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It’s Ok to Not be Ok with Love Monster | AD

Girls reading love monster

Life has been pretty crazy for us all over the last few months. Sometimes when we are knee deep in something stressful and trying to blindly get through the foggy days, we forget about the small people who are coping too. Our children. My three have done so well with lockdown. They have been happy and a joy to be around (well most of the time) but this doesn’t mean I haven’t been worried about their mental health and how they have been coping. No school. No nursery and not seeing close family and friends for 3 months is tough on anyone.

My eldest daughter had a very tearful day the other day. She didn’t really know why. She didn’t really know why she was feeling strange and upset. I found myself just reassuring her, that it was ok to not be ok. She would have these days when the tears would fall for no reason. Or perhaps she would struggle with something or someone at school or would be nervous about going back to swimming or gym. She may feel impatient with someone or just feel frustrated!

She needed to know it was ok to have a bad day and to feel anxious or cross. It was good to talk it through and try and let those thoughts be. Be mindful of them. We enjoyed baking and relaxing watching a film together and she felt better.

I know this is a lesson all my children will need to learn, as they get older. My 3 year old is learning to deal with her emotions and it won’t be long before their 17 month old brother is following suit. For this, Love Monster is perfect.

Feeling are ok and emotional well-being for our children is so important! Love Monster can help both you and them with this.

Who Is Love Monster?

Love Monster is a loving and caring character, who lives in a world of cute and fluffy things called Fluffytown.  He is a little funny looking and this can be an interesting challenge for him, living a world of cute characters! He has a little teddy for company when he feels insecure, as he struggles with all his feelings sometimes and all his words come out at once!

However, he has a group of lovely friends who help him to follow his heart and try not to over-think too much! These include Tiniest Fluffiest Bunny, Bad Idea Puppy, Book Cub, the In-Chicks and Delivery Duckling.

What is pretty lovely is you can read all about Love Monster’s antics and watch him too! Perfect for when you want to read a bedtime story or want to sit and chill with the TV and your little ones.

Watching Love Monster

Love Monster is an animation aimed at pre-schoolers aired on C-Beebies and is available every weekday and on BBC iplayer. You can watch an episode here.

Love Monster TV show

The show follows the loveable, hairy Love Monster who is always searching for the right thing to do. The show times to showcase the importance of kindness and empathy and wants a young audience to learn to cope with different emotions. Love Monster has to navigate the world and it’s challenges, just like they will have to.

Each day and episode brings a new occasion and event and Love Monster always wants to get involved but often follows his over-thinking head and not heart. Things can go wrong!

I sat with both girls and we watched some episodes. The girls enjoyed Bouncy Slidey Day, as reminded them of the days when they used to feel scared and nervous on big slides and rides. The message from this episode was when you are scared and need to be brave, it can be easier to do things with a friend. This is like how my girls are now with each other; supportive and kind and my eldest often encourages her baby sister.

We also watched another episode where Love Monster needs patience for the seeds he planted, to grow! He gets worried seeing his friend’s plant but has to learn, things just take time! Patience is a huge thing you have to learn as a child and it can be so frustrating to wait but this episode helps little ones learn a little about having more of it.

girl watching love monster

Reading Love Monster

The Love Monster books are so beautifully illustrated and colourful. This is one of my favourite things about them. I also love how words are emphasised in capitals too, as makes it full to read out loud. My eldest is also quite lovely, as she will read to her sister now and then.

The girls really enjoyed the Perfect Present story, which was all about Present Day in Cutesville. Poor Love Monster doesn’t have enough money to buy his monster friend the present he wants. However, he soon realises he can make on and the best gifts can be the simplest and the ones born from friendship and love.

Love Monster Activities

The girls were also sent some activities to do. One was similar to the story of Love Monster having little patience for his seeds to grow. My eldest enjoyed decorating the pot and then she planted some cress seeds. We had a funny experience when she did this in the past and she knocked the grown cress pot into the bath! Hopefully, this won’t happen again and her little sister can see what it’s like to wait for the cress to grow!

Painting a pot

My middley also wanted to do some of the paper and colouring activities. She is pretty good at this and loved colouring in her red love monster.

love monster colouring

I think as a whole we all fell in love with Love Monster. As a character he is so kind and friendly and as a parent it is lovely to see his vulnerabilities, just as you would see with a child.

All children have to learn to cope with their emotions, their frustrations and not always being ok. Love Monster is a great resource to help children with this and a great discussion point after reading or watching an episode of the TV show.

Life has been tough for our children too recently and helping our children tell us how they feel, learn to relax and be mindful can be so helpful. Love Monster is a lovely tool to help with this.

Disclosure – we were sent these products and compensated for our time. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

6 Comments

  1. August 5, 2020 / 1:43 pm

    Books are such a good way to help children to talk about their emotions. I love that these come with other activities as well.

  2. August 5, 2020 / 1:47 pm

    We have really been working hard on identifying emotions and know that they are ok. My boys love watching Love Monster and it’s so great for that!

  3. August 5, 2020 / 4:20 pm

    What a wonderful idea! I think children need to learn about their own mental health and well being at an early age so it is normalised to discuss how they feel and that its OK to not be OK.

    Now mine is nearly 13 its a real struggle to get him to open up, something like this at a younger age would have helped a lot x

  4. August 6, 2020 / 9:10 am

    Oh what a lovely post, this sounds a lovely idea. Its so important to stand back and listen to them, don’t always show it the way we do, do they

  5. August 6, 2020 / 5:04 pm

    oh I have seen the book around but I did not know you could watch it too!

  6. Mudpiefridays
    August 6, 2020 / 10:43 pm

    What an amazing idea. I think we all need to teach our children that it’s ok to not feel ok all of the time and it’s natural too. This is a great way to talk about it