Archives: August, 2007

The researchers who recently conducted a holiday survey for Total Greek Yoghurt have put together a list of places for a family outing this coming August Bank Holiday weekend:

A NEW DAY OUT Bewilderwood, Norfolk
ADRENALINE RUSH Dalby Forest biking trails, Yorkshire
ALFRESCO BATH The Samling, Cumbria
ANIMAL ENCOUNTER Monkey Forest, Staffordshire
BANDSTAND Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Birmingham
BEACH CAFE East Beach Café, Littlehampton
BEACH FOR KIDS Crantock, Cornwall

BOATING The Thames at Richmond
BREEZY HILLTOP Great Hetha, Northumberland
CAMP SITE Budemeadows Holiday Park, Cornwall
CLIFFTOP COTTAGE Whitby lighthouse, Yorkshire
COASTAL WALK Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim
CREAM TEA Southern Cross tearoom, Devon

Annabel Karmel, the cookery guru for parents, who sells her books on feeding children home made meals by the truckload, has started a new range of ready-meals. The range is called “Make Your Own” and is being launched at Boots.

This seems to contradict her own philosophy of feeding children healthy home-made food. However, Annabel Karmel stands her ground by saying that her new range of ready-meals is there to help busy Mums who don’t have time to cook but want to give their children the best they can. But, she was recently qouted in a national newspaper as saying:

Seeing as there are a growing number of British parent bloggers I thought it would be a good idea to start a Carnival just for us

For those of you who don’t know what a blog carnival is, it is a type of blog event, dedicated to a specific topic. The host asks readers to submit relevant articles and then publishes links to them on a regular basis.

If you want to join in, all you have to do is send in a link to your best post about life as a parent in the UK. All links must be sent to me using this form. Only one submission per blog will be accepted.

The AA, the UK’s largest motoring organisation, carried out a survey of 1,300 parents to find out the best ways of avoiding family meltdown on long car journeys. What they discovered is that after one hour and forty five minutes or approximately 93 miles parents begin to reach breaking point with their children.

So, what can you do to avoid the stresses of holiday journeys? Well, there are several easy steps to take:

You have planned a trip to the Big Smoke with the kids. There are hundreds of attractions to choose from, so where do you begin? Well, you won’t go far wrong if you start with one of the favourite attractions:

* The Science Museum
* Madame Tussauds
* The London Dungeons
* The Tower of London
* The London Aquarium
* The London Eye
* The Natural History Museum
* Tate Modern
* The Museum of Childhood
* London Zoo

You can find loads of other places for kids in London, including child friendly restaurants and hotels by searching LittleLegends.

The good news is we are now over half way through the school holidays. The bad news is the weather doesn’t look as if it is going to get any better. So, why not use Little Legends to help you find days out and softplay centres near you.

Here are some tips to help you get through the last weeks:

During Kids Week (17th to 31st August) one child aged 5 to 16 can go free to any theatre performance listed here if they go with an adult paying full price. If you have other children you can buy up to two other tickets at half price. There is limited availability so book now!

Little Legends has been reviewed over at Killer Start Ups. You can vote to decide whether or not we make it big, just survive or totally bomb!

They think it might be a killer because:

A site like this will be an awesome tool for parents living in England, what a great resource to find out information about where to take your kids, and what is more research worthy than the safety of your children?

What do you think?

… then why not check out the latest links to blogs written by UK parents:

Mutterings from the Mill - Four children, three woodburning stoves, three dogs, the farmer and his wife

Suffolk Writings - Mum to two writes about life in the country

Posie’s Blog - Living on a farm on an island off the west coast of Scotland, married to the happy farmer, three gorgeous children, several dogs, cats, chickens, cows, sheep and horses, holiday cottages and two happy potters who are my brothers in law

I have recently been in touch with Ben Palmer, a Dad of two from London. Ben lost his wife to Childbed Fever in June 2004. She died just six days after giving birth to her daughter, Emily, from a type of post-natal blood poisoning. He has set up a website called Jessica’s Trust to raise awareness about this illness.

Childbed Fever (also called Puerperal Fever or Puerperal Sepsis) is a TREATABLE illness that kills mothers. It is defined as an infection of the uterus following the birth of a child. Its symptoms are easy to recognise and it is easily treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early enough.