Product Review - Strider Balance Bike

Here in Australia summer is just around the corner, and along with it comes the perfect weather for bike riding. I just recently upgraded Miss K's bike, and now she and her cousin Lexi love tearing around the footpaths on their bikes. The last time I took the girls outside to ride together my poor nephew Jacob had to be left out as he's only 2, so he's too little for the bikes I have here, and until recently he's been too little for his own bike. So when Velogear contacted me offering one of their Strider balance bikes for review I jumped at the chance.

Balance bikes are similar to ordinary two-wheeled bikes however they have no pedals, and they are designed to help train children to balance on a bike, hopefully eliminating the need for training wheels when children get to the point that they are ready for a pedal powered bike. By getting used to having to use your upper body to keep a bike upright from the beginning, and learning the way normal bikes move when not stabilised by training wheels early on in life, you can bypass a lot of the fear and frustration a lot of kids feel when they are learning to ride unassisted. Balance bikes are also a lot lighter and less unwieldy as traditional tricycles or two-wheeled bikes with training wheels attached.

Strider brand balance bikes are particularly good because they are so lightweight and generally simple to assemble. The clamp I received for the handlebars was a bit tight, and my brother ended up having to pry it open to get it to fit on the bike, but I had a look online, and no one else had that complaint, so I'm going to put that one down to a manufacturing issue. In the end we got it on the bike and it held the handlebars tight so all's well.

The bike even comes partially assembled, making your first job of putting it together even easier.

All that was left to do once the bike was assembled was let Jakey take it for a test ride. Because Jacob is naturally fearless, I knew he'd take to this bike like a duck to water, and I was right. He couldn't wait to hop on and start hooning around like his big cousins. Jacob got the feel for pushing himself around with his feet fairly quickly, and as he gets more confident he'll figure out how to get some momentum going and lift his feet up for a real rush. The bike even comes with grips on the foot rests to give some friction and reduce the risk of little feet slipping off the smooth metal.

We noticed at first that the steering was a little tight, but some quick research showed that this was an intentional design feature, included to keep the steering a little bit more controlled while children are still learning how to manoeuvre the bike. With use the steering column does loosen up, so the more confident the kids become, the more they will be able to control the way the bike steers.

We set the steering and seat height to the lowest settings at first, and they ended up being the perfect height for my very short nephew (Hopefully he'll be as tall as his dad when he grows up, but right now he's just a tiny tacker.) The Strider balance bike comes with EVC tyres that will never go flat, eliminating the need to do puncture repairs or continuously fill them with air. The 12" bike is suitable for kids aged 18 months to 5 years, and comes with an extra long pole to  raise the seat high enough to accommodate taller children.

The Strider balance bike is an excellent first bike for any child, so if any of you know a little one who is in need of a first set of wheels, check them out at Velogear today.

With Christmas right around the corner, now is the perfect time to check out the range of bikes and accessories available at Velogear. They offer free shipping on all orders with no minimum spend amount, and they have some of the cheapest prices in Australia. They ship to both Australia and New Zealand, so check them out today and see the amazing range they offer.

**Disclosure**
I received free products for the purpose of this review. All opinions given here are my own and have in no way been influenced by Strider or anyone else. Searching for Sanity is not affiliated with Velogear.com or Strider Sports International in any way.

Discover Different Ways To Encourage Play Time in Children

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Having time to play is an essential part of childhood and growing up. It is part of our roles and responsibilities as parents to provide our kids with an environment that encourages play time, creativity and independence.

However, it’s very easy to just leave the kids to it instead of using strategies that foster and promote play time. It’s important to encourage them to play independently, as our ever busier lives can leave children bored and disappointed, turning to the easy act of watching TV programmes or playing computer games that may not be the most appropriate for their social and mental development.

So, how can we encourage play time in children?

Allow Play Time Every Day

Just as we make sure that your children have enough time to sleep, do their homework or study, we can set aside some time to play each day. Whether they play with their cars or make a delicious meal for their dolls, disguise as indians or play a board game, it’s got great benefits if we can allow our children to just enjoy themselves and relax from their daily responsibilities and duties.

Experiences Mean Everything!

