot of other parents of similar age children; at school and at the two community language schools that she attends. Since then I've come across a number of parents who want their children to be multilingual but:
1/ allow their children to speak to them in English instead of the target language, and/or...
2/ allow themselves to speak to the children in English instead of the target language
3/ expect community language schools to be able to teach the target language(s) without it being spoken at home

I'm not a fan of this method, because that's what my parents did with me and it utterly failed, and as a result I'm incapable to speaking their target language (such as it were), and many of my cousins are also incapable because their parents did the same thing. I mentioned this to at least one couple, and told them that IMHO sending kids to community language schools is a waste of time and money if you're not going to also speak the language at home.

I have parents come and express their concern about this, and I tell them about the une personne une langue method that my wife and I use consistently which we use to maintain our daughter's multilingualism. I've heard a myriad of various excuses as to why their child(ren) speak English at home... but honestly, it's nothing anything that my wife and I don't or haven't already faced. We just stick to our guns and remain consistent.

Excuses include:
> Being busy. Yeah, everyone's busy. I don't understand how speaking in English makes people less busy than in the target language.
> Children behaving badly when being elicited to speak in the target language. Yeah, that happens. My daughter did it too when she was about 1~2 years old. So what do you do when your child refuses to follow any other household or family rule? That's right, you enforce it. And even monolingual families have language rules, e.g. not giving a child what s/he wants unless s/he says "please" and "thank you." You do the same thing, only expanding it to using the target language(s). When my daughter was a toddler, she would demand for water in English. Cry, scream etc. I would repeatedly tell her that she'll only get the water when she asked for it in the target language. And yeah, she'd start screaming louder, and I'd just repeat the rule - over and over and over and over and over again (calmly but firmly). And eventually she would ask for water in the target language and she'd finally get a drink! Sure, it drove me absolutely mental at the time, but I stuck to my guns and it eventually worked.

[5FDP]

Was following this story on news.com.au - I’m not paying for your choice to have a kid (http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/opinion-im-not-paying-for-your-choice-to-have-a-kid/story-fnet08ui-1226873377080), and felt compelled to post a comment on their site. In true media-controlling style, they've removed all comments and left a few remaining tweets that support the author in his view despite the fact that almost every single comment I read prior to their removal was in disagreement.

My main point was that if people were going to complain about this, then I will only pay taxes for the roads that I personally use. Everyone else can fend for themselves. There were other comments along the lines that the majority of us are paying taxes for things we don't always use and this is why it's called a community. These same people complaining will be the same ones in years to come that will stick their hands out for welfare.

[Trent]

Was following this story on news.com.au - I’m not paying for your choice to have a kid (http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/opinion-im-not-paying-for-your-choice-to-have-a-kid/story-fnet08ui-1226873377080), and felt compelled to post a comment on their site. In true media-controlling style, they've removed all comments and left a few remaining tweets that support the author in his view despite the fact that almost every single comment I read prior to their removal was in disagreement.

My main point was that if people were going to complain about this, then I will only pay taxes for the roads that I personally use. Everyone else can fend for themselves. There were other comments along the lines that the majority of us are paying taxes for things we don't always use and this is why it's called a community. These same people complaining will be the same ones in years to come that will stick their hands out for welfare.

Yeah. I can't comment because it makes me angry. I can't get how your surprised? I'm mean, look who won the last election :rolleyes:

[GoktimusPrime]

For anyone who cares, 2013's Top Baby Names (http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/pregnancy/baby-names/australias-top-baby-names-of-2013-20140328-35nj4.html#utm_source=FD&utm_medium=lifeandstylepuff&utm_campaign=names). :o

[GoktimusPrime]

Had dinner last night with the family of one of Yuki's classmates... they have 3 kids. As a parent of an only child, I feel that I have a better appreciation for parents of multiple children, especially when said multiple children are very active. XO I have another friend who has 2 kids, but they're relatively placid and they also live with the grandparents which makes it a lot easier. But in a family where there aren't additional caregivers aside from the parents around to help out, it's certainly more challenging. The husband in this family works 6 days a week, so it's up to his wife to look after the 3 kids most of the time and it's understandably incredibly exhausting (they have 1 child in kindy, 1 in preschool, and another who's still a toddler). To their credit, they don't take any nonsense from their kids and seem pretty good at consistently enforcing consequences for all three children. One of the kids was misbehaving and ignoring verbal prompts and warnings, and was consequently sent to her room for time out. She was kicking and screaming in there, but her attention-seeking behaviour was duly ignored. Afterwards they allowed her back to the table, but she continued insisting on wanting to misbehave, so the parents gave her two choices - behave or go back to her room. She continued on insisting on doing what she wanted, and as a result was sent back to her room, and again her bad attention-seeking behaviour was promptly ignored. After a few minutes she was brought back to the table, where she sat down and was well behaved for the rest of the evening. :)

