Day 2 of Walking In Her Shoes

Tuesday was my day 2 of the Walk In Her Shoes challenge.  Again, I just about managed to do 10,000 steps but by the end of the day I was absolutely shattered and was in bed not long after the kids.  The biggest part of my walk today was the walk back to my car and today it was a VERY slow walk back.  It seems that every day something new is hitting me and today it was bear feet!

I was walking back in my comfy shoes, with nice warm lining and a cushioned heel on pavements that have recently been re laid. I got thinking about the conditions these young girls walk in and tried to imagine doing my walk in bear feet on gravel paths for miles and miles.  I selfishly thanked my lucky stars that I didn't have to do that walk.

Then I thought about my little girl doing that walk in bear feet on a gravel path for miles and miles and that's what broke my heart.  No mother would want to see their baby walk in those conditions for the simply necessity of clean water.


These women and girls have to make this journey every day and after only 2 days I'm already counting down until the end of day 7.  This is why more than ever we need to raise awareness to get solutions in place so that young girls can live their lives as young girls!

Walk In Her Shoes

I've joined the challenge of walking 10,000 steps a day as part of Care International.

 

 

"Walk in solidarity with women and girls in the developing world who walk miles every day collecting water for their families.
 

These gruelling daily treks mean they often don’t have time to reach their full potential in life.
 

CARE is building wells, boreholes and standing taps close to their homes, allowing them more time to go to school or work.
 

This March, walk 10,000 steps a day in solidarity and raise money for women and girls in the poorest communities."

 

 

My Experience Day 1:

 

My first thoughts when I decided to take on this challenge was that it would be a doddle.  I run round after 2 young kids so of course I can do 10,000 steps a day, easy peesey.  How wrong could I be? 

 

I put my pedometer on at around 8am on Monday morning and felt rearing to go.  I was pumped up and ready to clock up some steps.  The first thing I needed to do was get the kids in the car and get them to nursery!  Driving along I was thinking, "not really the greatest start towards my target is it?"

 

I did however park further away from work and walked in.  The difficulty I have is that most days I'm chained to my desk and only tend to get up when I need a desperate cup of coffee for the purposes of keeping me going through the day.  I tried hard to make more of an effort to get up and get walking.  I took the stairs instead of the lift (and some of you may scoff at this small change in routine but I do work on the 10th floor so it's a bloody slog to get up 12 flights of stairs each time I want a cuppa).  I tried to get up and go and see people rather than just emailing them so this got me around the building.

 

It got to the end of my working day and I'd only done about half the target.  I was knackered and my legs hated me for using the stairs so much, but I still had 5,000 more steps to do. 

 

The evening went a bit better as running round after the kids really did help.  It also really helped that neither of them wanted to get in the bath so the battle that resulted led to more steps being used (and these were running not walking as I tried to pin the little buggers down)

 

At the end of the day I had just about done the 10,000 steps (I had to go a couple of steps on the spot just to take it over).  I felt such a sense of achievement and then remembered that I have to do this for another 6 days!!

 

Even after 1 day something quite powerful hit me (other than Mr Moo in the battle of the bath) and that was the extreme these young women and girls have to go through to simply get clean drinking water.  If I want a drink of water I only have to walk into the next room or shout for hubby to get it for me, but these young girls have to walk miles.  I say 'mile' and it doesn't sound that far.  I walk a mile and I soon realise how far it really is and it is much farther than it sounds.

 

Although I walked 10,000 steps all my steps had a different purpose, such as getting the kids ready, getting me to work, doing the shopping, meeting friends, looking after the family and so on.  The 10,000 steps these girls have to walk is just to get water!  It doesn't seem right does it?  Young girls are missing out on the opportunity of an education because they have to spend so much time trekking to get something that should be as easily accessible to them as it is to us.

 

For as much as I cursed the stairs and hated being THAT tired, I'm proud of what I'm doing.  I'm proud to be raising awareness of the poverty these girls live in so that we can all help and make a difference.  Care is working on building wells so these girls don't have to make this awful trek everyday and they can only do this with our help.

 

I'm not the only one Walking In Her Shoes.  There is a team of Parent Bloggers who are all taking the challenge of Walking In Her Shoes and you can support us here.

 

Day 1 down, 6 to go..........please show us your support or why not try the challenge yourself?  It's fun once your legs stop hating you!

When to stop a bedtime rountine?

