Am I the only parent who is Bah Humbug about the school soft toy comming to stay for the weekend?

[LynetteScavo]

I know I should be pleased, and find it cute etc, but, actually it was really inconvenient having the teddy to stay this week end.

Firsty, I had planned to spend the weekend doing housework while DC's played in the garden. Which wouldn't be very exciteing to write about would it, so we had to have a special trip out, to take photos of teddy doing fun things. Why couldn't' he come on the weekend we'd planned to go to Paris?

Bah Humbug.

Secondly, I really don't need to constantly be checking teddy hasn't been lost in Sainsburys or where ever.

Bah Humbug.

Thirdly, DS2 struggles to write, so it took ages for him to put down what he wanted to say, and we both started to get frustrated, to the point where DS1 offered to do it for him.

Bah Humbug.

Obviously I'm being very unreasonable, but suely there is someone else who hates having soft toys come to stay as much as I do.

[JeremyVile]

The problem is not the teddy but you seeing it as some kind of excercise in keeping up appearances.
Whats wrong with just playing in the garden?

[notnowbernard]

lol

I find that a lot of parents in dd's class are strangely competitive about it all as well

For instance, the incredibly long list of activities achieved in 1 overnight stay, accompanied by numerous photographs, and long entries obviously copied out by child but written by parent (don't know many 5 or 6 yr olds who could spontaneously write 'Barnaby had a fabulous time riding on the carousel with me and my sisiters and cousins. After we had a delicious pizza at Pizza Express')

Barnaby watched Tracy Beaker when he came to our house, and had fishfingers for tea. Great, thanks, dd

[MrsBadger]

yanbu

I'd have sent it into the garden with the dcs and strapped it into the sainsbury trolley

I went to antenatal yoga in a hall at a swanky prep school and one wall was covered with them:
'Kate and Amelia took Ted to Pony Club Camp'
'This is a picture of Emily and Ted in the swimming pool on holiday in the Bahamas'
'Ted and Jemima on her daddy's boat'
'Ellie took Ted to Henley Royal Regatta'

I longed to sit him in front of HSM and take him to Lidl, the poor thing

[Lizzylou]

DS2 has yet to have the preschool bear, but I was looking through the book about it's "adventures" in the reception last week as was a bit worried about what on earth to put in it when it's our turn.
One weekend it said
"Saturday we had a lazy morning as XXX's Mommy had gone out the night before and was feeling a ittle bit poorly"

That took the pressure off a bit!

[TrinityIsFuckingTrying]

I would love the teddy to come to my house
my kids would love to have it join in withh everything they do

I agree ith jeremy

quit trying to be the best bear keeper

so it played in the garden, thats good

and then it could have tea qith you and brush its teeth
really be a penguin not a sheep

[Itsjustafleshwound]

Loathe it!!!

It is all the competitive parenting that goes in the diary - somehow Johnny spends the 1 weekend of the 52 not eating Macdonalds and watching telly...

It is just another ploy to guilt parents ...

But the one consolation is that at least the animals aren't alive and being ignored in a bag (and lying in the book) isn't that bad...

[gramercy]

I think we all do.

Baxter Bear came here. I eagerly scanned his previous weekends and was at the competition. One week Baxter had been "to look at Mummy's old college in Cambridge" ... Most weeks the poor bear had been subjected to relentless improving activities. Worst though was the photo of Baxter cuddled up with a mangy dog in the dog's even mangier looking basket.

But the peak was surely Baxter launching a balloon with a message tied to it in memory of the recently deceased grandad.

[notnowbernard]

Gramercy - OMG

These are making me laugh though

I think dd's time with Barnaby was the only one without the photographic accompaniment

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

We had this a couple of weeks ago.

DS (5yo) and ASD took photos himself using a very old digital camera
I wrote it from what he said and our three entires (with pictures printed on normal paper)were

'Teddie' helped me build a train track, we had lots of fun

'Teddie' had a special dinner with all of our friends (Teddie at table when best friends and their DC came over to stay)

'Teddie' went down the slide with my little sister, it was very funny'

I did snurk when I saw some of the ott entries from other parents. Some must have bribed the teachers to get 'Teddie' on the weekend they happened to go to New York.

[BethAndHerBrood]

Timmy came home for the weekend a few weeks ago. We were the second ones to have him. O.M.G! The pressure!!

We took him to costa and bought him a babycino. He seemed happy.

Was more bothered about losing him than anything else, tbh. Can you imagine the shame of being the family that lost Timmy??!! You'd never live it down!

[Buda]

God no! Hated it when DS got it. Teddy went to football on the Saturday morning and then played playstation all afternoon!

DS's school have another one that the children 'apply' to take over Xmas/Easter/summer holidays and his travels are then plotted on a big map in school. Of course the children all love the idea and the parents are praying that their DC's name won't be pulled out of the hat to take Csaba!!!