My wife and I have also gone through this stage with Yuki when she was around that age (aah, the Terrible Twos), and in ensuring that we enforced consistent consequences for her actions, Yuki's now pretty well behaved (most of the time :p). But one challenge that I can see for parents of multiple children is having to switch between dealing with those different stages of child development! As parents of an only child, once Yuki has been through a stage, we move on from it and breathe a sigh of relief. But parents of multiple children can't do that, because they have to "revisit" those previous stages with the younger child(ren)!

I know that all the parents of multiple children here are reading this going, "Well, duh!", but I personally now have a greater appreciation for people who are raising more than one child and having to juggle between going back and forth between different developmental stages with their kids! I salute you. :D

And I think all parents of babies and infants who maintain consistent consequences and discipline with their children deserve a pat on the back too. It's not easy because they're so darn cuuuuute, and hearing them crying and screaming when we discipline them is emotionally very difficult... but we have to remember that sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind. Spare the rod and spoil the child. I can personally attest that all the emotional pain and trials are worth it in the end, because after we got through Yuki's "Terrible Twos" period, she's become a much easier child to deal with. e.g. last night she wanted to go straight to bed without brushing her teeth. I called out her name once, and after that she went straight into the bathroom and started brushing her teeth! There was no need for me to raise my voice, no need to verbally reprimand her or discipline her etc. She knows what my expectations are, and she knows that there's a 110% chance that she will be met with consequences for failing to meet those consequences. She also knows that she will have positive consequences for being compliant too, so last night after brushing her teeth I read one of her favourite books as a bed time story as a reward before showering her with lots of kisses and cuddles before lights out. :) Knock on wood. :p

[GoktimusPrime]

Tonight Yuki was delightfully surprised to discover that there can be words in different languages that sound the same (or similar)!

I held up three fingers and asked her...
Me>「これは日本語で何と言う？」("What's this in Japanese?")
Yuki> 「さん！」("San!")
Me>「中国語ではなんと言うの？」("What's it called in Chinese?")
Yuki> 「知らない。」("I dunno.")
Me>「えぇ～？数えてみて・・・」("Huh? Count and see...")
Yuki>「イー、アー」("Ii, aa...")
<pauses as it slowly dawns on her>
Yuki>「サン！」("San!")
<laughs so hard she could hardly breath>

Earlier today she was also talking about how the word for 'bread' is the same in both Spanish and Japanese (Pan; from the Latin word "pānis"; the English word "pantry" is related to this) -- and that wasn't the first time she's spoken about that, but for some reason, until tonight, she hadn't quite made that "zOMG! They're different languages with the same sounding word for the same thing!" connection until tonight! lol :D

[Trent]

So, as you are aware I recently became a dad. One of the benefits of this is that I that now officially a member of this thread :D

So what advice for dealing with newborns? He's pretty good so far, sleeps between 3 and 6 hours at night between feeds and is generally happy.

So what can you people that have been there already offer in wisdom?

[Trent]

It would appear that I, no doubt along with many before me, have underestimated just how muc work a newborn is. And I've got a good one! Your life is lived in 3.5 hour time slots (inbetween feeds) with the occasional extra suprise thrown in for good measure. Wanna have a hot meal? They can sense it and will ensure they awake screaming as you sit down. Expect a simple midnight feed and put back to bed? They will make sure they get wind pains which mean its a solid hour to get a burp out of them.

Apart from all that though he is the cutest and funniest little thing ever :)

We are off for our first family outing today to the doctor. Little fella got an infection in the navel from the leftover bit of cord taking so long to fall off. He hasn't been happy the last 36 hours :(

[BigTransformerTrev]

So, as you are aware I recently became a dad. One of the benefits of this is that I that now officially a member of this thread :D

So what advice for dealing with newborns? He's pretty good so far, sleeps between 3 and 6 hours at night between feeds and is generally happy.

