Avoiding the Merry Meltdown

In case you’ve been under a rock since Halloween, I’m here to let you know that it is Merry Meltdown season! I’m not a grinch, but every year I feel more and more that the in-your-face non-stop marketing and selling is getting stressful. Stressful to the point of sending a lot of us on our…

Peeing on a Stick

I think it’s safe to say that if you are a female of child bearing age, the title of this blog will spark many emotions in you. Many a stick has been peed on by all of us in our lifetimes to date… I am of course referring to pregnancy-related sticks… but maybe you have…

Warning! Family Holidays are NOT Suitable for Adults

Do you aim to relax and unwind on holidays? Do you enjoy lazy late evening meals? Do you look forward to long lie ins and leisurely breakfasts? If so, a Family Holiday is NOT what you need… Oh great here she is again, bitching and moaning… well no actually I’m not, so read on or…

Women vs Men; Illness

I am compelled to begin this one with a disclaimer specifically for my wonderful super-human husband who NEVER gets sick and so he can’t give out to me for bitching about him in this blog🤣 not that I would EVER commit such a heinous crime… Illness… malaise… sick… laid up, whatever you want to call…

Mam Down

What a fortnight it’s been… illness, injury, more days off sick than the past 10 years combined, and more hours spent on the couch than I ever imagined possible! I’m almost back to myself after an unfortunate run of bad luck. This Mammy has been up on blocks for the first time in… possibly ever?…

This is Not News

As I scrolled through the headlines during the week, trying to find something that wouldn’t just enrage me, I came across an article in the Irish Examiner with the headline “Half of New Mothers don’t take time for themselves after Birth” My immediate reaction was to think THIS IS NOT NEWS. Every mother in the…

What Women Want

WHAT DO YOU WANT??!! A withered Ryan Gosling screams at his crazy-in-love other half… (probably the most relatable Ryan Gosling has ever been to most men…!) Mel Gibson also tried his hand at figuring this out on the big screen with amusing results… The million dollar question… what do women want? Well here’s what I…

The Hardest Part

Motherhood. Everyone has a different idea of when it starts, but for me it starts when you see that positive test. You fly into the future in the blink of an eye. You imagine and dream about the minute details of what your life will be with this baby that has been created inside you….

Treading Water

I haven’t put together a blog post in 3 weeks. That’s the longest gap between my efforts in blogging since I started this properly 12 months ago. I just haven’t had those “ping!” moments where an idea comes to me & I start putting words down. My brain has just felt so empty. And at…

Walking Out the Door

Go on admit it, we have all had the split second of thinking it… Contemplating… Tempted… Considering… Fantasizing… Wanting to walk out the door and just keep on walking. Insert obligatory statement here that I love my family & I’m so grateful yadda yadda yadda but really… What would actually happen? If we did just…

The Waiting Game

Just a sec. In a minute. I heard you and answered you the first time. Yes you can, once I’ve finished this. You can see that I am in the middle of something right now. You can have it later on, after lunch. It’s not time to eat again yet, you’ve just had two breakfasts….

Back in Your Box Buddy

Straight up, this one is a rant. An Anti-Elf rant. And no I’m not a Grinch!! I happen to think that elves are actually quite lovely for the most part, but when it comes to the very ironically named “Buddy”… I just can’t deal. Whoever introduced him to the Pre-Christmas mayhem is definitely not on…

Heavy is the Head

The Queen. Her Majesty. Ma’am. A leader of people. A Head of Nations. And a mother. A guilty one. Never was Queen Elizabeth II more relatable than as she was portrayed in a new episode of The Crown. (No spoilers coming I promise!) The episode in question puts the spotlight on the Queen’s relationship with…

Self-Care… Do you Dare?

Ah yes, self-care… quite the buzzword lately. Sometimes it annoys me ‘cos it seems to be everywhere, other times I’m all for reading about it, nevertheless I have no doubt about its importance in our overall wellbeing. I see people online from time to time snapping their way around an amazing spa with #selfcare slapped…

Mammy-Versaries

Big Bro turned 5 this week. It was my 5th Mammy-Versary! It’s a big milestone in his life & it’s a big milestone in our lives too! Some might say the “hardest” years are behind us… parents of teenagers would probably say the hardest is yet to come! Either way it’s crazy to think that…

Evolution of a Weekend

If you ask a parent how their lives have changed since having children, they will most likely mention the word “weekends” in the first or second sentence. Before we had children, we were the ultimate lazy couple. We may or may not be out of bed by 11am, there would be at least one meal…

Top of the List

Lists. Who else loves a list? Shopping list, cleaning list, job list, lists for work, love a good list. I am the person who has been known to write things on lists that have already been done, just so I can tick them off! Apparently that is actually some kind of psychological self-motivation thing, go…

Back in Time; For 8 Hours Only

Thanks Storm Ellen! Such a diva, appearing almost out of nowhere, stripping ridgetiles & knocking trees like there was no tomorrow. Taking our electricity, water, wifi and phone coverage to really put the boot in! Having been on this earth for 33 years I am fairly used to this kind of disappointment from Mother Nature….

