Guest Post: Life's a Beach

Today I've swapped blogs with Becky over at Single Mummy, as part of the Guest Post Day, organised by Erica at Little Mummy. Head over to Single Mummy to catch up on Becky's blog, which tells about her getting to grips with life as a single mum to her two gorgeous children,  and to read my post, 'Stepping up to the plate', about becoming more independent.

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Thanks Erica for another Guest Post day and a chance to meet new bloggers and have new input on our own blogs.

As I sat on my picnic rug on Camber Sands on a slightly chilly Saturday morning last weekend I began to think about all the beach trips I had as a child. How many millions of people have enjoyed or endured a family day on the beach? Some things about those beach trips haven’t changed since the 1970s but in other ways they have.

Children still want to build sandcastles and dig holes to be buried in or to turn into a car or a boat or anything else their imagination and their parents’ ingenuity can create. They still love jumping over the waves and screaming when they are splashed by the cold & salty water. You still hear the adults shouting at their kids to “stop throwing the sand around”. Probably because of all this sand chucking you still get sand in the sandwiches… There are still the perennial games of boules, beach cricket and ball games.

Other things have changed either because society has changed or that the climate has. Unlike in the 1970s very few children were running around with nothing on at all for fear of other adults looking at them. Most of the younger ones were wearing the all in one swimming costumes which provide sun protection. All over the beach were little sun shelters either for babies or whole families. Unlike the woman on Brighton Beach most parents were obviously conscious of the dangers of the sun. The majority were cajoling children into regular application of sun tan cream.

I can remember there being nothing stronger than factor 4 cream and even that was hardly ever used. We made do with the windbreaks and keeping cool in the sea. Sunburn wasn’t seen as a problem mostly just an annoyance that would go away after several days on the beach.

Back then I’m sure we were allowed to roam quite a way from our parents even on the beach. Now most parents were keeping their children within eyesight and many took advantage of the coastguard’s free emergency wristbands. These had space for mobile numbers to contact parents of a lost child. Back then you would simply shout and hope.

By the time my children have their own children I wonder how days out on the beach will have changed? Will it be deemed “safe” for children to be on the beach in the sun at all? What technological advances will make it a different kind of day out. I’m sure children will still want to just get out the bucket and spade and build those sandcastles but they may well be covered from head to toe in protective clothing.

Enjoy taking your kids to the beach and I hope you all stay safe and un-sunburned!

Guest Post Day - introducing Mari from Mari's World

Today is Guest Post Day, where one blogger partners up with another and the pair swap posts for the day (many thanks to Erica at Little Mummy for organising - visit her blog for a full list of all the bloggers taking part). I had problems contacting my official partner unfortunately, so was all set to miss out on today's event, when Mari at Mari's World offered to be my surrogate partner.

Mari's bio:  Born in ‘66 when England won the World Cup, when Mary Quant was introducing skirts that barely covered your backside and when the Beatles and The Rolling Stones were competing for the Number One spot. I grew up in and out and around London.

Adorable sister to two lucky men and loving mother of four; two offspring born from an Italian marriage and 19 years in Italy and twin girls born in Ol’ Blighty in 2008 by an Englishman who I’m proud to call my partner, my soul mate, the love of my life. And of course, a new addition, I’m a nanna, to Gracey born last year in Italy.

Life has led me down an unsuspected path and wherever I thought I was going, I always ended up somewhere else doing something different to what I had originally planned. At times, fun, at times trying, at times downright frustrating, however I’m here to tell the tale.

Here is Mari's post, and once you're done here head over to Mari's World to check out my post and have a good browse of her blog......

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Miss E and Mr A reached the 6 months half birthday this week and Alice and Bessie (and I) love a bit of cake so we are going to celebrate them in style with 'half cakes' for a snack this afternoon.

This got me thinking to where we are today and now at 19 months the girls walk easily around the house, they can climb upstairs and slide down on their tummy's - supervised of course. The sofa has become an excellent climbing frame with the added value of being able to reach the books in the bookcase behind it and the coffee table has been demoted to alongside the wall half hidden by the sofa as it was also quickly becoming a launching pad.

They are starting to talk 'Mummy, Daddy, Teddy' are favourite words and have been clear for months now but they also say 'Who is it? when they hear the doorbell go, or What's that? If we hear something out of the ordinary. Wow, Oi and Oh dear they also seem to have picked up from me. I MUST BE MORE CAREFUL.

Their understanding is cause of constant amazement to me. Pick it up, come here, put your shoes/jacket/bib on. Give it to daddy. I think they understand so much more than we give them credit for.

They love to watch In The Night Garden and the Waybuloos as part of the wind down each day and enjoy to sit on the floor and sing, Twinkle, twinkle (with actions) Row row row the boat, (only we do a crocodile scream EVERY time) and Incy Wincy Spider who sometimes gets a crocodile scream himself.

As far as meals go, they eat almost everything. Bessie adores pasta with fresh tomato sauce and Alice's favourite is turkey breast, cherry tomatoes and fruit. They both adore fresh fruit and eat tons of it, although I do struggle more with fresh vegetables.

Games and toys are now coming into play, for their first birthday we bought them a hard plastic Wendy house and it has been a marvellous buy as they use it every day. Yes it is large and takes up almost half of the conservatory, but the pleasure they get from it and the peace I get is just too much to deny them. Father Christmas bought them sit on cars which they love to whizz around the front room on, books, bricks, ELC Rose Cottage and puzzles, well the puzzles aren't a big hit just yet, one has been eaten, we've lost pieces to another and so I'm saving them for a rainy day but we do get the crayons out from time to time and I watch them have a go and look forward to my first Mother's Day card from them crafted with their own hands.

Fortunately, bedtime for us is 7.30ish and unless they're suffering from teething or bad colds we can be sure they sleep through till 6 ish or even 8am on a good day (never the weekend though!) Cheeky minxes seem to realise Mummy and Daddy want a bit extra shut eye and they wake up bang on cue.

Our girls are a constant joy to us. I love to see them snuggle into their daddy when he's on the sofa after a hard day's work and I love to think about the summer this year and playing with buckets and spades, collecting shells and stones and crabbing on the rocks. Ice creams, teddy bear picnics...ah the list goes on.