So what can you people that have been there already offer in wisdom?


It gets better, then worse, then better, then worse, then a lot better, then worse, then awesome, then.... etc

*Best piece of advice? Like the Hitchhikers Guide, babies should come with big reassuring letters on the front saying DONT PANIC :p

*Be prepared for lack of sleep for the first few years and especially in these first few months, you are gonna live by their timetable for a good long while. I found (and still find) sleep dep to be one of the worst things you go through when having a new kid

*Put food in one end, clean up what come out the other and you and the missus really try your best to be supportive of each other because there will be some tough times ahead.

*Second best piece of advice? When your kid gets old enough to interact and react to you, you are going to fall that stupidly in love that everything else in your life will take a back seat FOREVER. It's a love unlike any other. Orion is a bit over 20 months old now and I live for that kid, when I come home and he does his happy dance and breaks into a huge giggling smile because he sees his Dad, it's like being filled with the purest energon straight from the cup of Primus served by a scantily armored Arcee - it's just pure happiness x10 and makes every sleepless night, trip to the doctors and lack of time and money just totally worth it :)

[Bartrim]

*Second best piece of advice? When your kid gets old enough to interact and react to you, you are going to fall that stupidly in love that everything else in your life will take a back seat FOREVER. It's a love unlike any other. Orion is a bit over 20 months old now and I live for that kid, when I come home and he does his happy dance and breaks into a huge giggling smile because he sees his Dad, it's like being filled with the purest energon straight from the cup of Primus served by a scantily armored Arcee - it's just pure happiness x10 and makes every sleepless night, trip to the doctors and lack of time and money just totally worth it :)

Totally agree with this. I wasn't too thrilled at the sacrifices I had to make when I first became a parent but now I would walk over hot coals for my kids.

Another tip is listen to other parents, especially when it comes to illness. My oldest son went 3 months with "silent reflux" it was completely misdiagnosed as us being young parents and my wife not being able to breast feed properly. That 3 months was torture. We went on about 2 hours sleep a night (on a good night) and he screamed constantly because he was in constant pain. When it finally got diagnosed correctly we couldn't believe how "easy" it was being a parent. Although we suffered for 3 months I was able to use this experience to help a friend who went through the exact same thing. Thankfully because of what we had been through I suggested go to the doctor and ask them to see if it's silent reflux and it was. They were able to treat their child a lot quicker then what we did. Not discrediting doctors because it is hard to diagnose baby illness (since they can't explain what is wrong) but talking to other parents is always a great help.

[GoktimusPrime]

So what can you people that have been there already offer in wisdom?
First up, a big congrats on joining the parents club. :) When my daughter was born, I would show her with endless cuddles and kisses and lose count of how many times in a day that I tell her that I love her. I thought that there would come a time when I would stop going all goo-goo-gah-gah over her, but 5 years later it hasn't abated. :cool:

My advice can be summed up in one word: consistency. Whatever way you and your wife choose to raise your son, I would highly recommend that you do it consistently. It sounds simple and... well... actually it is simple, really (it ain't rocket science!) -- but for some reason I find a lot of people just find it hard to stick to their guns and be consistent with their kids! :eek: The highly predictable end result is that the child simply fails to live up to the parents' expectations. And the consistency can apply to virtually everything when it comes to child rearing. If you haven't done so already, I would advise sitting down with your wife and just having a conversation about what expectations the two of you have for your son. Imparting these expectations become a lot easier when the two of you are on the same page. It also ensures that one of you is not undermining the authority of the other.

