All posts tagged: #mum

Say hello to my little friend

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The magic of Christmas is a special thing when you’re a kid. Twinkly lights, the Snoopy’s Christmas song on high rotate, seeing extended family, decorating trees, waking up to presents and a note from Santa, a special lunch and a free pass to gorge on candy canes. When you’re a kid, it all just…happens. When you’re a parent, however, it all just…happens because you do it all. I’m no grinch, and Christmas is pretty much the highlight of my year (note: Due to printing deadlines, I’m writing this column quite far ahead of Christmas. I will laugh at myself long and hard when I see that sentence in print), but from somewhere around mid-September my right eye starts to twitch as I think about logistics. Where will we be? Who will be coming? Does everyone fit? Are there any more vegetarians than there were last year? Oh, and a vegan now, too? Where are the Santa Sacks? Are we allocating enough time to all sides of the family? Can someone please turn off Snoopy’s Christmas …

Parenting by online committee

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In this current age of what feels like parenting by online committee, I’ve seen many a mum taken out by commenters shout-typing their opposing opinion and take that mum down a peg or two for daring to share her thoughts. On the flip side I’ve seen some incredible support and rallying, often sparked by those exact same women or by very similar topics, in carefully monitored groups. A group I’m in, The Motherhood Project, recently shared an article written for Stuff by one of the group members, Rebecca Goodhue, about how relentless she’s finding motherhood because her baby is a non-sleeper. I read her article and completely related because I knew that non-sleeping life. It’s exhausting, it’s hard, it’s lonely, it takes the shine off the moments that everyone says you must treasure, and you feel like you must be doing something really wrong because your baby isn’t doing the things with sleeping that everyone says theirs is doing. I thought thankful thoughts about Rebecca on behalf of the mothers of other non-sleepers, because there’s …

Talking ‘Bad Parenting’ on Breakfast TV

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Loved talking ‘Bad Parenting’ with Hayley and Jack on Breakfast. You can see the interview by clicking right here   And this is the post that sparked the conversation: Confessions from the ‘bad parent’ corner… It’s not raining so technically we could all be outside having adventures, but instead this morning my kids have watched way too much Netflix. They’re not even watching something educational that I can then trill “ok children, let’s all make our own volcano from baking soda and food colouring now like they did on that highly stimulating science show you just watched!” and feel all pious about it… they’re watching one of those series about animated moody teenagers in lots of makeup bitching at each other. But this morning the allure of a Sunday cup of tea in bed in bed was just too strong. I was thinking about a busy week ahead, had some stuff to sort out in my head, and I knew that if I tried to think about that while up with the kids I would have …