The Tuna family saga- free Miguel!!!

The brave Miguel Tuna has spent many years bravely fighting for his country in the peaceloving resistance caterpillar regiment. Their aim has been to stop the slaughter between the marmite and maple syrup factions.

Whilst at home Miguel's poor heartbroken wife Mabel and their young son, Sydney patiently await news on the conflict. They only have one wish this Christmas and that is to have Miguel home where he belongs. If you can help please tweet #freemiguel, follow him on twitter @migueltuna or search on Facebook for the free Miguel tuna page.

Please help get this brave veteran of a vicious struggle home again.

Bites, bargains and bad days

Having a really shit day to be honest. Been on anti-depressants for a while but today was the first relapse since I started taking them. All day I've just felt crap and as though I don't know what I'm doing with the kids. Then when I collected my son from nursery I was told that he'd bitten another child. Brilliant. My son is a biter once more.

However on a more positive note I popped into the charity shop and found some HappyLand fairies for my daughter for 10p each. Nice little bargain and she's getting HappyLand bits for Christmas :-)

I've decided that i'm not going to sit around feeling crap. I'm going to make a list of things that I think the kids will enjoy and make sure that every day we do a fun activity- painting, baking etc. I'm going to tackle the housework a stage at a time and get back on top of things.

My son goes on holiday tomorrow with his nan for a few days. This is what happens when you let a 2 year old pack his own suitcase (see pic)
Robots, socks and a hat!!

Today was a bad day, it doesn't mean tomorrow will be.

Am I just a rubbish parent?

When did everybody get so bleeding precious about their children?! I know that I'm not a perfect parent but honestly it seems as though some people just want to keep their child in a bubble forever and not let the real world in.

It makes me feel as though I'm doing a hell of a lot wrong in that I let my 2 yr old play with action men who have guns, we have pretend sword fights when we're being pirates and I even let him have juice!!

Judging by some of what I was reading on mumsnet earlier this is all wrong. Oh well. Little boys have always played with toy guns, they have always had sword fights and a bit of juice is hardly the end of the world.
I don't believe that any of these things are going to turn him into an antisocial yob so where is all this namby-pamby stuff coming from?

Yes your little darlings may fall over, they may even hurt themselves and shock horror they may at times not like you. even if you only ever feed them lentils and water and stop them playing with sticks they may still turn out to be complete arseholes as adults. thats life.

Yes parenting plays a massive role in shaping our children but it seems to me that the more you try and wrap them up and protect them then the more they will have to rebel against.

At the end of the day my children have rules, they have boundaries and they are bloody well told off when needed, but I still feel that they need to know about the world. They know that some children aren't as lucky as they are and dont have fresh water, toys or food. They know that sometimes there are bad people who do naughty things and they know that sausages and bacon come from dead pigs.

They are polite and happy despite knowing that there is a world where people arent always cbeebies style happy and that things wont always go their way. I am proud of how I bring my children up even if sometimes mumsnet and netmums make me feel awful and like a shitty parent.

Everyone parents differently and I'm pleased to say that despite me apparently doing everything wrong I have two very polite, sometimes cheeky but most importantly HAPPY (although that may be the sugar) children who are a pleasure to be around and perhaps we should all stop coddling our children and give them the respect that they deserve.

Our children should know that they are lucky to have the things that they do and surely by knowing about the realities of life we are better preparing them for an uncertain future?