Win an HP Photosmart Premium C310a e-All-in-One printer with HP ePrint and HP PrintApps with tickets to see Miley Cyrus at Acer Arena

The stylish HP Photosmart Premium (valued at $299) is a full-featured e-All-in-One printer that boasts a 4.3-inch, full-colour touchscreen. With HP ePrint technology, this Energy Star® qualified printer enables you to print and share your favourite memories and photos, travel itineraries, concert tickets and other vital weekend essentials – anything that you can email – from anywhere in the world using your smartphone device by simply sending an email to the printer’s unique email address. Also access exciting and up-to-date HP PrintApps content without turning on your computer via the Photosmart Premium’s touchscreen. Get the kids ready for the weekend with jam-packed content from colouring in pages, puzzles, print at home books and craft activities from some of your childrens’  favourite characters including Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and Dreamworks.

As a part of this prize, HP is giving away tickets to Miley Cyrus in HP’s corporate box – the best seats in the house – if you live in Sydney. HP is giving 6 Kids in Australia readers (6 families of 3) tickets to the Miley Cyrus show in HP’s Corporate Box in Acer Arena, Sydney on Sunday 26 June 2011. Don’t forget to bring your smartphone to the show so you can print your photos directly to the printer after the show!

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Children learn through experience, both bad and good. They learn to be careful when up high because of lessons learned through falling, they learn that their gorgeous smile will earn them one back (and may just get them out of trouble) and they learn about textures and taste by putting every single thing that comes across their paths in their mouths. What’s hard for us parents is letting them take those minor tumbles when all our instincts tell us to grab them and hold them tight to protect them from the world.

My almost 11 month old is starting to get a confident—a little too confident if you ask me. She’s a climber, washing baskets, toys, chairs and worst of all the stairs. I’m the kind of mum who doesn’t “baby proof” with the exception of things that could seriously hurt my children I try to allow my kids to learn through experience. Something I’m learning through this process is that this type of parenting is so much easier with a cautious child.

Erin, my first child was a very sedate, wary child where as Abi is much more adventurous. Where Erin would sit back and avoid a particular situation Abi’s very gung-ho. Without a word of a lie I could leave Erin on our bed for her afternoon sleep without fear of her falling, in fact she didn’t fall out of bed until she was about two and excited about somersaults!

On the other hand, Abi’s a livewire. Even before she could roll she could cover distance just by thrashing about. There’s no way I could ever leave her on something like a bed unattended. This is something of a disappointment for me because one of the things I enjoyed most was being able to co-sleep with Erin at nap time.

I guess I could say that parents also learn through experience and boy what an experience this parenting thing has been! I had so many preconceived notions about parenthood before I had kids. There were so many things I was never going to do, now I look back and realise how naive I was. My illusions have been further shattered since Abi’s birth because I’ve suddenly realised how different one child is from another.

Has parenting been a wakeup call for like or has it been more or less what you’ve expected?

A former web-designer Bec is now a stay-at-home-mum to two wee girls trying to wrap her head around the idea of “domestic bliss” while jotting it all down in her mummy blog.

Find her on Twitter or Facebook

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I’ve had her for four years, this child of mine. My first born, my special girl, my precious and she really is. We very nearly didn’t have her at all, but that’s another story…which may explain a lot of this one. Two weeks ago I let her go, not entirely of course, but I did let go. I sent her out into the world to learn from someone who isn’t me, to make friends with children I don’t know and have experiences beyond what I’ve provided.

As melodramatic as that may sound—and it is, I know it is—this is a big thing for me. I’m the person who told the world she was considering homeschooling because she could give her children a better, more personalised education than they would receive in a mainstream school when the truth was she just couldn’t let go. The idea that my little girl would be out in the world without maternal protection was too much. She’s too little, too sensitive, too sweet. She’s always had me or someone I implicitly trust to care for and shield her; I couldn’t dream of a world where that sensitive soul of hers would be subject to the elements and the cruelty the world can provide—there I go with the melodrama again.

Yes so, two weeks ago I let her go out into the big wide world of daycare. I watched her walk away from me without a backwards glance let alone a tear, to play with other children her age under the less than keen—as far as I’m concerned—observation of her teacher. A woman I’d met five minutes earlier.

There I stood for a moment longer than strictly necessary watching her head towards the sandpit—most of which came home in her hair—before I turned to leave with an ache in my heart and a tear stinging my eye. I didn’t cry though, I just pulled up my big girl undies and headed for the door. Of course I spent the rest of the day resisting the urge to call and ask how she was fairing, but that’s beside the point.

I had it all worked out in my head. She’d cry—just a little—at drop off and plead with me to stay and I would, for a little while so she could get settled in before sneaking off to start my day. At pick up she’d rush into my arms, pleasure at my presents evident in her smiling face, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, she had had such a good day that she was a little disappointed to be going home and was keen to come back.

My mum said to me before that first day, “pretty soon she won’t need you and I at all” and that’s how I felt—a little redundant, a little pointless. She’s moving forward in her life to a place where I don’t belong. That’s the way it should be, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, just a little.

A former web-designer Bec is now a stay-at-home-mum to two wee girls trying to wrap her head around the idea of “domestic bliss” while jotting it all down in her mummy blog.

Find her on Twitter or Facebook

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Something I often wonder is, who’s reading? Followed by, what is it that they’d really like to read about? So that’s what I’m asking you today. What would you like to read about on the Kids in Australia blog?

Are you the kind of person who enjoys reading reviews? Or do you prefer a more personal touch, with a more “bloggish” style so you can learn more about the authors life? Maybe you come here looking for information to make your life easier? Anyway, complete the following poll so I can get to know you a little better!

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There’s another first in our family this week end, Abi’s first easter. Though I doubt she’ll eat it, she has her very own bunny and, before Erin bowls everyone over in a bid to get to the chocolate first I wanted to take a moment and wish you all a happy and safe easter!

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