Whether you love fireworks or hate them, Bonfire Night is hard to get away from! For many children it’s one of those high adrenaline events that can lead to tears and tantrums, not least because sleep may have been disturbed for several nights beforehand due to other people’s firework displays. However, a happy Bonfire Night is entirely possible thanks to our top tips :
- If you’re going to have fireworks, make sure that you’ve bought from a reputable retailer. Designate one person and one helper to be firework lighters and make sure everybody else stays well back. Make sure the fireworks will be lit in an open space: no tall grass, trees, overhead wires or sheds nearby. When lighting fireworks, make sure the firework team don’t have loose clothing or trailing scarves, anything that could catch the firework and cause a mishap. Set up a bucket of water for dousing any firework that doesn’t light first time (never relight them) and a bucket of sand for plunging sparklers into, if you’re having them. And if you do have sparklers, buy a cheap bag of carrots and plunge the sparkler stems into them before lighting – carrots are much easier to hold and keep stray sparks away from little hands.
- Protect your pets. It’s a good idea to corral the family pets in a room far from the action and to play some soothing music at a reasonable volume, so they aren’t so aware of bangs and screeches. Give them plenty of water and draw curtains and keep lighting low to help with stress. This is a great learning experience for children, not just in caring for pets but also how not everybody enjoys the same things, so involve them in setting up the pet area and work with your nanny to explain what you’re doing and why. Remember that outdoor pets, like rabbits, need to be protected too!
- Keep warm. Temperatures drop when the clocks go back, and children lose body heat rapidly. Dressing your children in layers of breathable fabric can help them add and remove clothing as required, but make sure they’re always wearing a light reflective top layer so you can easily spot them in the dark. Glow sticks as bracelets help you spot all the little ones in the dark, essential if you’re hosting other families, and a great way to keep track of children if you are letting off fireworks or have a bonfire.
- Simple food. Everybody gets hungry outdoors! However, one handed eating is best, so go for hotdogs, pumpkin soup served in wide-mouthed plastic flasks, or, the favourite of one of our Elite Nanny candidates; creamy mashed potato scooped into an ice-cream cone, with a frankfurter (or vegan equivalent) pushed in like a flake and drizzled with tomato or brown sauce.
- Welcome diversity. Not all children love fireworks, so setting up a play area a fair distance from the excitement is a good idea. A craft table where quieter children can make rockets out of toilet roll inners and card or decorate ready-made biscuits with writing icing can keep everybody happy. Making biscuits a couple of days in advance is also a great learning opportunity; your nanny can help children explore likes and dislikes and how we are all different. A couple of sleeping bags may tempt some little ones to actually sleep, and it’s much easier to carry them to bed if they’ve already settled for the night.
Photo cred: Joel Santos at Pexels