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The challenges of summertime parenting - from brain freeze to sandy cars

July 23, 2021
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Lauren_Nolan

I love the sun more now than I ever did because parenting gets a bit easier in nice weather. But of course, the lighter nights and sunshine bring their own challenges too.

My four-year-old says the only thing he doesn't like about summer is brain freeze, which indicates how many ice lollies are consumed in this house. I made my own last summer from sugar-free cordial and may have to do the same again this year because they requested ice lollies for breakfast and haven't stopped asking.

When I said 'no' to morning lollies, he said, "We both want one, so that makes it two against one." I told him that the house doesn't work as a democracy, and he screamed – "I WANT DEMOCRACY."

He is fighting for his right to a rocket lolly before 8 am. We went to the beach this weekend as we are fortunate to live near the sea. I do love the beach, but sand gets everywhere, doesn't it?! And the boys were straight in the sea, which meant I had to follow, and the water was freezing.

I felt like a human ice lolly.

The boys loved jumping over the waves and crashing around; my toddler seemed to feel the cold like a normal human and was more hesitant. However, my four-year-old seemed impervious to the icy temperature and was straight in the sea like a nutter. (Quick aside – we should respect the sea and always swim within the flags. I am so grateful to the RNLI lifeguards on duty at my local beach).

I don't want to sound ungrateful for my proximity to the seaside, but the beach isn't perfect. Everything I own is now covered in sand, especially the car.

The boys got sand all over their snacks. There was a giant queue for extortionate ice cream and no shade anywhere. And putting sunblock on sandy skin isn't ideal.

Putting sunscreen on your children is necessary but can be as "challenging" as wrestling a crocodile. My four-year-old is now a dream child when it comes to sunblock application after I inadvertently traumatised him last year by showing him pictures of sunburnt children. My two-year-old, in classic toddler style, is more resistant.

But I did pick up a good tip from my sister-in-law that seems to work; give the child the option of spots or stripes of suncream and let them choose. He always chooses stripes "like a tiger." Then they can help rub it all in. Another tip – don't forget your own sunscreen, as I did this weekend.

I ended up a bit pink because after slathering sunblock on the kids, I forgot all about my own skin. It's wonderful that the evenings are lighter at this time of year, but alas – it's not ideal when you want your children to sleep at a decent hour.

You can understand their confusion and resistance when I say, "It's bedtime!" and they look out onto a glorious summer's day and say, "What?! It's not nighttime!"

Well, no – I guess it's not nighttime in the traditional, twinkle-twinkle-little-star, hello-moon kind of way, but it is nighttime because I'm ready for you to go to sleep, so I can have a bath, drink a beer in the waning sunshine, or watch Netflix.

Personally, we stick to our bedtime routine (for obvious reasons) and have invested in some decent black-out blinds. Surprisingly summer bedtime hasn't been a struggle so far this year.

I suspect this is because the boys seem knackered and ready for bed despite the light; there's something about being out in the sunshine that makes everyone extra sleepy.

I hope the weather stays nice, and we get to enjoy this brief period of sun-drenched time before the Autumn sneaks in.

The boy's favourite thing to do when it's sunny is run around in the sprinklers in the garden. I sit in a deck chair and watch the pure joy on their little faces. Sometimes I grab myself a cold beer too, and it might be my favourite time; the way the grass smells, the kids laughing, the sunshine. I wish I could bottle these moments and save them up for winter days.

When I look back in years to come of a time when the boys were "little," I think a lot of my favourite memories will be of this time of year; the paddling pool in my Mum's garden, splashing in the sea, barbeques, sandy toes, the smell of suncream. And that makes a sandy car worth it, doesn't it?

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.