The Design Matrix

A friend told me about this at the weekend as we were putting the world to rights. He works in the film industry but it equally applies to virtually anything, especially parenting. 

You can always have 2 of the 3. It can be cheap & good but not fast...

The School Run Pie Chart

*This is obviously a joke.  I would never avoid even the weirdest parents....

The Ten Stages of Parental Discipline.

1.     Try not to laugh.
2.     Can't be Arsed.
3.     Silent irritation.
4.     The Stare.
5.     Verbal Warning
6.     The Naughty Step.
7.     Full Scale Shouting.
8.     Nuclear Explosion.
9.     Despair & Self Loathing.
10.   Purchasing Pony.

Proud Dads of Walthamstow I salute you.

Last year we sold 60 Walthamstow Dad T-shirts and raised £250 pounds for the Maternity unit at Whipps X. I just wanted to say a big thank you to all the tweeters for the gossip, the Mums for buying, the Dads for wearing, Penny Fielding for helping sell and Jamie Barnes for making such a good quality product. Stella Creasy for championing yet another local cause, StowScene and his amazing website and last but not least - Sonia, the one and only @EastEndLass for the hug of support as soon as she met me.  I'll be trying to get my bank to issue one of those massive cheques and get a photo of me it handing over to those amazing women in the maternity unit.

Here's a few of those Walthamstow Dads...

The Walthamstow Dad of the Year.

Win a unique one off T-Shirt 'Walthamstow Dad 2012'  & a case of red & white wine from Walthamstow Wine Club.

To enter you must:

1. Own a Walthamstow Dog T-shirt (£5 goes to Save The Children) choose T-shirt here

2. Live in the Borough of Waltham Forest

3. Send us an email of you in your Tee

4. Entries will be judged by the DaddyClub and announced 10am on Father's Day June 17th

5. Deadline for ordering T-shirts - 25th May 2012. Deadline for submissions - 15th June 2012.

The Walthamstow Dad T-Shirt 2012

Introducing the Walthamstow Dog T 2012.
Pick your dog, place your bets, the race is on...
£5 from every sale goes to Save The Children.
Buy it here

The Highbury Dad T-Shirt

This year I've rented a room over in swanky N5 just so I could call myself Highbury Dad. Obviously it's no Walthamstow, but it is home to the majestic football played at Arsenal FC.
But blimey their dads are a sartorial fail.  Luckily, I'm here to help them out.  
So can I introduce the The Highbury Dad T-Shirt.
Available in classic red or classic black & in all the sizes.   Buy it   here
£5 from every sale goes to Save The Children. The total raised will be updated   here. 
Surely this year  Father's Day is sorted?

Great Shop Fronts of Walthamstow

The Walthamstow Pampas in Your Front Garden Appreciation Society

 

Walthamstow Dad T Shirts

Both our children were born in Walthamstow's Whipps Cross maternity unit - it's an amazing place.
No 1 will be 5 in a couple of months and she would not be around if it weren't for the professionalism and care shown by those incredible people.  Time to give a bit back.

Help me to raise some money for the unit and buy this T Shirt.   - here

My Favourite Children's Books

There's a feature in The Guardian called Q&A and it's usually the first thing I seek out in the papers on a Saturday. I love reading it and my favourite question is always "What do you owe your parents".

Being a parent is the most difficult thing we will ever do as adults and the more I do it, the more I realise the importance of providing a diverse and stimulating environment for your children. One of the key things to this, is reading them good books. One of the many things I owe my parents is my love of children's books and I still read their collection to my children.  I'm fortunate because not only were my parents teachers and driven by the importance of children's literacy, but they also happened to be best friends with Allan&Janet Ahlberg and Rose Impey
(& good interview with Allan here)

So I thought I'd list my favourite children's books for small ones from the last 40 years. They include books I loved as a child, I love as a parent and books my children love. There's no particular order but this is my top dozen which was amazingly hard to edit down.

1. Each Peach Pear Plum - by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
2. Big Dog..Little Dog - by P.D.Eastman
3. Millions of Cats - by Wanda Gag
4. Micheal Bird-Boy - by Tomie de Paola
5. The Jolly Pocket Postman - by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
6. Hildilid's Night - by Cheli Duran Ryan & Arnold Lobel
7. Peepo - by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
8. The Beast of Monsieur Racine by Tomi Ungerer
9. The Magician Who Lost his Magic by David McKee
10. Dinosaurs and all the Rubbish by Micheal Foreman
11. In the night Kitchen - by Maurice Sendak
12. Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers by Mairi Hedderwick

Noticeable mentions have to go to the story of Beth Gellert  which is my "Tell us a story Dad" and is a little gory for younglings but they listen open mouthed. Also Tom & Captain Norjak by Roald Dahl. and The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler.

Children's Playgrounds in Walthamstow

Here's an interactive map of all the Children's Playgrounds in Walthamstow. 
You can post pictures, reviews and new finds.

Catalogue of Chaos

#awesomestow

So Easter holidays are officially over after virtually a month of doing good stuff all over the place. The highlight was definitely Henry Moore's house and gardens at Perry Green nr Much Haddon.  About 40 mins up the A10 from E17 and a great family day out for grandparents and kids. The tour of the house turned out to be fascinating and after lunch in the Hoops Inn. we strolled round the gardens and took the audio guided tour of the sculptures.  Children CAN touch which is great and you finish up sharing your walk with the sheep through fields where some of Moore's larger pieces are sited. Understated, stylish and inspiring.

Also got back on the bike after 'the winter break' and I'm very lucky to have the Lea Valley and Walthamstow marshes on my doorstep. I can get 15k of off road urban wilderness from outside my back door and take a different route every time.  Managed to get some work done in the house while the kids were at Bosworth Grannies and even got round to building a new front gate. Unfortunately it got destroyed  coming back from the Highbury's all day BBQ when we tried to get the baby buggy through it blind drunk.

Other highlights included a trip to the Highbury's cottage in Dorset, (more drinking) visiting Welsh great granny (finally out of hospital) the royal wedding and a big fire in Walthamstow. E17 was trending on twitter (I'm  officially addicted) for a while and as someone very cleverly tweeted ; #awesomestow. When the sun's out it certainly is.

Febrile Convulsion

No.1 had a fever a couple of weeks ago and had a febrile convulsion. Very scary but apparently common and I urge all parents to read up on what to do.

Finally met another parent on our street who seems sane and friendly.  She recommended
The Limes which I'm going to try out in the new year in the hope of meeting more like minded Dads / PGH's

Going away with The Highburys for a weekend in the New Forest.  We've realised that they're complete alcoholics and this is the reason they seem so together.  Fortunately this suits us fine.

Reasonably organised this Christmas. 
Sent out a shit loads of cards and have only recieved 17 back.  I'm making a list you fuckers.