Here's an interesting article: When Does Discipline Begin? An age-by-age guide to setting limits (http://www.parents.com/baby/development/behavioral/when-does-discipline-begin1/?page=1). You don't need to worry about behaviour management for newborns, but it's something to think about when they're about 6 months old (give or take a few months ;)).
"In general, you can't spoil a child in the early months..... Infants need to feel safe and secure, and meeting their every need actually helps them become independent later on. When they develop a sense of security in their own little world, they're able to venture outside of it, knowing they won't get hurt. Dr. Karp puts it in perspective: "Holding him for 18 hours a day may seem like a lot from your perspective, but to a baby who was being held 24/7 in the womb, it's still a 25 percent rip-off.""
:D

------------------------------------------------

P.S.: Perhaps consider taking a photo of your newborn next to your biggest Transformer! I find it's a neat memento to look back at later to remind you of just how small they were as newborns... because they don't stay that small for nearly long enough! ;)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Yuki/yukifortmaxmetroplex_zps89263807.jpg
^Newborn vs preschooler

[GoktimusPrime]

I occasionally come across spelling/grammar mistakes in my daughter's children books (especially Disney*... grrr!), but last night I came across a mistake in one of her home reading books from school! :eek: The sentence read:
"Pluto is the furthest planet from the Sun."

Okay, forget the whole planet/planetoid classification/declassification thing, which my 5 year old wouldn't understand... but furthest?! :eek:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/jaam_pain.gif
I had to resist the urge to grab a pen and correct it to "farthest."** :rolleyes:
Yuki also didn't know how to pronounce the names of all the planets, and I elected to teach her the Classical Latin pronunciation for 'Uranus' ("ooh-rrah-noos") rather than the standard English pronunciation, as the English pronunciation bums me out. :p

-------------------------------------------------------------
* In English anyway. I haven't detected any mistakes in her Japanese Disney books, but a lot of her English Disney books are littered with errors! :eek:
** 'Further' and 'furthest' refer to an immeasurable abstract or figurative distance, whereas 'farther' and 'farthest' refer to a measurable or quantifiable distance.
e.g. "The further I walk, the farther I get."

[Bartrim]

Yuki also didn't know how to pronounce the names of all the planets, and I elected to teach her the Classical Latin pronunciation for 'Uranus' ("ooh-rrah-noos") rather than the standard English pronunciation, as the English pronunciation bums me out. :p


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uzfpgjV_M :p

Yesterday I received the awesome news that my son will receive the academic award for his year and the final assembly... 2 years in a row!!!! Warning, proud parent over here:D

[GoktimusPrime]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/avatars/th_1-up.jpg Most excellent!

[GoktimusPrime]

Two recent neurolinguistic studies (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/11/15/comment-bilinguals-have-stronger-faster-brains-rest-us) present evidence that learning languages sharpens the brain.

A personal reflection on our progress of raising a trilingual child

What seems to be working

Since my wife and I conceived, we decided that we would be using the une personne une langue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_person,_one_language) method of raising our daughter multilingually, where each one of us would exclusively speak in the target language to the child and also elicit her to exclusively respond in the target language. The continual challenge is that Yuki constantly attempts to speak in English, and she would easily be a mono-lingual English speaker if we didn't remain consistent and insistent on our rules every day. It may be easier with parents who don't speak English (or at least, don't speak it at home) to enforce multilingualism at home, but because both my wife and I do speak English, and we speak English to each other, Yuki knows that we can understand her if she speaks in English. So we're still always telling her to repeat statements or questions again in the target language if she says it in English. Sometimes she will speak in English if she's addressing both parents, which is acceptable. But it's the insistence on code switching between the languages, depending on who her target audience is. Most of the time she's able to code switch pretty well, because she's learnt that she won't get what she wants, or the conversation simply will grind to a halt, if she doesn't use the correct language.

I've noticed with some other parents that we hang around with, that their children will often reply to them in English. The parent then either also converses with the child in English, or the parent speaks to them in the target language but allows the child to participate in the conversation in English. So the conversation either becomes completely monolingual, or receiving-bilingual, as opposed to fully bilingual. In my observation, I've noticed that parents who insist on having fully multilingual conversations with their children (i.e. child must also participate in the same language that the parent is speaking) are the ones whose children are operating more closely to proper multilingualism. Parents who allow the child to speak English are producing either monolingual or receiving-bilingual children.

I'm also glad that we made this decision before Yuki was born, because even speaking to multilingual parents of monolingual pre-school age children, they tell me that they're too set in their ways to change their habits. i.e. parents and children are all just too used to exclusively speaking to each other in English and would find it difficult to change now. I've heard some parents tell me that they're planning on enrolling their children in community language school in hope that this will remedy the situation, but IMHO this won't work --- because that's precisely what my parents did with me, and it didn't work! I attended Chinese school for a few years as a child, and I hated it. I couldn't understand anything that was being spoken in the classroom because we predominantly spoke English at home. Other children who spoke Chinese at home were able to interact in the class, but I was utterly lost. Consequently I soon came to just hate Chinese school (and the language) and didn't learn anything. Chinese school for me was just a massive waste of time/money, and I've advised parents that unless they're willing to speak the language(s) to their children at home, sending them to community language schools will equally be a waste of time and money. Yuki attends two community language schools per week, and she's able to understand and participate to varying degrees.

