Fablog

Take our quick Valentine’s Day Poll and tell us what you are planning to do with the kids on Sunday February 14th.

Thank you.

Have a great night in or out (you decide).

Ben (23 month old Dotty’s dad probably going out with Dot to eat with friends)

The FAB team

www.findababysitter.com

We need your feedback!

2009 has been a great year for FAB and we’d like to thank all of our loyal customers for their support over the past 12 months. We’re hoping to make 2010 an even better year for our customers and this is where we need your help.

What have your experiences of FAB been like – what do you really think? Do you have a great idea that would help improve the service? If so, then we’d love to hear your feedback via our end of year survey. A few straight forward terms apply, see below*.

There are just a few short questions to answer and we’re offering one lucky customer a great prize of a £250 M&S Gift Voucher!

We’d love to hear from you.

Take the survey now!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

The FAB team

*The boring bit. The survey closes midnight Sunday 10th January 2010. All surveys will be treated anonymously and your personal information will NOT be shared with any third parties. A valid email address is required to enter the draw to win a £250 M&S Gift Voucher. The winner will be selected at random from all qualifying surveys submitted before midnight Sunday 10th January 2010. The competition winner will be contacted via the email address provided by the 31st January 2010. No prize substitutes or alternatives are available.

It’s nearly Christmas and that can only mean one thing: toys, toys and more toys! This year parents are rushing to buy robotic hamsters for their kids, but what did the children of past decades want in their Christmas stockings?

1940s - Train sets such as Hornby and Tri-ang Railways were popular as well as dressing up kits

1950s - Board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Ludo were popular in this decade

1960s – Action Man and skills-based games such as Twister, Operation and Mouse Trap were favoured by the children of this era

1970s – Drawing games were on the wish list in this decade – Etch a Sketch, Magna Doodle and Spirograph were popular as well as Star Wars toys

1980s – Car racing sets such as Scalextric, Total Control and Hot Wheels were a hit in this era as well as construction sets such as LEGO bricks

1990s – Cuddly toys such as Beanie Babies, Furbies and Teletubbies were a hit in this decade as well as computer consoles such as the Nintendo Game Boy and the Sega Megadrive

What will you be buying for your kids this Christmas? Tell us here.

Can you remember playing a part in your nativity play at school? I have vague recollections of being trussed up in an old bed sheet and having a tinsel-covered coat hanger strapped to my head to imitate a halo. Ah, the good old days.

According to reports from department store Debenhams, it seems that the homemade costumes of yesteryear aren’t, well, as fashionable as they used to be.

‘Manger chic’ is the latest craze among parents, with some shelling out as much as £150 on their child’s school play costume!

Ed Watson, a  spokesman from Debenhams, has suggested that parents simply don’t have the time or the necessary skills to create an outfit for their child, so throwing money at it is the next best thing.

What do you think about the ‘manger chic’ phenonmenon? Have you bought your child a costly outfit for their school play, or do you think it’s a waste of money? Tell us here.

Christmas is fast approaching and hundreds of children around the country will be busy writing their letters to Father Christmas. Countless trips to department store Santa’s grottos will be undertaken and endless requests for favourite toys made.

But what do you do when your child asks you how Mr Claus can make it down every chimney around the world in one night or why they’ve seen five Santas on your afternoon shopping trip?

Just today my nephew told me he’d spoken to Father Christmas on the phone to ask him for a bicycle – I’m not sure what I’m going to tell him when he finally asks how Santa gets a mobile phone signal from his grotto in Greenland.

There will come a time when your child’s sense of logic outweighs his or her belief in the bearded toy bearer and while you don’t want to rob them of the magic of Christmas, you probably don’t want to lie to them either.

Do you have any suggestions for explaining Father Christmas to your children? Do you think they should be told the truth about Santa, and if so, at what age? Tell us here.

How many of you take your children to a private nursery? I’m guessing that quite a few of you do – it’s not cheap, is it?

Now, on top of what some consider already extortionate fees, some nurseries are charging fines of up to £300 an hour to parents who are late to collect their kids.

And it doesn’t matter if you’ve missed your train or you’re stuck in traffic – they’ll still charge you!

However, the National Day Nurseries Association says that at least two members of staff are needed to comply with child protection and health and safety regulations, so nurseries are justified in charging parents for the extra time they spend taking care of their children if they’re late to collect them.

Some parents are complaining that the nurseries use the late collection fees to make a profit and are taking advantage of people who are already struggling financially.

What do you think about late collection fines? Should nurseries be allowed to impose them to stop parents taking advantage? Is it right to charge parents who are late for a genuine reason that’s out of their control? Tell us here.

If you’re a parent it’s quite likely that you have come across the Baby Einstein DVD range, you may have even bought the odd one in the hope that it might help your child’s development.

It is thought that the Walt Disney Company makes around £125 million a year from the Baby Einstein brand – some of which the company has recently offered in the form of refunds to its American customers because the DVDs failed to turn their children into, well, little Einsteins.

Much of the research that the brand built its original success on has now been disputed or disproved, including a study on the Mozart Effect, which claimed that spatial scores in babies increased after listening to the composer’s music. Apparently the same effect can be achieved by reading a Stephen King novel to your child (we don’t advise this!).

Unfortunately British parents are currently not being offered the same sort of conpensation as their American counterparts – what do you think about this? Should parents in the UK be given a refund on Baby Einstein DVDs? Tell us here.

Now that the weather’s turned it’s a bit too cold for those Sunday afternoon trips to the park, which means more time indoors.

Taking your toddlers to play outside doesn’t require too much thought as there tends to be plenty of things to occupy them (fallen leaves, conkers, swings, the neighbour’s dog etc), but what do you do to amuse them when you’re spending longer periods inside?

Here are a couple of simple ideas to get you started:

1) Homemade musical instruments

Take one washed out plastic drinks bottle and fill it one third full with either rice or small beans – put the lid back on tightly (or superglue it on if your little one knows how to open bottles!) and voilà! One homemade maraca! Turn some saucepans upside-down and use a wooden spoon as a drumstick to complete the band.

2) Make a tent

All you really need to make this indoor ‘tent’ is a large blanket and the sofa or a few chairs. Making the tent is easy – simply tuck one side of the blanket down the back of the radiator and drape the other over some chairs or the back of the sofa. It might not sound very exciting, but your toddler will love it – trust us!

What sort of activities do you do to keep your toddlers occupied? Do you have any good suggestions for other parents? Tell us here.