my godkid’s bday was on Monday and i got him a present. his absolute fave is Paw Patrol. I refuse to buy him merch for it because ACAB even if it’s cutesy puppies. i don’t ever want him to consider being a cop or a soldier as his future career. I’ve never bought any of them toys that are weapons (guns, specifically) or even Marvel-linked because I don’t want them getting hooked on that franchise and I frankly think they’re too young for it. It’s been legos and other generic building or homemaking toys like Magnetiles and cooking sets since day 1.
I did however get him a sweet ass Thomas the tank engine railroad set WITH electric bridge and my god…..I’m so jealous of it
i’ve been invited by my 3yo godson’s parents to attend Family Fun Day (“we already got you a shirt!”) at his school and it’ll be at 8am on a Saturday, an hour and a half away from where I live. I’d need to either drive out early, or stay in the area the night before to take the stress out of me waking too early. I’m still undecided tbh because work exhausts me in such a way that weekends are sacred (and they also live near where i work so 👋 it’s like going there for the nth time this week) and am I now willing to throw away much-awaited weekend alone time for 6 hours with hundreds of little kids under a blazing hot tropical sun?
deep inside i know I’ll fold. the kids are only little once and these things won’t last forever and sooner or later they’ll want to do stuff on their own but I’m also…very tired. 😂😭
my 6yo godkid seems to have grown up SO much like…he can play the guitar now???? he can read and write stories????? he can actually already hold a decent conversation with me????? didn’t i just hold this child a day after his birth, with him still swaddled in his Moses blanket, didn’t i just kiss his downy hair, didn’t i just hold my arms open as he crawled towards me in the grass in London bridge park, didn’t i just let him clutch at my fingers as he took his first steps, didn’t i carry him for what seemed like miles just so he could fall asleep—
now that my two godsons are older I’ve had to referee more fights than ever. to be fair to the 3yo, the 5yo does sometimes play dirty and has a nasty habit of being purposefully mean or hurtful to the younger one. i TRY to get between them and explain to both how one is hurting the other and the right way to make amends but KIDS yknow. fists and feet are flying faster than you can keep track of em.
now i grew up with my brothers and mine do NOT get along. like…they are archenemies in ways that are not even funny. I’m trying to avoid that for my godkids so i try to reason with them a lot. the problem is the oldest favors the youngest by a LOT and the second born is already feeling it so he gets left out a lot of the time. to make up for it i give him extra attention but also try to explain to the oldest one to be as nice and patient to the second born in the same way he is to the youngest but at the moment it’s all flying over his head.
idk any tips to help avoid sibling rivalries or at least try not to aggravate them? lol. im 2 steps away from buying a parenting book myself.
so the godkid wanted to try ice skating yesterday. neither his parents knows how to and logic told them that that left me, as godparent, with the chance to flex my “3rd parent” powers as they entrusted their child’s physical safety on ice to me (!!!!) despite me not having skated at all since 11 years ago.
suffice to say, muscle memory truly does work especially if you’re desperate to keep your charge from bodily harm.
kid LOVED it and was even able to skate a bit on his own. im left dealing with the aches and pains stinging in muscles i never even knew i had just helping him keep upright and also one laborious trip to the bathroom where I had to carry him (he’d taken his skates off but didn’t want his socks to touch the floor; EYE was still wearing my skates) so he could pee. i feel like this will be a core memory of his somehow though so am just grateful it involved no blood or broken bones. 😂
so my godkid 6months ago still couldn’t read or write at 5yo. it was something that had bothered his dad so much that he started researching on the best ways to help his kid learn, and i started playing little games with him to just help it along, usually focusing on his name since I figured that was the easiest place to start. turns out he’s so understimulated at his school that when his dad doubled down and we worked with him, he picked up reading and writing quickly. it honestly never mattered to me that he was taking his time, but we’re all proud of him! and i think he was rather proud of himself too.
the other day, I dropped by their house during lunch to see them and he approached me like he had a little secret. he said he had made me something that he wanted me to keep. y’all do you know what it was??
y’all pleaseeee 🥹 i keep it in my wallet now and will keep it forever like he wanted. :)
i guess this is a no-brainer for a lot of people but it always blows my mind when i experience it in reality.
so i just got back from a trip and one of the first things on my agenda was to attend my godkid's 'summer fete' at his school, which of course also involved babysitting not just him but his baby brothers (also my godkids lol) before we even made the trek to the venue.
at some point, godkid 2 (2.5yo) decided to lay on the floor on his stomach and kick his feet in the air, all the while knowing that his baby brother, godkid 3 (10 mos) was right behind him and could get kicked in the face. i immediately sprang to action and told him "don't do that, the baby is right behind you", which became "matty, don't, you could kick the baby in the face" and finally evolved into "kiddo, don't do that, that's bad" before i had to scoop the baby up before he got kicked.
i immediately disagreed with myself after i said "it's bad". why the heck did i say that? did a 2.5 yo even grasp the concept of good and bad? it seemed too abstract, and not something i want to train the kids in. i also didn't want him to think he was bad, just that the action he was insisting on doing could result into someone getting hurt.
don't get me wrong, this is something that i normally wouldn't have thought about probably 10 years ago with my older godkids, but times have changed and so have i. sometimes the old tricks don't work or make sense anymore.
i think i'm going to consciously avoid the good/bad narrative for now when helping raise these kids and just stick with safe/unsafe. i'm not a child expert and i don't work with children for work, so i pretty much have no idea what i'm doing, but yeah, i think focusing on the concept of good/bad is not very helpful at this age. especially with godkid 2, who is quite headstrong. i'm not willing to sacrifice the baby either for him to learn a lesson. safe/unsafe is concrete and rooted in reality; if he doesn't stop the unsafe action, then i can either remove him or the other kid from the situation. also alternatives? idk, if you wanna keep kicking your feet you can do it in this area, but not where your brother is. or wrestle me. idk. i need you to focus your energies where it won't result in a bloody nose :))
three out of four of my youngest godkids are brothers and 2 of them are now at that age where they’re getting to be very outspoken so they talk a lot, but because they’re mixed and because of the environment they’re growing up in, their accent is a hybrid of rp english, some brand of american, and the local accent, sometimes all in one sentence.
some samples i was served tonight:
“mama, look at the plahnts, dey are luvvlyyy”
“leuk heah (look here) mattie!! im gonna take your waddr (water)”
“bRRRing (rolling r) dat tew ME or I’m going to CHUCK YOU IN THE BIN”
“no don’t turn off the LOIGHTS! im scawed”
it’s hilarious and fascinating to watch and hear 😂
i May have also accidentally taught the eldest to say “shucks” because I caught myself nearly saying “shit” in front of him and caught myself in time. i heard him say it at least 20 times before i left their house, as though testing to see if his parents would tell him off for it. ofc they didn’t so now he has a new go-to word for when he’s frustrated or surprised (an improvement, since he used to say “shit” at times, or a local swear word sksksk. a win 😌)