I have two beautiful monsters aged 4 (nearly) and 18 months.  From before they were born I was adiment that they would have a bedtime routine from the first night I put them to sleep.  Of course this was never going to work with a newborn (no matter how hard I tried) but I did keep on with it as much as I could until they got to an age where it did start to work.  I think I've got a very nice routine that works for both parents and the kids and in our house it looks like this:-

6:00pm                       Toast for super and a warm drink of Milk
6.15pm                       Mum and Dad both get them in the bath so they can have a splash
                                  together.
6:40pm ish                 Out the bath and into PJ's.  Goodnight kisses and hugs given to all 
                                    and then bed
7:00pm                       Into bed with 2 stories
7.20pm                       Finish stories then kisses and big light out and night lights on. 
                                   Gentle sing song for 5-10 minutes while children drift off.
7:30pm                      Mum and Dad downstairs for a drinky drink as beautiful children
                            sleep.I'm not saying for one second that it is this straight foward every night and of course you throw the add tantrum in there and the whole thing goes out the window.  The main point I want to make is that the kids know this is the routine so they know what is expected and it helps calm them and get them ready for a good nights sleep.  It is by no means set in stone and there have been many times when I've had the crapiest day with the kids and just want to get them to bed because they are screaming tired, so I do.  I skip the super if it was a late tea and I skip the bath but I always, always read them a story and have a sing song.

I am also a firm believer that you don't punish kids by sending them to bed early.  I don't understand what this achieves other than getting them to not like going to bed and making it harder for yourself when bed time comes around.

My question is how long do you keep a routine for?  Do they get too old for a routine?

I only ask as I have friends and family that believe I am moddy coddling them by keeping them in this routine.  A family member also has two children of a similar age.  We were round at their house one evening and it was time to put the kids to bed.  She had them go round and give Uncle Steve and Auntie Sue a kiss and cuddle night night and then she sent them off up stairs.  I was waiting for her to make her excuses and say she was just popping up to put them to bed but she didn't.  She literally sent them off up stairs on their own to put themselves into bed.  They went.  All by themselves they went.  No bath not story no nothing they just went up to bed. 

I shot Steve a look of "can you believe that?" and he shot me a look of "don't make a fuss!"
I was amazed that this worked as they did put themselves in bed and we didn't hear from them for the rest of the night but it just goes against everything in me.  Why would you not go up and have that kiss and cuddle as you tuck them in?  Why would you not read a bedtime story and listen as they filled in the best bits for you?

When I told this story to several friends some of them also said that I was setting myself up for a fall as the kids would expect this behaviour of me from now on.  They should be putting themselves to bed and reading themselves a story and settling themselves down.  I totally agree with this and would want them to be doing this later on but not just yet.  Little H is only 3 1/5! Am I being too much by keeping her in this routine? Should she be putting herself into bed by now?  It would be interesting to know people's thoughts on this as it just doesn't sit right with me and I do love the routine we have.

I also like the routine as it gives me one-on-one time with the kids and sometimes Little H just wants to chat about her day or something that is clearly on her mind and I don't want to take that opportunity away from her so I'm not keen to give the routine up just yet.

I know many people have different opinions on this type of things but I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to keep doing it for as long as my kids want and need me too.

Prayers for Matilda Mae and Jennie

A prayer for Jennie and her family.  Recently Jennie suffered the biggest loss a mother could ever imagine and the blogging and twitter community are all here to help in what ever way we can.  I found these prayers and hope they offer some small piece of comfort.

Oh Mother, My Mother

 
I touch your tears,
invisible fingers soothing your skin
I know you think of me so often
in the day, in the night, in your dreams
going into an empty nursery
knowing I'll never be there
but I am...in your heart, in your soul,
I shall always be
for you gave so unselfishly of yourself
Inside of you, you created
such a world for me
a world of laughter, of love
of sadness, of sorrow
every emotion people come to know
you shared with me.
And even though I may never feel your arms around me
I felt your heart beating,
like a lullaby, singing me to sleep.
and your spirit giving me a safe haven
already protecting me, nurturing me
preparing me for things to come
But sometimes the journey of life pulls souls apart
and yes, I had to go on to another place.
I wish I could stay
I wish this was a decision I could make
and I know you do too.
Know this, wherever you are:
I will always remember
that yours was the first love
the first joy, the first soul
I will ever know
you gave me the courage to
go on in my journey
I hope I can do the same for you
Your heart beat will always call me to you.

Love, your child

Author: Theresa Cochrane
Copyrighted by: Growing Family, Inc.
Used by permission

 

A prayer for Matilda Mae

 

 

Thinking of You with Love

 
We thought of you with love today,
but that is nothing new.
We thought about you yesterday,
and days before that too.
We think of you in silence,
we often speak your name.
All we have are memories,
and your picture in a frame.
Your memory is our keepsake,
with which we will never part.
God has you in His keeping,
we have you in our hearts.
A million times we`ve wanted you.
A million times we cried.
If love could only have saved you,
you never would have died.
It broke our hearts to lose you.
But you didn`t go alone.
For a part of us went with you...
the day God called you Home.
~Author Unknown