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End of a Shared Parental Leave Era - Nursery

3/1/2017

26 Comments

 
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It’s tougher than I thought it would be. With Little Bear starting nursery today, our time together on parental leave is just about to be over. I’ve dropped him off and of course I was there for hours trying to convince his watery eyes that it was ok to let go of Pappa, and that whilst this was the end of an era for both of us, we’ll still be together, and life will go on… No. Save about ten seconds of being clingy to Pappa, he discovered some balls to test in the corner and then promptly forgot about me. I hung around like a loser harbouring some unrequited love for about 10 minutes (9 minutes too long from his perspective), and then slowly crept out when he wasn’t looking.

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Growing Rough & Tumble babies

4/11/2016

17 Comments

 
Baby Little Bear in washing basket dad's turn blog
Your first newborn is tough to look after. And not because of the sleepless nights, feeding troubles, and poo explosions. It's because nothing in life had ever prepared you for these things, and their constant wearing away at your normally well rested self. You're sub-consciously wondering when your weekend will come, or if the baby has an off-switch. When will you get to sleep! When will you shower! Then you clock that it's only been a week (felt like a month), and you've got the rest of the next 20 odd years to do... at least.

Fast-forward 8 months into parenting... It starts to feel like you can do this, and it's getting pretty fun. It's like you tasted your first pint of bitter (beer for non-Brits) 8 months ago and it was disgusting, but now it's turning out pretty refreshing and has become your drink of choice.

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Advice: the good, bad and confusing

19/8/2016

20 Comments

 
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​One thing we don't lack when bringing up a baby is advice. It's difficult to turn anywhere with a baby in-hand without getting told the best way to do something. From nappy-rashes to vaccinations, from crawling to sleeping to feeding to washing to soothing. This is reassuring and daunting; helpful and confusing; kind and irritating.

​Of course, deep-down we know that even if we ignored all the advice and just gave our baby love and support, the chances are they would still, like so many generations before us, turn out just fine. Equally we might follow the advice and produce the next Hitler (but at least it wouldn't be our fault). Still, we'll carry on looking for the advice, and we'll carry on getting it!

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The Daddy Tag Challenge

21/7/2016

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#TheDaddyTag

I've been asked to try out The Dad Tag challenge. So as an extra to the normal posts on Little Bear, this one will run through some of my thoughts as a dad.

The Frenchie Mummy has set some questions for dads to answer. Feel free to join in if you're doing your own dad-blog by clicking the pic.
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The Daddy Tag Challenge

1 - Are you a Stay at Home Daddy or a Working Daddy?

I don't stay at home much as I try to take Little Bear out most days, and the two of us are currently visiting family in Sweden for the month! But I guess while I'm on Parental Leave, I'm a 'stay-at-home' dad. I was a working dad whilst my wife was on Parental Leave, which was great, but I'm enjoying my turn as 'stay-at-home' parent more than working!

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warning for expectant parents

30/6/2016

20 Comments

 
Dad father holding newborn baby bonding with son
The hyperactivity and giggling of Little Bear is great now, but we shouldn’t forget what it was like at the beginning. I think there’s no real warning about the first few weeks of being a parent! Durex might get a sales bump if the NHS gave more honest advice on this. The first few weeks we were in shell-shock, with a quick nostalgia for the good old days where we had so much more freedom, and regular sleeping patterns and meal times. Don’t get me wrong, the first day or so you’re on a high like no other (partly supported by being awake for three days solid and sneaking some hits from the gas & air in the delivery suite).
But it starts getting really tough really quickly. Both getting up a dozen or so times every night to feed our wide-eyed (not yet so charming) little troll. As a warning to those who are expecting, there isn’t really anything in life that will prepare you for these first few weeks, especially if your little guy or gal has trouble with breastfeeding (ours had ‘tongue-tie’ which wasn’t diagnosed until we insisted the midwives double checked). We discovered pushy and paranoid parenting fueled by grumpy sleep deprivation was essential to helping your baby...

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Working dad: whilst sharing parenting

11/6/2016

8 Comments

 
Working dad holding baby son boy after work before shared parental leave SPL
​My wife goes back to work on Tuesday and I'll start my turn on parental leave. So looking back, what’s it been like sharing parenting and working full-time? Over the last 5 months, we’ve been sharing parenting during the weekends and evenings, with her looking after the Little Bear full-time whilst I’m at work Monday to Thursday. It’s good to be reminded of what it feels like to be the more traditional working but active dad.

Three weeks after Little Bear arrived (probably the toughest life change to date), I went back to work. Travelling a lot with my job meant that a day after getting back to the office, I was on the plane to Vienna. ​ 
​I won’t lie, I was very excited about the prospect of my first full night sleep in a hotel, with no baby interruptions. Unfortunately, due to the psychological trauma we had faced over the last few weeks, I woke up every hour startled, looking for a crying Little Bear. I probably felt more exhausted when I got back to London than when I set out… Since then, each time I’m abroad for work, I’ve been faced with mixed feelings: I’ve enjoyed the break, but also really missed my buddies (baby and his mamma) back at home...

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Little Personalities

1/6/2016

7 Comments

 
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​Every parent wants to know what sort of person their little trolls will become as they get bigger. I wanna know not just what Little Bear will be but who he'll be. Will he be an introverted angel, or a hyperactive and sociable terror? Will he charm everyone who meets him, or be known as a bookish grump? Be an image of Buddha, or comedy genius?
​What can we tell about future personalities from how babies act? Based on little evidence, I think sparks of their personalities are already starting to show at 5 months. Not having seen this all before, I could be totally wrong. But I think I'm seeing some clear signs of who the Little Bear might turn out to be...

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So fast!

19/5/2016

2 Comments

 
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"from vegetable to babbling yoga master in just a couple of months"
Little Bear's come a long way. It feels like only a short while ago that this now fairly hyperactive, interactive little monkey just lay there immobile, unable to follow objects with his eyes or understand that his wobbly arms were attached to his body.

​Just after he was born he went yellow, which is apparently bad, so we went back into to hospital for 3 days (of no sleep just after 2 days of labour!) to put him under a blue light in the hope of turning him pink again. [notice the cool sun mask]. 
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During the whole thing, he barely moved at all, unless to whimper that he was hungry (every 30 minutes unfortunately for his mum). And he certainly didn't interact with anything around him, save the occasional stare into people's eyes.

​In stark contrast, he now aptly grabs his toes while folding up into an agile yoga position, explaining to us that his feet are the most exciting thing since the discovery of his fingers only weeks earlier. By explaining, I mean rambling, squeaking and occasionally blowing raspberries: so copying his parents...

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    I'm Dave, dad of Little Bear. Also known as 'Pappa' to the little man as we try and bring out his Swedish roots

    My wife and I are sharing the troubles and joys of bringing up Little Bear equally. This is about my half of the time being responsible for not breaking the baby

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  • Home
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  • Raising Little Bear
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