Hot Wheels and Father's Day

Smart phones and tablets are amazing and in many ways have a very positive impact on our everyday lives, but the instant access to information and apps and social media platforms can make it hard to turn off. Parents no longer leave an office at the end of the day and forget about work until the next morning, often people have constant access to e-mails which makes it harder to relax and spend quality time with family.

I often find myself quickly checking Facebook or my e-mail while the kids are in the bath or eating dinner, I have to remind myself that I should be using that time to find out about their day, to chat, to play games and not be thinking about work or talking to people on Facebook. My husband finds it even harder, he works for an international company and so the time difference between people’s working days makes it even harder for him to switch from work to home life. However, we are both trying very hard to separate our work and focus completely on the kids when around them, we both work from home which means childcare although still mainly down to me is very much a shared responsibility.

Interestingly Mattel UK have found that:

Dads want to make a positive impact on their children’s lives more than ever before.
Value of quality ‘dad’ time. Dads are spending more and more time with their children.
Balancing responsibilities. Dads believe the responsibilities are split evenly in the household (but mums still see this differently)
Childhood memories. Dads are more likely than mums to choose toys that remind them of their childhood or that can help build a connection with their child.

This new campaign from Mattel, celebrates the shift of role of men in parenting. How do parenting responsibilities get shared out in your family?

The campaign is dedicated to ‘Dads Who Never Need to Grow Up’ and is quite an interesting view into how children view their Dads.

We were recently sent this Hot Wheels Starter Set which Zak and I actually spent a lovely half hour building and setting up. He’s now hankering after the expansion sets so it looks a bit more like the set above!