[SolidGoldBrass]

We happened to get Bubbles the weekend we were going to see DS grandparents, who took us to the aviation museum as well as DS and his dad's usual saturday trip to the London Transport museum... but that was sheer luck. Though I did say to DS dad that other parents will probably be cursing us (as we were the first ones to have the thing) for setting the bar a bit high - two museums...

[NormaSnorks]

Ha ha - this is a regular MN complaint over the years... there are some fantastic historic threads about it:
Sodding Barnaby Bear

[MaggieW]

I thought it was hilarious - especially as it appeared some parents had employed graphic designers (seriously!) to do their child's entry when my DD had to do it. One child Mummy wrote 12 pages of the most incredible detail and even included a 12 week scan photo. My DD wrote one line and drew a picture, and that was more than enough, I thought! It became even more funny when one of the more competitive families took Barnaby to Spain and he was lost in transit. Brilliant!!!

[throckenholt]

the ones in my kids class (I have twins so we get it twice !) are very imaginative - one went for a ride on a space rocket, another had a weekend in Spain. They draw pictures instead of photos.

It is better because they use their imagination.

No way would I rearrange my weekend just because school ted was coming to stay

[Lizcat]

With ours there are two different types of entries in the book the intense competitive parenting entires four pages for two days and ours one photo and one sentence.
I figure the teacher wants to see my child's own work and thats what she gets.
Plus I'm certain the cat much prefers going for a walk to the park and going on the swings than all those worthy activities!!!

[SolidGoldBrass]

Ok so I did take a picture of Bubbles with empty cider cans and a porn mag and post it on my Facebook page...

[RoseWater]

Ugh! Yet love reading the competitive parenting entries

[smee]

Ours got mauled by the cat.

[BendyBob]

I dear. I've got to be the most bah humbug mum around. I was just having a good old moan about World Book Day on another thread...then I saw your thread Lynette and...well here I am.

Yep, the school toy is yet another test to my sanity.

We lost one on a family day out. After a weekend of frantic and fruitless phonecalls to the (unbovvered) theme park, had to confess Monday morning to a class of 30 quivering lips that their beloved teddy didn't make it through the weekend round our house. And we had to replace the damn thing. Dd was traumatised.

Then we had a blardy great beaver (from Beavers) which we (I) had to drag round Disney for his photo opportunity with Mickey and friends.

Recently another one came back from school. Took him out for a meal in a restaurannt - which happened to be next to a nightclub (I know how that sounds) and ended up having his picture taken with a scantily clad transvestite outside who was drumming up publicity for the club. I can't imagine what the teacher thought about that one.

There are days - more often than not actually - when I dread opening the school bookbags. The words 'class bear', 'money for...' and 'dress up' turn me to a jibbering blob.

[booknan]

Had Hamish Bear two weekends ago.

Knew exactly what to expect as the parents before us mentioned Hamish had been just about everywhere. Sure enough his diary pictures were just about everywhere you could think of - someone even took him to Paris for rugby.

This was the third time I had 'suffered' with Hamish so took a picture of sweet Hamish, and with a little computer help he had a fabulous weekend on the space shuttle.

Note came back from the teacher. Can all parents please only use writing by the child and no photgraphs please...... Hooray !!

[cookielove]

We have a dog that goes home at my nursery, 2-3 room, so clearly the parents have to write what happens, and horror of all horrors she was lost. She is gone for good, we have other parents asking if she will be found erm i think not.

So we have a replacement one, it is hilarous what some of the parents write, they are given a page in the book although some do go over which we don't mind, one parent let the childs older sister write a story about how the dog, her and her brother were captured by aliens, it was quite sweet. Another parent wrote, 'X loved dog, slept in bed together, thank you'

She had him him for four days. We also hand out a camara to go with it, with clear instructions given verbally and written, to only take 2 photo's. We got our film developed to find the last parent who had took 6 shots of their child one after another, none with the dog!!! When i questioned this, the dad said ' well you'll have to give us the dog back if u want photos with him' he had him for 3 days including the weekend!

So it can be a pain, from the school/nursery point of view as well

[fridayschild]

Oh yes, I hate these. DS2 is in reception and needs to bring back a note of what he has done every weekend "so that the children's discussion can be prompted if need be on Monday". This is fine, as I can usually dredge something vaguely worthwhile out of the weekend. But the soft toys....

We got the dog mid-week last week. This is when our nanny looks after the children. The dog "watched Top Gear with me and my brother". We were the second entry in the book, and the previous day the dog had watched Cinderella. However this news had been written by the child, not by its parent (ahem). I feel my carefully constructed images of worthy weekends have been completely blown!

[dilbertina]

We had Barnaby last week. The children in dc1s class can ask to take Barnaby if they are going somewhere exciting on holiday. Barnaby has own passport with exotic stamps from around the world...or I should say HAD, because we managed to lose him. Up a mountain. May have to move schools...