Parenting Life

Getting Good Seats At The Nativity Play

Christmas. Its a time of goodwill, peace to all men. Apart from obviously during late night Christmas shopping, Tesco, the end of the work do, and when parents wrestle for the best seat at the School Nativity play.

So how can you get the good seats at a school nativity play?

Here’s our tips*:

Involve Spy / Friend on the inside who’s paid enough attention to know the quick way in.
Use your Ninja skills to sneak past people.
Invest in some bribe material for the school receptionist. (Chocolate, or alcohol would usually do the trick)
Wear some American football style armor.
Use any PE Equipment / Zip Wire to your advantage.
Nativity Play at the end of the day? Drop the child off at the start of the day… don’t go home. (May need the above mentioned bribe material to avoid the cops being called).
Walk in while wearing a nativity costume. Enough people may sit far enough away from you, so you end up getting a good seat anyway. Particularly if you’re dressed and smelling like a donkey.
Fly a drone into the school hall, watch nativity via drones camera. Hope the battery for the drone doesn’t die.
Involve a well placed confused old dear to stand in (other) peoples way.
Sleeping bag. Reserve your place when the school closes the day before.

Any other ideas?

*Obviously if you do any of this, people may look at you oddly / arrange for you to be arrested. Good Luck…

When The Decorations Go Up…

Posted on December 1, 2019 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

Actually thinking about, I don’t care if it’s Mulled.

Someone pass me the wine…

Something About Procrastination

Posted on November 3, 2019 by DevonDad Life Stuff Parenting Life 0

Love this. I came across this while doing some research for work, but caught myself relating to this… a little too well..

Love how he talks about wikipedia.

Love how he checks the fridge in case the contents have changed over the last ten minutes.

Love how he talks about the lack of deadlines.

I would say how much we use reminder apps to great effect, but that’s probably not the case, the Instant Gratification Monkey finds something better to do. Like looking at the wikipedia entry for Doctor Who, The Angels Take Manhattan.

I’m off to fall down a Youtube type rabbit hole.

When Fireworks Happen At Bedtime…

Posted on October 26, 2019 by DevonDad Parenting Life Parenting Survival Guide 0

A prayer for mercy…

Do anyone else’s neighbourhoods wait till you’ve just got the small one settled?

Bing on Cbeebies. A Few Questions.

Posted on October 8, 2019 by DevonDad On The Small Screen Parenting Life 0

What is the deal with Pando’s trousers? - On Cbeebies Bing

Our Little One was very very much into watching Bing on Cbeebies, and because of the series record feature on our YouView… she discovered the joys of binge watching Bing.

Obviously this means I have also discovered the joys of watching Bing (and learning how to make the most use of its 7 minute run time). While watching the same episode for what felt like the 20th time, my wife and I started to ask ourselves a few questions, and generally over think about Bing and some of his friends:

What is the deal with Pando’s trousers?

Whenever you see him in the TV show, the guy is running around in his underwear, except for one moment at the very start when he takes his trousers off. Why doesn’t his carer type character put his trousers back on?

I guess yellow doesn’t look great on him.

On the subject of the carer type characters…

What the actual heck is Flop?

The Cbeebies website describe Flop as Bings carer, but where is his parents?

Flop is there when Bing goes to bed, when he wakes up, Bing looks after Flop when he’s ill. If it was just Flop and Bing, I’d suggest that Bing actually had a heart breaking back story, but other characters seem to have similar carer figures. Maybe all the parents have disappeared? Maybe the carers are aliens?

Again, on the subject of the carers…

How do they get Charlie up these stairs?

That Summer Holiday Bucket List

Posted on September 1, 2019 by DevonDad Parenting Life 0

So at the start of the Summer, I put together an incredibly cheesy list of things that I wanted us to do as a family this Summer… It wasn’t very ambitious, but here’s how we got on…

~~Try one of the Gluten Free Cones at Orange Elephant.~~ DONE. And they are awesome. If you’re Gluten Free, and bored of being surrounded by your icecream cone eating family? Get yourselves here.
~~Tidy the living room.~~ Yeah. That was dumb.
~~Pick sunflowers at Darts Farm.~~ DONE. Mental note for next year to go at the start of the season!!
Explore a different beach to normal… – Meh. We live in Devon. There’s always the chance for another beach.
~~Take a boat ride.~~DONE. We jumped on the ferry from Topsham to Turf Hotel, which… well is basically found deep in the Exe estuary. If you’ve not been, go there. But remember it is a little like a pilgrimage to get there.
~~Go fruit picking.~~ DONE. Want to go fruit picking in Devon? Google thornes farm shop. Worth it.
~~Jump around Dartmoor.~~ DONE. Went exploring. In sandals. Got wet feet.
Get the paddling pool out, spend the rest of the summer trying to fix that part of the lawn. NOPE Didn’t do that since the start of the holidays. I believe the lawn is kinda thankful for that.
~~Think about looking for the big tent.~~ DONE. And put up. And slept in. And felt tired the next morning.
~~Drink Cider. By a river. (And repeat).~~ DONE. And it was good. (Thank you Turf for being you.)
Actually finish painting the shed. – Nah… that thing is like the flippin forth bridge….
~~Remember to defrost burgers before the BBQ is lit.~~ #WIN
~~Tidy the living room.~~ DONE. HONEST. No, please don’t ask for pictures…
~~Just move the flipping stuff around the living room, so it appears to be tidy in Instagram photos.~~ TOTALLY DONE

Now… we just need to survive the new term at school…

The Summer Holiday Bucket List

Posted on July 23, 2019 by DevonDad Around Devon Parenting Life 0

The Summer Holidays have now hit the Sofa household. The good news. There are no school runs for the next six weeks. The “interesting news”… what do we do for the next weeks?

Not for any “making precious memories” type reasons, but because its good to know we have something to do.

Here’s what I’ve got so far…

Try one of the Gluten Free Cones at Orange Elephant.
Tidy the living room.
Pick sunflowers at Darts Farm.
Explore a different beach to normal.
Take a boat ride.
Go fruit picking.
Jump around Dartmoor.
Get the paddling pool out, spend the rest of the summer trying to fix that part of the lawn.
Think about looking for the big tent.
Drink Cider. By a river. (And repeat)
Actually finish painting the shed.
Remember to defrost burgers before the BBQ is lit.
Tidy the living room.
Just move the flipping stuff around the living room, so it appears to be tidy in Instagram photos.

What plans have you added? Or are plans for this sort of thing just silly?

The Frozen 2 Trailer

Posted on June 12, 2019 by DevonDad Geek Stuff Parenting Life 0

The hype train is starting.

Six years after Frozen was released… (YES its six years since Frozen came into our lives, and “Let it go” took its place in our collective ~~nightmares~~ subconscious), the second one is incoming.

Here’s the trailer for Frozen 2.

We already have an excited six year… its going to be a long wait until November.

Who Should Be The Next Prime Minister? (From the World of CBeebies)

Posted on May 27, 2019 by DevonDad Blogging Life Stuff Parenting Life 0

As those in the UK know, it feels like the present season of Brexit Britain has reached a season finale with an election still showing a country divided and an announcement that a new Prime Minister is on its way. Whoever the new PM is, they’ll have to word to unite a fairly divided country.

So who should be the next Prime Minister? Instead of looking at the Conservative Party for ideas, I thought I would look for ideas from the world of CBeebies.

Which CBeebies Star Should Be The Next Prime Minister?