Kids ask questions. A lot of questions. As your little ones get older, they will begin to pick up on adult conversations and ask difficult questions about topics you’d rather avoid. This could be about death, crime, war or even something closer to home, such as family fighting or separation. While these can be difficult subjects to bring up with children, if your child has picked something up and asks about it, the worst thing you can do as a parent is shut them down and ignore the subject altogether.

Instead, you can broach the subject delicately using the following tried and true techniques. 

Give only brief details

The last thing you want is to scare your child, or give them information beyond their maturity level. For example, if you know someone who has passed away recently and your child is struggling to understand it, you don’t need to tell them the gory details of death. You could explain it in brief, easy-to-digest chunks, such as that a person goes to another place, and that we can’t see them any more. These brief details let your child know the basics of the subject without making them unnecessarily upset. 

Use visual aids

If explaining a personal issue, such as a serious illness or perhaps a divorce, to a child, it is easy to use visual aids. You could draw a simple picture to explain in a visual way what is happening. Conversely, you could explain the concept verbally to your child and ask them to draw what they think the subject is, or what it means.

Children are helped by visual aids because it allows their brain to “see” the concept they are struggling to understand. By putting an image to a subject, the confusion diminishes. 

 

Support them by asking open questions

Asking open-ended questions to your child, such as, ‘How do you feel about that?’ or ‘Why don’t you tell me what you think it means?’ allows them to verbalise fears, concerns or questions they may have about the subject. 

Your child is likely asking you questions in the first place because they may have heard snippets about the concept, such as on the news or radio, or in your private conversations with your spouse. Allowing them to verbalise their emotions and being supportive no matter what they say is the way forward.

 

Be calm at all times

If the subject matter your child is asking about lies close to home, it is important to remain calm when discussing it with them. Even if you are in pain right now, from a divorce or death in the family, you need to present a united, capable, calm front to your young child. If you portray your distress fully, they are likely to be anxious and worried about you and the family as a whole – which is not ideal for anyone.

Children are not your friends, your divorce solicitors or your therapists! Protect and help your kids through tough conversations and you will be on your way to having a calm, well-rounded little one.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.

No parent wants to face a difficult decision with their child, especially not a young baby. Having a baby that isn’t taking to weaning as easily as you would have hoped can be a stressful time for the both of you. You may begin to lose hope that your baby will ever take to solid foods, but there are some ways you can make it easier for both you and your baby.

Try a Small Distraction

You don’t want the sole focus on the interaction to be about the solid food. There can be a lot of pressure on your baby if you’re trying to make them only focus on the food on the spoon.

It may be a good idea to provide a positive distraction for your baby, such as their favourite toy, playing with them, or having someone else play with them —like another parent —to create a supportive atmosphere that isn’t about forcing new food.

Include a Wide Range of Food Textures and Tastes

You don’t want to stubbornly try the same jar of food all the time. To make weaning more interesting for your baby and to discover what they really like, always be sure to mix it up as much as possible.

Get the Right Equipment

There are certain items you can buy to make the process easier and tidier. Switching to solid foods can be extremely messy, which means anything you can do to decrease mess and improve both your baby’s and your own comfort will be an advantage.

You can try a weaning bib with full sleeves, like these from Bibado, which catches fallen food and prevents clothing stains, and you can fit a proper highchair to your kitchen table to have the right spot for your baby to sit.

Also, make sure you stock up on weaning plates, dishes, cups, jars, and spoons, so you have everything you need.

Don’t Get Too Concerned Over Mess

Part of the weaning process may be your baby accepting certain foods but a lot of it ending up over their face! If you’re too preoccupied with trying to wipe between every bite, it may interrupt the process. Take care of the mess later, and in the moment just focus on helping your baby take to the solid food.

As mentioned in the point above, there are always cleaning supplies and protective bibs you can buy to help.

Don’t Suddenly Stop Breastfeeding

Weaning your baby shouldn’t be about an immediate switch to solid food. It’s a good idea to take it slow and gradual, by replacing a breastfeed with solid food if you can. Weaning should be when your baby is ready, so if it doesn’t seem like they’re ready to stop all breastfeeding, it isn’t a good idea to put too much stress on it.

Let Your Baby See You Being Positive

As a final thought: it’s important for your baby to think that the solid food experience is a good one. Smiling, using a positive tone, and laughter can all help, even if your baby is taking their time accepting solid food.

Disclosure: This is a a collaborative post.

The good thing about Winter is the long evenings that were made for family movie time; Boo loves singing along and dancing (I’m often her unwilling dancing assistant!) so when the opportunity came to see what we thought of Shrek the Musical on dvd I was excited to see how Boo would take to a musical!

Shrek the Musical on dvd is a recording of the Broadway production which began in 2008 before coming to the West End in 2011, there are 17 new songs, 7 of which feature on the sing-a-long songbook which is part of the dvd.

Like anything Boo does it took more than one sitting for us to get through the whole musical but that didn’t stop us enjoying all the songs and the characters – it’s amazing how Donkey is always the favourite, animated or not. Although on adult level I found Prince Charming and Pinocchio hilarious!

Shrek the Musical was released on dvd and Blu-ray back in December by Twentieth Century Fox and is the perfect gift for those hard to buy families as it has something for everyone – a real home crowd pleaser.

Disclosure: We were sent Shrek the Musical on dvd for review. No payment was received and all opinions are 100% honest we promise.