Children recreate experiences or activities they performed and enjoyed somewhere else when they use imaginative play. Thus, one of the simplest ways to encourage children to play and be creative is by providing them with diverse and meaningful experiences as regularly as possible. Make a family visit to the zoo or include your children next time you have to take the car to the car-wash service or enjoy a family picnic in a park nearby. You’ll soon discover how your children recreate these experiences in their daily games or use them as ingredients to spice up their play sessions.

Provide Some Props!

We can enrich your children’s pretend play opportunities by encouraging open-ended play. In other words, by offering them toys that have multiple uses and that help their imaginations expand powerfully. Stuffed animals, toy cars, pretend kitchenware, artistic materials, simple costumes (these can even just be mummy and daddy’s stylish old clothes from the 80’s), cardboard boxes or musical instruments. Invite children to play with them and allow them to use their imagination to create rich and highly detailed playing sessions.

Give Them Space to Play

Do your children have a safe, child-proof and comfortable space to play? Whether it’s outside or inside your home, it’s a good idea for children to have a place where they have everything they need within their reach: toys, props, books, art material… you name it! If possible, make sure that they don’t have access to screens and computers in their playing space as the idea is to encourage them to be as creative and open-minded as possible in their playing experience. Having their own play space encourages resourcefulness and independence in children as even though parents can be around and participate in their fun sessions, the idea is that they’re able to develop a complete playing session on their own while we’re mere spectators or limited participants.

Encourage Mess

Ok this one might get a bit of debate...I know how hard it is not to have a contradictory attitude towards children’s play time: on the one hand we love to see our children engaged in their play session and how they’ve turned their room or the living-room into a zoo, a city or a war zone but, on the other hand, we see the mess and complain about having all the toys around, cushions lying on the floor, blankets hanging from chairs and so on. As a result, sometimes we limit in some way or another their imagination.

That said, a good strategy that we can embrace in order to encourage play time in children is to accept mess as part of their creative process. We can then set aside time at the end where they’ll be required to clean that mess. I’m sure most will agree that cleaning up after yourself is a pretty handy skill for them to learn before they turn into teenagers anyway.

So here’s a few of the strategies that we can use to encourage children to play without your supervision. I invite you to try any or all of them in your family and share your findings. Which one has worked better in your case? Have you tried anything different?

Today's post is brought to you by babyvegas.com.au, and it includes links to their website. Searching for Sanity is not affiliated with Baby Vegas, so I earn no money if you click on these links. Now that the pressure is off, please go check them out and see the awesome toys they have.

It's all over red rover

Well here we are at the other end of Christmas, and my feet are certainly thankful for this. My lounge room looks like we were hit by a sand storm, Miss K is finally tucked up in bed and mum has gone off to my little sister's house to celebrate the end of another Christmas with a few drinks. (And then maybe a few more.)

Today was everything I could have hoped for and more. Miss K's reaction this morning when she got her first glimpse of the lounge room covered in toys and presents was absolutely priceless. And had it not been 6:45 in the morning, I'm sure I would have been even more ecstatic watching her joy. She spent the morning tearing paper off presents and trying to squeeze in as much play with all of her new toys as possible.

Digging in the new and still full sand pit

Meeting her new Elmo toy. He got carted around with us all day

Mum helping Miss K open another present. (Yes that's really what I look like at 7am)

Miss K "riding" her new bike

Brunch with Miss K's dad was more excitement, as he came with presents from him and Nonna as well as some friends of his back home. I got excited too because he bought McDonalds bagels with him, which are a rare treat for me.

On the way to lunch at my little brother's house Miss K actually fell asleep in the car, which did not fill me with much hope for her being able to stay happy for very long, but apparently all she needed was a 2 minute nap because she was full of energy for the next 4 hours. And then when we got home she only had an hour long nap before she was ready to get up and play again. I have no idea where she gets this much energy from but I'm thinking of finding a way to bottle it up to keep me going on long days.

Lunch was the same chaotic fun it is every time my whole family gets together. There were almost as many Nerf guns there as people thanks to my nephew, and no one escaped from the afternoon without at least one shot to the head. Mine came from mum when she got tired of listening to me explain something and popped a bullet off in my general direction. None of us realised it would get me right between the eyes until it met its target. Luckily Nerf bullets are only foam otherwise it could have been painful, but I couldn't complain because I was laughing too hard.

And then this evening after we had all had our nap and were feeling refreshed, mum went off to keep the party going while Miss K and I had dessert for dinner. (Because hey, it's Christmas.) 

