Turning #TearsIntoSmiles with Elastoplast (review)

We're into the month of May and turning over the page on the calendar seems to have brought blue skies and sunshine along with it. This is great news for us because there's nothing that we love more than getting outside in the fresh air to have a mini adventure.

It may involve climbing trees or running down sand dunes ...

A walk in the woods or a visit to a farm ...

Looking for crabs or geocaches ...

Taking things in your stride or scaring yourself silly when you copy big sister and get out of your comfort zone !

Whatever the weather, you can guarantee we'll be out there having fun and exploring the world around us. This leads to some great adventures, exciting discoveries and lots of fun and laughter ...

But invariably a few grazed knees and bumped heads along the way too. While it's our job as a parent to make sure that our kids are never in grave danger, I always take a few knocks and scrapes as par for the course when they're growing up. Learning to fall and get back up again, not letting a grazed elbow put you off learning to ride your bike without stabilisers or taking a few scratches for the team when geocaching or blackberry picking are all important life lessons. Equally important though is acknowledging their pain. I hate it when you see a child fall at the park and their parents say things like "stop blubbering, you're being a baby" or "there's nothing there, you're fine, don't make a fuss". A cuddle and a few kind words (or a magic mummy kiss to make it better if they're young enough) is usually all that's required, and soothing bruised egos often helps : "Aww it's a shame you fell but you were doing so well, I was really proud of how high you were swinging, do you want to try again?".  

I absolutely love this video from Elastoplast, for their #TearsIntoSmiles campaign, showing a miniature painter listening to children telling their tales of how they got hurt and, quite literally, turning their tears into a magical miniature watercolour painting of their story.

Sadly I don't have the artistic talent to do this, but Elastoplast have another way of helping parents turn #TearsIntoSmiles - ultra funky plasters featuring popular kids' characters. As you can see, they worked on Pierre - he was feeling sorry for himself after grazing his knee but Chewbacca managed to put a smile back on his face !

You have the choice between Star Wars - "may the (healing) force be with you" !

Or Frozen. Freeze those tears, let it go !

Distraction is also a great idea - bringing out a new toy, finding their favourite programme on TV or offering them an ice cream is often enough to make them forget all about their bumps and scrapes. At least until they go to school the next day and proudly show off their cool new plaster to everyone !

Elastoplast Frozen and Star Wars are available at retailers across the UK, at an RRSP of £2.60.

Disclosure : This post is an entry for the BritMums #TearsintoSmiles Challenge, sponsored by Elastoplast. We received some plasters and a ring toss set.