Shopping List; Paint and Wine

One week left. And it’s about to be a busy one! The boys are due to go on their “holidays” to their grandparents for the weekend and I am determined to get my kitchen painted before we all face head first into the breech of what will be a very challenging school term. The childminder…

Mammy Birthdays

“Happy Birthday Mommy! I’m hungry…” “Where is your cake?” “Are you getting balloons today?” “Why is the party taking so long Mommy?” This, all by 8.15am. Mammy Birthdays are almost like mythical days. Yes, it may be the anniversary of your birth, but at this point in your life, anything you do not pre-arrange or…

Tag, You’re It!

I’m pretty sure we aren’t the only adults that have began playing Tag again in recent years… I can pretty much trace it back to around the time we became parents! It’s not a particularly fun game anymore though. At this stage of our lives, Tag means “I’m outa here, you take over…” For me,…

All About the Boobing

Get them out there girls! That should be the tagline for World Breastfeeding Week 2020 considering the coverage other campaigns are getting this week! All jokes aside this is a very important week in the calendar for many reasons. For one, it highlights all the good things about breastfeeding, and as well as that it…

Motherland; Uncomfortably Funny

My latest discovery on Netflix has left me in a very mixed emotional state. I came across a clip of Motherland online last week & absolutely burst laughing at it. It went straight onto the Must Watch list. So I tuned in full of anticipation for some good laughs, and I got some brilliant laughs,…

Eat Your Cake

Ok let me start this one by saying that it’s not actually about cake… sorry ladies! This is a piece for the working Moms, the badass women of the world who are earning a living AND raising a family. And no, I’m not giving any credit to the men on this one. This is a…

Encouraging Independence

I am a huge advocate of letting children do as much as possible for themselves, and by themselves. Sometimes we get so swept away in our busy-ness and hectic schedules, that we just go through the motions on auto-pilot day after day, week after week. Over time, this can be counter-productive for both ourselves and…

Give it a Year

“When will I feel ‘normal’ again?” A question every woman thinks to herself or asks out loud after she has become a mother. Nobody has the answer, because everyones experience is so drastically different. Even from baby to baby your own experience can be so different. For me I would say…give it a year. Even…

Nothing and Everything

I am having a week of it. Actually it’s more like a month of it. A month of what you ask? Nothing and everything. I’m just in bad form more often than I’m in good form & I have no actual reason why. Nothing has changed, everything is the same as it was a few…

Neverending Night Waking

Why do our kids rob us of so much sleep? With our first it was 9 months of hell every evening & night. Hours of drama. Hours of crying. Hours of up & down the stairs. Months of despair wondering if he would ever just sleep drama-free. Then he started creche & literally that night…

Hypocritical Feminist?

The last couple of years has renewed attention to feminism & all that it encompasses. Movements born in Hollywood & raised by social media have shone a new light on the position and status of women in the modern world. So much has changed & is changing. And so much stays the same. I consider…

Guilt… BE GONE!

Guilt. A woman’s worst enemy, but never too far away. Guilt implies that you have done something wrong. That we have harmed others in some way. That an offence or crime has been committed. An offence in whose eyes? If nobody else has actually lost out or been hurt, if nobody else is complaining, why…

Calling BS on Parental Peer-Pressure

I’m probably not alone when I say that one of the hardest elements of being a parent these days is the amount of Parental Peer-Pressure we are exposed to. Whether it’s cute little Pintrest-worthy sandwiches with slightly creepy faces on them, or craft activities need a small fortune worth of materials not to mention hours…

Spirit Lifters

These are some seriously dull times we are in at the moment. The struggle is very real. Home all day every day. No work, no school, no trips out, not even a browse around Dunnes! Two boys that cannot understand why we are not “going outside the gate”! It’s such a challenge to avoid getting…

Head to Head with a Threenager

Three. 3. Small number. Not very significant. Of course it all depends on the context. When it comes to small humans, three is a HUGE number. Very significant. Quite terrifying in fact. The run up to the 3rd birthday is a massive milestone for the whole family. The Birthday Boy/Girl is at the stage of…

Mom Friends; Sanity Savers

When you have kids, everything changes. But we all know this. We all heard about the impending doom for the entire six or more months that other people knew you were growing a tiny human. However, one part of my life that I hadn’t really anticipated any change in, was my friendships. I’m the person…