But now the house is completely quiet and I have a new video game with thanks to Miss K (and Grandma) that has finally installed on my computer and is calling for me to play it.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful day filled with as much fun and laughter as I did, and I'll be back again soon once the effect of too much food has worn off and I can get the energy up to write again.

It's beginning to look like a last minute rush

So is anyone else in denial that we only have two more sleeps until Christmas? My to-do list is slowly shrinking, but I still haven't wrapped a single present, and mum and I only just finishing decorating the lounge room this afternoon.

It's not Christmas at our house without some tinsel bunting

Miss K's contribution to the decorating is not touching this table

So this is technically an unfinished wall because we'll be stringing up some tinsel to make the baubles look like they're hanging on the wall, but you get the idea.

And I finally got a picture of the finished Christmas tree, it has had some rearranging done over the past few weeks as Miss K can't resist touching everything, so most days I find several ornaments sitting on the floor that need rescuing. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Santa vomit.

If you look very closely, you'll see a large white rectangle close to the bottom of the tree, that is actually an ornament that Miss K made with Grandma several days ago. She was so proud of it, and we have to show it to everyone when they first enter the house. Luckily we don't get a lot of new visitors around here otherwise I would get very tired of talking about it. Needless to say this will be saved and kept as a reminder of a time that is passing all too quickly.

In our house, no Christmas is complete until the toys come out. For the past few years mum has been collecting all kinds of irritating singing Christmas themed toys and Nutcrackers. Every year they take their place next to the tree to stand guard against potential thieves, and Miss K loves to spend her days racing the toys, or turning them all on at once and making them perform riff-offs. It's a guaranteed headache creator every time, but it keeps her entertained for so long I have learned to tune it all out.

We're doing all we can to keep the battery industry alive in Australia

Now we were very saddened this year to discover that apparently Nutcrackers have become uncool again. For several years the stores have been well stocked with these gorgeous toys, and mum always managed to find at least one that she felt needed to be added to the collection. Now we have to wait for the next time someone remembers these relics and decides to make them cool again to add further friends to our collection.

Won't someone think of the Nutcrackers???

Now yesterday I harnessed my inner handyman and built myself a marquee. Not from scratch of course, I'm not that good. But given that a lot of Miss K's toys are intended for outdoor use, I wanted somewhere safe and shaded for her to be able to play, even in the hottest days of summer, and given that my only experience in building has been flat pack furniture, I am pretty pleased with my efforts. Of course I built the marquee where our old pergola used to be, and the structure that was the roof is still in place. And yesterday I was surprised to find that it is less than 2.5 metres tall, as the marquee couldn't be erected to even it's shortest extension underneath it. Oops. But even crouching on the ground as it was yesterday, it was tall enough to fit Miss K and an inflatable pool underneath it, so we spent our afternoon having a swim.

I of course have to kneel to fit underneath it, but since it's not for me, that didn't really matter.

Luckily for us Nat was over this morning, so she helped me to move it, raise it up and tether it down with the tent pegs and rope provided. I am now very ashamed of our abilities to tie ropes and secure flimsy buildings, but luckily for me, I have a dad who is an absolute pro at putting up tents and tying ropes, so I'll get him in after Christmas to secure that sucker properly so it doesn't pull a Wizard of Oz on us and fly away to the Emerald City.

And of course what Christmas would be complete without a gingerbread house? My big sister bought a kit for her and my niece and nephew to put together and decorate, and she was kind enough to invite Miss K and myself to participate. Sadly I didn't get any good pictures of Miss K decorating the building, but the finished product is pretty impressive.

If you look closely enough, you can even see the "snowman" in the front that I got to decorate. Yay!

And I finally got a picture better than Miss K sitting on Santa's knee, and that's Miss K dressed as Santa. Now I have to add that this was actually her idea, but it wasn't her idea to pose for photos, which is why she has been stood on a table, in order to slow her down long enough to get a decent photo.

HO HO HO!!!

But of course chasing her around with a singing reindeer always gets good results too...

Well I've shared all of my new photos with you, and managed to put off getting anything productive done for yet another evening, so my work here is done. Tomorrow is now going to be a mad dash to get absolutely everything done before the clock strikes Christmas, but I shall try my hardest to check in with you guys before all of the celebrations have started (or finished).

