FAMILY MATTERS / PARENTING
What’s on your wish list?
It’s not too late to start your Christmas shopping, but choosing gifts for children can be daunting, with so much on offer and the pressure of ‘getting it wrong’. While online shopping has its advantages, there’s nothing quite like the touch and feel of ‘real shopping’ and in Tunbridge Wells there are plenty of shops to choose from, with the toy department at Fenwick, JoJo Maman Bebe, books galore at Waterstones and newcomer, Whirligig, specialising in traditional toys, art and craft and games.
Mini techies will love Marbotic Smart
Letters. Bridging the gap between traditional play and new technology, Smart Letters is a wooden alphabet of letters that is connected to three downloadable apps available on Apple, designed for three to seven-year-olds. Each wooden letter interacts with the apps on a tablet, helping to build a picture of the alphabet and early word formation in a child’s mind. Priced £36.99.
FAMILY TIME TOPS BRITS’ CHRISTMAS LIST
Words June Brogan CEO and family counsellor, Relate Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Maidstone
Families these days come in all shapes and sizes and one size does not fi t all! Often there are complexities such as step-families, different fi nancial budgets, ex’s and geographical challenges.
When you walk in the door of your parents’ house sometimes people revert to being ‘little Johnny’ or ‘the diffi cult one’ or ‘the responsible one’. Try not to revert to these teenage behaviours and labels otherwise that is how you will be treated – the challenge is to stay in your adult self.
For something less ‘techie’, is the Minions Edition Make-a-Bar Kit. Fans of these loveable yellow creatures can now make their own delicious chocolate bars featuring their favourite characters – the kit contains everything needed to create two sharing bars of chocolate including three colours of delicious Belgian chocolate. Available from Argos, Tunbridge Wells, priced £9.99, or visit
www.argos.co.uk
Little Tikes has Christmas all wrapped up with its range of new Lil’ Ocean Explorers toys. Perfect for baby’s fi rst or second Christmas the eight toys in the range are designed to encourage and reward each reach, crawl and step. We love the Pull Chatter Lobster – perfect for encouraging fi rst steps. Its adorable tail-bobbing and claw- clacking action is guaranteed to make it a hit! Suitable for nine months to three years, priced £9.99, from retailers or
www.littletikes.co.uk
Christmas is not the time to re-visit the past, leave this until the New Year. At Relate we have a lot of families coming to see us in the New Year to discuss feelings that can no longer be buried. • 90% of people said spending time with immediate family is important to them for a happy Christmas this year. • 84% of people rated avoiding family arguments as important to them for a happy Christmas. • The most commonly reported worry was the cost of Christmas (39%). • Women were more concerned than men about giving the right gifts – 33% of women reported this is very important, while 19% of men did so. • 13% of people said they were worried about feeling lonely this Christmas.
• For more information and advice, visit the website
www.relate.org.uk
Visit our website @
www.indexdigital.co.uk for Relate’s 10 top tips for a less stressful family Christmas this year
BOP IT! STAR WARS R2-D2 Edition game Featuring the real actor’s voice of C-3PO and R2-D2 sound effects from the Star Wars movies, the popular electronic Bop It! game is back with a twist. Bop It! Star Wars R2-D2 Edition game unit is designed to look like the Star Wars character R2-D2. Priced £19.99.
The INDEX magazine
www.indexmagazine.co.uk 111
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