This weekend is Mothering Sunday- a day that recognises how important mums are and attempts to thank them for their time and effort. It’s traditionally known a Christian festival, at least in the UK, but actually has pagan roots that go as far back as Neolithic times.
This year, do the green thing and celebrate with a gift that both your mum and Mother Nature will appreciate.
Traditional Green Gifts
There are two presents you can give on Mothering Sunday that have been around for hundreds of years and, if you get them right, won’t harm the environment one bit.
Flowers
Many cut flowers have a less than blooming environmental footprint. The majority are grown outside of the UK and therefore require large amounts of energy to get them into our shops quickly enough. There are some complicated calculations for whether buying flowers closer to home that have been fostered in heated greenhouses, or shipping them from naturally hot countries has a lower carbon footprint. There are also concerns over the exploitation of labour and dangerous use of pesticides in the cut flower industry. You can read more about it here.
But don’t despair! Flowers are an excellent way to celebrate the wonderfulness of mothers- you just need to try and get it right. Look out for fair trade and organic flowers, and consider the country of origin when you purchase. If you’re feeling a bit befuddled, why not think outside the box and buy your mum some seasonal bulbs or a potted plant that she can keep for longer than a week.
Simnel Cake
‘I’ll to thee a Simnell bring
‘Gainst thou go’st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou’lt give to me.’
Robert Herrick, 1648
Simnel cake is a rich fruit cake topped with an indulgent layer of marzipan (particularly indulgent when you consider Mothering Sunday falls during Lent!). They’re pretty similar to Christmas cakes and can take anything from a few hours to a few days to make. Here’s a simple recipe from the BBC. As well as being delicious and nutritious (hey, it’s got fruit in it!) these cakes are such traditional fare for this occasion that they don’t require anything particularly out of season.
Contemporary Green Gifts
There are so many beautiful green products out there it’s hard to know where to begin! If you’re buying your mum something like chocolate or jewellery, as with cut flowers, just keep your common sense about you and avoid things like excess packaging and lots of air miles. If you’re buying something that can be wrapped, don’t forget to be all eco about it!
If you’d rather be more blatant in your joint objective to gift your own mother and Mother Nature, why not think about a few of the following ideas:
Plant a tree: talk about symbolism! Trees for Life plants trees as gifts up in the Highlands of Scotland. It costs around £15 and you can do it all online- you’ll even get a certificate to print off and present just in time for Sunday!
A Homecooked Dinner. Get all nostalgic by cooking your mum some favourites from your childhood. If you’re over a certain age and grew up in the UK, your childhood food would probably have been quite locally sourced so make sure to re-enact this for that Mothering Sunday meal.
Pledge Your Time. Your mum has spent a lot of her life looking after you. Why not pledge to return the favour? You could promise to run errands for a day, sort the garden out, mend some clothes or look after the dog for a bit- anything to give your mum some time to put her feet up and relax.
Make Her Something. All those after school activities and Saturday morning clubs must have amounted to something… can you write her a story or a song, or maybe make her something crafty like a card or a jewellery box? If you’re feeling a little lacklustre in this area, why not book a course or experience for you to go on together. Have a look at this event resource for some great ideas in your area.
(Thanks to joshludwig, The Marmot, tinali778, psd, John Morgan and dbgg1979 for the images).
First time mums and dads survive the gauntlet of baby’s bedtime by establishing a regular routine. Story-time is one of the most important parts of that routine because it’s a very well defined activity that’s different from all other parts of the day. If story-time is always followed by bedtime, your baby will be a lot more likely to understand and even find comfort in the fact that one activity naturally follows another.
My nephew, who’s two, has a lot of energy and can keep going long after the grown ups have run out of steam. His dinner seems to give him a real burst of energy so he’s often found tearing around the house in the early evening. Even if he’s tired, it can be hard to calm him down enough to get him changed into pyjamas, let alone get him to sleep.
As well as routine and quiet time, books can help your baby sleep because of the subject matter of the story. This obviously requires language comprehension, so it only applies to slightly older children. For example, a book that starts out with an adventure but ends up with the adventurers cosily tucked up in bed will often translate to the child.
All the young children I know love books. They love holding them, touching them, turning the pages and play-reading from them. Imagine how much that could be magnified if they’d made the book themselves!
First of all, there are a lot of children’s books that specifically focus on climate change. However, the majority of them are non-fiction. This list looks at 15 of the best stories about the environment, global warming and related green issues.
Repetitious sounds are particularly comforting to children. If a certain word or simple phrase is repeated it will often calm a foetus and this same sound will usually have the same effect once the child is born.
Children’s authors pop up in the most unexpected places. Just goes to show, if you have a story to tell- go for it!
There’s such a wealth of children’s books out there it’s sometimes hard to know where to start. Book Awards are a great way to find new reads that have been recommended by experts in the field. Have a look at the 13 children’s book awards below to find out more.