So until next time, stay awesome my wonderful readers and I hope none of you are as poorly prepared for the next few days as I am. Of course if you are, you could always share this with me, the comments box is always open, and I'd love some confirmation I'm not alone in my lack of organisation skills. 

A stroll down memory lane

A friend of mine has started getting all nostalgic on Facebook lately and finding pictures of all the old toys and gadgets from her past. Given that she is of a similar age to my mother, I didn't think that I'd be able to remember a lot of the things that she could, but it turns out that either I have an awesome memory for things that were made before I was born, or once upon a time things were made to last, and last they did.

But she in turn has got me thinking of all the things I loved as a child, and miss now that I am an adult and it is no longer acceptable to have a room filled with toys and shiny things just because they are pretty. So with that I'd like you all to take a stroll with me down memory lane, as we go back twenty years to my childhood. (Man that is a long time ago. Now I feel really old.) Below are some of the toys I played with and loved as a kid.

This is a Barbie knitting machine. For anyone who never owned one of these, it was great for knitting an entire ball of wool into a pointless tube. Apparently you were supposed to be able to make it into clothes for your Barbies, but I could never figure out that part, so I spent many an hour making long woollen tubes. I don't think I ever looked as happy as that girl on the box while I was using this machine, mainly because the only thing it did really well was tangle up, so I spent more time yelling at it and crying in frustration than smiling at my tubes. 

This lovely lady here is a Cupcake Doll. The point of this one was you could turn her skirt inside out, and she would turn into a cupcake. This one pictured is exactly the same as the one I had as a kid, I can't believe I can still remember what colour Cupcake Doll I had, but as we've already covered, I have a mind full of useless crap. The problem I found with this doll was that for some reason the skirt and the hat would never quite meet up once her skirt was turned inside out, so my cupcakes always looked like the icing was about to fall off. 

My cousins had this board game when I was a kid, and even back then I hated the maths questions the most. I don't think I ever won this game as a child, but when my big sister bought it years later when we were all adults, I was surprised to find how much smarter I had gotten over the ten years since I had played it last. I was now able to answer the questions in a kids board game with relative ease. Yay me!

Ah Koosh balls. I don't know anyone who didn't own at least one of these in their childhood, these pointless balls of elastic. They didn't even hurt when you threw them at someone, but rub them in their hair and it was pure agony. I know this because my sister decided to teach me a lesson. a painful, hair ripping lesson.

I had forgotten about these until I started getting all nostalgic earlier this week. Magic Diaper Babies were little plastic figurines, whose nappies changed colour to pink or blue when immersed in cold water. I can't remember how many of these I had, but they were a very coveted item for me as a child. I can remember begging mum to buy me more any time we went to K Mart. 

Who here has never played with a Spirograph? I pity your sad life if you've never had the pleasure of making pictures with this awesome toy. We got one when my dad owned a second hand store in the early nineties, and I remember the huge fights we would have when someone wasn't sharing one of the discs, or even worse someone lost a disc. I think I'm going to have to find one of these for Miss K when she gets older, as it is an awesome way to kill a couple of hours.

Now I don't know many little girls who didn't own at least one of these sewing machines as a child. I had to wait until my big sister outgrew hers before I could inherit it, but I remember staring at it enviously when it was hers and wishing I was old enough to be able to use it. Once I owned it I realised that I was a terrible sewer, and the only thing I could make was crooked, clumsy tissue pillows for my Barbie dolls.

Speaking of Barbie dolls, this was one of my favourite dolls as a child as it is the first one I can remember that was bought especially for me, and not a hand me down from my big sister. She came with a special bottle of sparkly hair gel which smelt lovely, so I think I spent more time smelling this doll than actually playing with her (I never said I was a normal child) but I do remember her hair was an absolute monster to keep neat, and my mum spent many hours de-tangling her hair for me when it got really bad. 

I have saved this one for last because this was my absolute favourite toy as a child. This is a Lil Miss Singing Mermaid doll. I don't know exactly how popular she was when I was a child because I didn't have any friends who owned her, but I loved her more than anything else. When I was six I went through a real mermaid phase, partly because The Little Mermaid had come out on video and it was my favourite movie. My parents bought this for my sixth birthday, and I also had a cake decorated with plastic mermaid figurines. This doll sang when you pushed her stomach, and her tail would change colour if immersed in hot water, so she became my favourite bath time toy too. I even slept with her for a while. I actually tried to purchase one of these dolls on eBay a couple of years ago, but apparently it is a real collectors item these days because the one I was bidding on eventually got sold for over $70 and I wasn't prepared to pay so much for a doll.

