uk parent bloggers

A family day out at Sheffield Park

Sheffield Park in East Sussex is renowned for its beautiful autumn colours. I’d say it’s definitely one of the best places to see the autumn colours in the South East. A National Trust property, it boasts acres of landscaped gardens with park and woodland. October was a very busy month for us. I went back to work, I was under the weather for most of the month and it just generally seemed to whizz by. When we got to the beginning of this week, I realised that we hadn’t visited Sheffield Park.

Fortunately, I must have expressed this to my husband. On Thursday morning we went to drop off my car to the garage first thing. As he drove me back home through the country lanes, I gazed across the fog on the marshes and the gentle sunlight dancing on the frost in the fields. It was a beautiful morning made better by the fact that he then announced he’d taken the day off and was taking us to Sheffield Park!

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Autumn’s first 8 words

By the time they reach 13 months old, children usually have a vocabulary of around 3 or 4 words. Of course, this does vary as babies and toddlers develop at different rates. It’s so fun seeing what word they’ll learn to say next, though. I remember when Autumn said her first word it was kind of a “Did that really just happen? Did she say that?” moment and I’m still finding it like that.

Autumn was a little ahead of the curve when it comes to speech development, as she could say 8 words when she reached 13 months. Here they are!

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Review of For Aisha Baby Food

Sunday Review: For Aisha baby food

If you’ve weaned a baby in the last 2 years, or have recently started looking at what foods are available, you may have heard of For Aisha. They create baby food which is bursting with flavour, taking inspiration from around the world. They are also ideal for Muslims, as their baby foods are halal.

I started weaning Autumn shortly before  6 months and started off gently. However, now I am always looking for new flavours and foods for Autumn to try. I thought that these pouches would be a great way to introduce her tiny tastebuds to some more exotic flavours. Whilst the usual baby foods such as cottage pie, spaghetti bolognese etcetera are great, I thought it would be good for her to try something a little more interesting.

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paternity-leave-interview

A husband’s view of paternity leave and returning to work

Going back a couple of generations, looking after the home and children was very much thought of as “women’s work”. However, with the rise of stay-at-home dads and dads seeming to be more hands-on in general, I wondered what my husband’s thoughts were. He’s wonderfully hands on with Autumn and has expressed in the past that he is worried about missing her doing different things like crawling and walking for the first time. I thought I’d do a little interview with him about his thoughts on paternity leave and working, leaving his baby at home.

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Would you pierce your baby’s ears?

The topic of piercing children’s ears is something many feel strongly on. I’m not sure I’d consider it child abuse, but I was shocked to see the video of a baby that recently swept social media, reigniting the debate.

If you didn’t catch it, here it is:

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