Tag Archives: family

Festivals with a toddler – genius or pure madness?

21 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by in Family, Travel

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Sunrise Festival

We’re going to our first festival together next weekend. It will either be a tremendous success or a huge failure. I am a little scared.

We’re heading to The Sunrise Festival near Frome, to grab our first taste of family festival fun. It looks amazing. But I am also a little scared. (Did I mention that I’m a little scared?)

Set against the backdrop of the stunning Thoulstone Park, The Sunrise Festival is billed as, “Another world”, incorporating a “micronation” of different spaces. Continue reading »

When the mundane is full of win

19 Sunday May 2013

Posted by in Family

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On Friday morning, I tweeted this:

Tweet

As a weekend of mundane chores and To Do lists opened up before me like a yawning chasm of drudgery, I sighed over the days when weekends were different.

It’s over three years ago now – more like four really – when weekends meant late nights on dancefloors, drinks in the pub, shopping trips and lazy afternoons at the cinema. In the absence of swimming lessons or trips to the tip, Sundays were spent sleeping in until midday, followed by an impromptu pub lunch and an evening in front of a DVD.

These days, weekends are punctuated with a morning in a cold swimming pool, a flurry of housework and piles of dirty laundry. Continue reading »

Technology and the home: the many uses

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Home

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This post is brought to you in association with BT…

How much do you use technology? We’re a gadgety household – with an IT teacher husband it’s hard not to be – but even without the gadgets, technology encompasses lots of aspects of our family life in general.

With our increasing reliance on the internet, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that technology is likely to take over even more aspects of our life and home. In fact, it’s something you might already notice in your own kids, as they embrace new technologies.

 

With this in mind, there are a few key areas to think about, when technology and family life come together. Continue reading »

On not having a plan

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Family

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Newborn toesJust over three years ago, when I became pregnant with my little girl, I had a plan. It was so refined that it even had capital letters: The Plan.

I became a mum at 26. We didn’t own our own home and we weren’t married. But that was all OK, because that was part of The Plan. We moved from our town centre flat to a little cottage in a village, with the intention of saving and enjoying life as new parents. We had always discussed having two or three children, about four years apart.

The Plan involved buying a house before another child came along, getting married at some point and continuing with my career as a journalist. That evolved along the way, as we realised that childcare is blooming expensive and my meagre salary would barely cover the cost of a morning at nursery. So we made some adjustments and Ta Da! The Refined Plan was born. Continue reading »

Grandparents need quality time too

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Family

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My toddler is lucky. Really, really lucky. She has two sets of grandparents who adore her.

She’s been adored from the moment they met her.

Grandparents and baby

In fact, as I write this, my little girl is with one set of grandparents (my parents) down in Devon, on her own. And you know what? That’s how it should be.

My daughter’s grandparents love her and want to spend time with her and I like that they (sometimes) get to do that without me. Frog’s completely comfortable with both Grandma and Granddad, Marmar and Dadaz. Continue reading »

What wealth looks like

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Family

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Four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve spent the day keeping my toddler occupied so that my husband can concentrate on an important piece of work. The hours have passed with a swimming lesson, a crafting activity, a film, jumping in muddy puddles and visiting a friend.

I am exhausted, ready to drop. Two weekend evenings socialising, followed by two weekend mornings of 6am starts with an active two year old have left me drained. I survey the mess in my house and grit my teeth ready for the next flurry of activity; cooking tea while juggling demands from a fractious tot. I know that – once I’ve managed bathtime, bedtime, ironing, washing the dishes and sorting the laundry – I have at least three hours of writing work to do.

I blink, all at once overcome with the burden of Getting Stuff Done. Continue reading »

Celebrating the ordinary

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Family, Social media, Work

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Celebrating the ordinary: managing to persuade a toddler to have an afternoon nap = win.

Celebrating the ordinary: managing to persuade a toddler to have an afternoon nap = win.

Last week I wrote a post admitting I often struggle with feeling “not good enough“. It was one of those posts that sees you hesitate before hitting publish. I worried that I’d been too vulnerable, admitted too much, been a bit needy. No one likes needy.

But I’m glad I wrote that post. The huge range of comments it provoked, both on the blog, Twitter, Facebook and Google+, all made me realise it’s not just me. It would seem every single one of us has the odd nagging doubt from time to time.

I admitted I sometimes didn’t feel like I was doing “enough” in my working life (despite often working around 70 hours a week). I held my hands up to the fact I very rarely felt like I was doing “enough” in my role as a mum and wife. I openly shouted that I’m RUBBISH at keeping on top of the housework and the washing. Continue reading »

The dance of the potty

17 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in Family, Toilet training

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I have become one of those mothers. You know the ones; the ones who want to tell the world how “clever” their child is because they did a wee on the potty.

I know. I hate myself too.

The thing is, no one told me that having children would mean there would be a moment in my life when I would find myself dancing a celebratory conga around a potty. I was completely unprepared for the sheer joy a potty training triumph would bring. There is nothing like the all-encompassing pride at hearing the tinkling notes of your child using the potty as it was intended (not as a hat, pillow, cereal bowl or weapon). Continue reading »

What crafting with a toddler is REALLY like

20 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in Play

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This is the tree I crafted with my toddler today:

Toilet roll treeNow, I COULD tell you it was a joyous experience. Mother and child bonding over toilet rolls and brown parcel paper, deep in a shared vision of paint and garden design for the doll’s house.

Except it wasn’t.

If I show you these pictures of intense concentration on the face of my two year old, you may be deceived into thinking crafting is a peaceful activity in our house. You may even be conned into thinking time with paint passes tantrum free. Continue reading »

Snow – are you a lover or hater?

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in Family, Work

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Boots in the snow

When I saw the weather forecasts predicting SNOWMAGEDDON earlier this week I sighed. You see, where snow is concerned I am both a lover and a hater.

The child in me loves the snow. It brings back memories of snow days and hot chocolate, building snowmen and sledging in the park. Being the fully fledged southerner that I am, snow was rare in my native Bristol. To wake to even a light sprinkle of the white stuff would mean HUGE excitement. Continue reading »