So there you have it, my childhood in one tidy little blog. I'm sure there were other things going on at the same time, but when I think back to being a kid, this is what I see in my mind. If anyone else out there had a favourite toy in the eighties or nineties that they want to share with me, please feel free, I love nostalgia in all of its forms.

The point of Pinterest

So apparently there is more to Pinterest than just pinning pretty photos onto random boards. It is supposed to serve as a source of inspiration for projects, renovations, organisation and crafty things. I have heard from a lot of people (mainly other bloggers that I obsessively follow) that while they love pinning things to their boards, they rarely use the tips or instructions provided with the photo. A lot of Pinterest projects are cropping up everywhere as people madly try to make use of all of the wonderful ideas that are available at our fingertips.

Now a lot of my boards don't really have anything that I can use in future projects or crafts, I have just pinned them up because they are pretty, or they make me laugh. But I do have one or two boards with some wonderful ideas on them, some of which I used in Miss K's new bedroom. So given that I have technically been using the Pinterest boards for inspiration, but I've never really done anything exactly as it was presented to me, I decided on Friday to actually make something from one of my boards. And the beautiful thing about it was it was something Miss K and I could do together, and she could play with once it was finished. We made a discovery bottle

Pictured: a discovery bottle

This was the photo I used as my inspiration. I didn't read the instructions on how to make this, as how hard can it be to put sparkly things into a bottle? So on Friday afternoon once mum went to work, Miss K and I sat down with a bottle of water, a heap of tubs of sequins and beads and spent ten minutes making a discovery bottle. I was surprised at how much fun Miss K had putting the various items into the bottle, as I figured out she would have lost interest in this part pretty quickly, but she was there with me to the very end helping put sequins and beads into our bottle, she even chose which order we put the things in. And given that I was mixing children, water and carpets we managed to keep the mess to a minimum too which is always a bonus.

Pictured: A discovery bottle, as taken by a terrible photographer.

So we made our discovery bottle, put on the lid and I showed her how to shake it around to make all the sequins and beads inside float around, and I waited for her to get so excited she couldn't contain herself. But like with all the best laid out plans of mice and men the excitement wasn't so much palpable as non existent. Miss K was mildly interested with the pretty colours and movement, but she wasn't bouncing off the walls in glee. So I persisted and kept shaking the bottle and moving it around hoping to get something of a better reaction from her. But it seemed that Miss K wasn't going to have a bar of it, she ignored my questions about how pretty she thought it was and what colours she could see and kept taking the bottle away from me and putting it on the floor out of my reach. I was beginning to get frustrated at how much time I had wasted making a toy for her that she didn't like until I realised I had it all wrong.

It turns out Miss K did like her new toy, so much so that she didn't want to share it with me. And she still won't share it. Any time anyone picks it up she makes a mad dash to them and grabs it away. She even wanted to take it to bed with her that night. So I really should write to the makers of this toy and thank them for turning the inner brat in Miss K into the outer brat in Miss K. But I can't complain really because it turns out I got it right for once. Score one for mum!

Pictured: Miss K not sharing her toys

Christmas shopping time!!!

Yes I know it's only June, but this is my favourite time of the year because all the big chain stores around here start having their mid-year toy sales, usually with lay-by available until Christmas Eve. Today was a day I have been waiting for for about 2 weeks, as the catalogues finally arrived in my letterbox this morning, and I spent a good hour or so scouring them for present ideas. I know I have plenty of time to get ready for Christmas, but given I have 2 nieces and a nephew having a birthday between now and December 25th, and then Miss K's birthday in March, there is no time like the present to start getting ready. (I was going to say presents, but then I kicked myself for being so lame. You're welcome)

I have already marked out what presents myself and the jolly fat man in red will be giving Miss K this year, as well as her birthday present for next year, and my nephew's birthday and Christmas presents. Now all I have to do is find birthday and Christmas presents for both of my nieces and I'll be well on my way to being properly organised for all gift giving occasions for the next 8 months. I have even found a Christmas present for Miss K to give me in the Logo Board Game. I will admit I am absolutely mad for corporate logo based quizzes, and have downloaded absolutely every single logo quiz based app for my phone available. If I can't win this game every single time there will be temper tantrums.