What we could be doing better

Learning from other people's mistakes can be better than learning from your own, so here are some things that we've done which, in hind sight, could've been done better. Hopefully this advice might help any parents of younger children or anyone considering becoming parents in future from avoiding some pitfalls. :o

Although we've done reasonably okay in terms of building Yuki's spoken trilingualism, we haven't been as diligent with her multilingual literacy skills. With Yuki starting school this year, most of the focus has been on building her literacy in English -- and her English reading/writing has grown in incredible leaps and bounds. She started off this year being virtually illiterate to now being able to sight read most English words and sentences; her main difficulties are with less phonetically spelt words, which is understandable. Her teacher has allowed her to even skip a few reading levels, which is quite impressive considering that she's one of the youngest members in her class (she'll be 5.5 y.o. next month). However her literacy skills in the other languages aren't nearly as developed as her English reading/writing skills. In the past few weeks I've been drilling Yuki in her Japanese reading, and she's now able to sight-read about 80% of Seion Hiragana (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jWLJuzjLbEo/T689-yRDTHI/AAAAAAAAAQc/2P4kHmr1z_k/s1600/Hiragana+Seion+2-1.png) characters. She is aware of Dakuon (http://www.learn-japanese.info/writing/hiragana_writing/rvwans_dakuon.gif) and Handakuon (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6Iwtg_xpJ4/Tqbm_09GvyI/AAAAAAAAAEY/K5MuFWvE6C4/s1600/hiragana+handakuon.jpg) Hiragana characters and can deduce how to write some of them if she thinks about it, but it's not as intuitive to her as the Seion characters; but that's fine -- her Japanese school is just focusing on the Seion characters for this year. Last Saturday I took my family out for Karaoke and I let Yuki sing some Japanese songs from Frozen. I find that Karaoke/sing-alongs are a fun way for kids to practice their sight reading. :) I initially let Yuki use a 'cheat sheet' where all the lyrics are written entirely in Hiragana (whereas the Karaoke lyrics has Katakana and Kanji, even though the Kanji has Hiragana on top of it, it wasn't as intuitively easy for her to read as just straight Hiragana); although to her credit, she later stopped using the cheat sheet and tried singing by reading straight off the TV screen lyrics. :o So yeah, I was initially slack with pushing Yuki's Japanese literacy skills (I thought that ensuring that she completed her Japanese homework and reading at least one Japanese book to her every week was enough), but she is catching up remarkably well. :cool: But I basically just used similar techniques that we used with her English -- flash cards, reading practice with children's books etc.

Unfortunately, Yuki's Chinese literacy is... well... pretty much non-existent. She can recognise just a handful of characters, but not nearly enough to read sentences or books. This is pretty much because there hasn't been a consistent/diligent focus in doing all the things that one needs to do to maintain literacy in a child. Yuki's Chinese language maintenance is essentially just spoken --- Yuki can speak Chinese fine, but she cannot functionally read or write. Due to extentuating personal circumstances, we just haven't had the time to properly build Chinese literacy for Yuki; but we do intend to start building Yuki's Chinese literacy skills soon.

However the immediate result is that Yuki is really not enjoying Chinese school. She loves primary school and she likes Japanese school, but she's really not liking Chinese school. Hopefully Yuki will begin to enjoy Chinese school once we implement more stringent literacy practices for her at home. :o

P.S.: Just spoke with a colleague of mine who is also raising her daughter trilingually (English/Greek/Italian), and she said that her Greek/Italian literacy is pretty good, but they also hire private tutors. Also, her daughter is their third child, so they've had experience with raising multilingual parenting w/ their first two kids. One thing she learnt was not to push the children too hard and potentially burn them out and make them resent learning the language. I try to make all the learning activities fun for Yuki (which works especially best for early Stage 1 children), which she has been responding pretty well to so far. :)