The Mamas & The Papas - The Dad/ Parenting Thread

Personally I can’t stand halloween.

I never got into it as a kid, at most my primary schools Halloween fete was fun.

Also, the idea that we drum into kids the whole stranger danger thing, but then to go out and knock on doors and get lollies from strangers?

It’s more American bullshit that we dont need (and yes, I know its a pagan thing that goes way back, but Halloween as we know it is only because of the American culture crap)

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My kids love it, wasn’t a thing for me growing up in England. Ut the whole suburb seems to get into it and most houses decorate etc

Basic rule, if there are decorations up, they are participating and will have left lollies out - no decorations, leave them alone

Lots of people without kids will leave a bowl out and just sit out and chat to neighbours rather than having to answer the door

Every year for at least 15 years now or more, Halloween rolls around, kids have a lot of fun, streets get a little spooky as people get into it, and other people complain about how “We don’t do Halloween in Australia, fuck this shit right off”

It will inevitably be the same next year, but the simple fact is that Halloween is and has been for quite a while a fun thing that is also done in Australia.

Pre kids I was anti, thinking the whole thing was seppo bullshit. Now with 2 youngs kids i completely get it.

Lollies, dress-ups, decorations…big community vibe if youre somewhere that gets into it. Its fun.

There are some suburbs here that go all out.
People complain, kids have fun.

I notice a lot it’s the same type of people who complain that no kids play outside anymore are also the same people that complain that kids are doing Halloween.

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The ones to complain about kids being on tablets/phones too much are always the first to give a look when your kids are being ‘loud’ at a cafe/restaurant

My main objection to it is the piles of fucking cheap straight to landfill Chinese made tat that gets rolled out every year. Yes, it’s fun for the 4-14 year Olds. Yes, it’s invasive American cultural colonialism.
But the plastic shit is what really gets my goat.

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That applies equally to 80% of kids toys and entertainment sadly.

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Yes. It weirdly gets to a point where from an environmental perspective, and from a parent’s view (not having a house overflowing with cheap broken shit) computer games or EB Games vouchers make the best present you can give or get at these parties.

You also appreciate the well made stuff like Lego which last properly.

We’ve invested in Lego. So much better than those cheap, plastic toys.

We’ve also gotten her a lot of wooden toys too, which she enjoys.

The issue is the grandparents… Who buy her all those pony/unicorn/princess magazines which have all those little shitty plastic toys.

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This is a gear grinder as well but I sent through a thing saying one of our kids was sick today.

The school called my wife to double check because I sent the note through.

I’m the one that does 99% of the stuff with him at school but they always call my wife for everything and now I can’t even submit an absence note.

Fucking hate the attitude of dads not being equal parents.

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Yeah, I was at the hospital with my youngest a couple of years ago as she had a really bad asthma attack - and they still rang my ex-wife at 1am to check the information and tell her I’d brought our daughter to the hospital…

My littlest won his class spelling bee the other day, he was very proud of himself.
I said I was proud of him and he did so well.
He said he did it because I supported and helped him and it was all because of me.
There’s me trying to look manly and not cry outside his class at school pickup.

He has the school finals today and we have been practising over the week and weekend. He made me wake him up early this morning so we could practice.
He is nervous about public speaking, so he got me to draw a tattoo on his hand like mine and his mum drew a love heart on the other hand so he could remember that he doesn’t have to be nervous.

Here I am being all stoic and proud of him, and he says to me “dad, what if I don’t win?”

Jesus kid, we are doing all life lessons based on this spelling bee.

So here I am, stressing out about a 9 year old doing a spelling bee, thinking about the massive emotions going on, he doesn’t finish school for another hour and I just hope he hasn’t had some sort of existential crisis during the competition.

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For those following along, he is in year 4 and he came third for the whole school.

Only beaten by two kids in year 6.

He’s so happy, bouncing around very excited.
In front of the whole school, into a microphone and he killed it.

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Brilliant! Well done to him, and congrats to you and the missus for the way you handled things beforehand. I’m sure it’s a big reason why he did so well!

My 4 year old has had such a huge change over the past few months. We’ve noticed she’s really started expanding her comfort zone. Trying new foods, new tv shows and finally we’ve gotten her onto non-kids music. She’s loving the Beatles of all bands at the moment and i’m hoping that we can use that to get her onto some other stuff.

The only negative, both kids are now on the “mum love” stage. Had both of them hysterically crying for mum in the bath yesterday and refusing any comfort from myself. I’ll take the almost 2 years of obsessive love from my oldest though. It was a good run and always new she’d switch between us constantly

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It swings so much depending on gender and age.
My 8 year old and I are pretty close at the moment… i had a Higdawg moment at the shops when i took him to buy an outfit for a wedding. He said “I want a blue suit just like you… then we can be bros.”

I also stitched him up a beauty when i taught him and his brother the wave game. Basically you wave at someone as you drive by and yell a random name to confuse. He finally got the courage through fits of laughter to do it and as he did I stopped the car locked his window. Queue an awkward pause for a bloke walking his dog and him melting through the seatbelt into the footwell.

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