The only fly in the ointment of my shopping plans is the fact that it means I actually have to go to the store during one of the biggest sales of the year. This wouldn't be a problem if every other person in a 30km radius hasn't had exactly the same idea as I have. I am not very good at handling large crowds, and tend to lose patience very quickly if I have to push my way through people just to get to the front door. I did consider doing an online lay-by, unfortunately the store I most wish to do my shopping through doesn't have everything I want available online, so I would still have to go to the store to do part of my shopping.

So I have some planning to do, I need to round up a tactical team who can surround me the whole way through the store to make sure no one gets in my way, perhaps a team of strong arms men, or goons for hire would be good. I have some research to do before the sale starts on Thursday. No time to lose my wonderful readers, I've got shopping to plan.

They will make a doll for anything

Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, we are exposed to so many wonderful things that in the past we were only able to see in our imagination. Ever since we got our first modem when I was a teenager, I have been able to visit countries on the other side of the world, learn about significant moments in history and try exciting new projects that I had never thought possible. But for every good thing you see on the internet, there are at least 20 things that will make you shake your head in confusion or disgust. And I'm not even talking about adult entertainment.

Quite recently I have become interested in researching children's toys on the internet for several reasons. One I hate driving anywhere and Miss K is a pain in the neck to take up the street, and two the internet has a wider variety of toys available than my local K Mart. Even though Miss K really is too young for a lot of the toys around at the moment, it's fun to see what kind of things I can buy for her when she's older and I've won the lottery (it could happen, let me dream). But for every toy that I look at and say "yes she MUST have that" there are so many that are so inappropriate you have to wonder what the toy makers are smoking when they come up with these ideas. The one toy that makes me want to headdesk every time I see a new version is the pregnancy and labour dolls.

While being pregnant and giving birth are two of the most natural things that a woman can do, I question the appropriateness of turning this process into a doll for several reasons. While I can understand that there may come a time in a child's life when they become interested in the birds and the bees, especially if mum starts having more children, I think showing a child a doll that is pregnant and gives birth may provide more questions than answers for the child. However, toy makers and some parents disagree with me, and so the market is flooded with all kinds of dolls with buns in their ovens and some of them are quite graphic.

WARNING... Some of the images you are about to see are NSFW so to save having to do a lot of explaining to your boss, or your children it might be best to save reading this blog when you are alone....in a room with a lock.

Probably one of the first and the tamest pregnant dolls was Barbie's best friend Midge. I remember wanting one of these when I was a little girl but for some reason mum wouldn't buy me one. Probably a good idea she didn't otherwise I would have gone into labour with Miss K thinking they would just remove the top of my tummy and pop the baby out before safely clipping my stomach back into place. Thank goodness we don't spread this lie to the children of today...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, apparently children need to know the absolute ins and outs of labour and delivery these days. This lovely doll is called the VBAC doll (available at www.mamamordolls.com) and teaches children about how mummy can have a safe vaginal birth even though she gave birth to her last child through a caesarian. The baby even comes with it's own umbilical cord and placenta still attached, and there is a strip of Velcro across the stomach to show them where the baby ISN'T going to come out because they are delivered without surgery.  Way to confuse the situation. There is a similar baby available at the same website that just focuses on natural child birth and doesn't go into caesareans or VBAC or anything like that. The real difference with the natural birth doll is the press studs sewn into place where the nipples should be. This enables you to attach the baby to it's mother's breast so she can feed it. Great now babies are going to think that underneath our tops are press studs that we used to clip on to our babies so they could eat. Do children even need to bring breast feeding into their play time??

Apparently they do. Because it's not enough that their own mothers had to stop everything they were doing the minute the baby cried because they were all of a sudden doing a very realistic impersonation of a fountain, we now have to inflict this annoyance on our children. What you are looking at is the Breast Milk Baby. With thanks to some high-tech sensors in the form of flowers over the nipples of a halter top, this baby can simulate breastfeeding, complete with sucking noises and a charming burp at the end.

With all of this "educating" children on the wonders of being a mummy I'm not sure if the parents complaining that this is going to cause more teenage pregnancies aren't barking up the wrong tree. I'm more concerned that there is more of a risk of a huge drop in the population as our children will be scarred for life by the clip on tummies and press stud nipples that they will develop once they become pregnant. I know I am.