A Modern Mother

My interview

Mum (44) interviews Emily (7), Alexandra (5) and HM (4):

1. What is something mum always says to you?

Emily: WHAT DID YOU DO AT SCHOOL TODAY.

Alexandra: WELL DONE.

HM: I DON'T KNOW.

My English garden

 

There's nothing better than an English garden at the height of summer.

I did it!

 

I did it!

I shopped.

I re-used my bags.

I fulfilled my promise.

Proof that pigs can be taught to fly.

These damn bags are going to be the death of me

Drove to town. Parked. Dismounted. Assumed ready position; I had exactly one hour to dash to the butcher and Waitrose before school pickup.

Locked Car. Walked away. Damn. The bags. Unlocked car. Where are they? They're here somewhere. Ewwww! What's that? A mouldy grape? I really didn't need to touch that. OK, forget the bags. I'll bring the groceries back to the car in the trolley and load them straight in.

Yes, the same as last week. Six stuffed chicken breasts. And smoked salmon. Please. Yes, they loved it. And some of that soft cheese, what's it called? 

No, not in a bag, thank you. It's Recycle Week next week. I've promised not to use them. Yes, I can manage. I have two hands and will balance everything on top of the biscuits. Thanks!

It's as easy as riding a bike and COMPETITION for bike gear

I didn't know when we bought our three daughters bicycles last weekend that it would test our marriage.

Brand spanking news one from Halfords. Pink. The two youngest got stabilisers, but at seven, Emily was too big. She would have learn to ride a bike the old fashioned way.

Come to think of it, I can't remember how I learnt to ride a bike. And it soon became apparent that neither could hubby. It's easy, right?

After a half hour of going round our garden at a snails pace and getting a back ache from holding the steering wheel, Emily started to get frustrated.

I did it again; I forgot the bags!

You'll know what that means if you're following my promise to re-use my carrier bags for Recycle Week. I failed. Again. I forgot the bags.

I took the girls to Tesco because I promised them each a magazine as an award for being good last week. Yes, I know all that plastic junk will end up as landfill, but let me tackle one eco-issue at a time here, and not try to boil the ocean.

As they were looking over their choices, an image of the inside of our fridge popped into my mind: there was enough milk for my coffee tomorrow morning (but not cereal) and there was only one yogurt and no sliced ham for lunches. I guess I had better pick up a few items while I was here to avoid mayhem in the morning.

Not a very good start (!)

Good thing this is a trial week since I haven't made a very good start at fulfilling my promise to re-use my carrier bags for Recycle Week ;-(

I had coffee in town, passed Sainsbury's and decided I needed a few essentials. What possessed me to get a six-pint jug of milk AND a sack of potatoes I don't know since I had a long walk home with just HM (my four-year-old) and the stroller.

After the amazing feat of pushing the stroller, carrying a basket AND sending a text with one hand (without running into anyone) I went to the till and the nice man asked if I needed carrier bags.

Recycle Week Tag

 

It's Recycle Week in the UK next week and Karen from the Rubbish Diet and Don't Tear Your Hair Out has set all mummy bloggers a challenge: how many can she get to take a recycling pledge and write about it?

She got me to promise to re-use my carrier bags for a week, and if I don't I won't be allowed to use Twitter for a whole week. Shudder.

British Mummy Bloggers hit the Rainforest

Ever wonder what a group of bloggers with alias' like Potty Mummy, Surprised and Wahm-Bam look like?

Not bad, actually.

British Mummy Bloggers took over the Rainforest Cafe in London yesterday and I'd have to say we were a pretty interesting group of mums. There were varied accents, personalities and even a few tattoos; not to mention the adorable babies.

Thank you to Silver Cross for organising the event. Their MD Alan Halsall has done an excellent job of bringing the coveted British pram brand into the 21st century.  I have to say that I wish they had brought out the Doodle (which got an "oooohhh" from all the mums when we were shown the retractable UV visor) and the Halo highchair (which turns into a table/chair set) when mine were younger.

I will re-use my carrier bags, I will, I will!

I'm going to share a deep, dark secret. I've never reused those plastic bags they give you at the supermarket. Ever. Even though I have those trendy reusable bags and hundreds of plastic ones hidden around the house (and stuffed in drawers). I know, I know. It's just that when I finally make it to Tesco, the bags never make it with me.

So I've taken a pledge for Recycle Week (22- 28 June). I've PROMISED to reuse my carrier bags for a whole week.  And if I don't do it, I will not be allowed to use Twitter for a whole week. Shudder.

Please stop asking mummy bloggers to do stuff for free

It seems that the mummy blogger/PR relationship is really hard to get right -- even for our US counterparts. GeekMommy wrote an excellent post this week about Why Mom Bloggers Aren’t Flipping for Just a Sample of Your Product. You really need to read the full article, it points out that mothers that blog are doing a job and that PR should respect this and stop assuming that we will do things for free.

First, we need to get straight that mummy bloggers are not reporters. We don't get paid for what we do. We don't have an editor. We don't have a graphic designer. We don't have an IT department. We do it all ourselves in our spare time. We might write about your product if we like it and think it is useful, but come on, quit asking us to do competitions and giveways for free. 

All in a week's work

I thought I'd catch you up on some of the more interesting responses to all the publicity around the rise British mummy blogging....

Andrex contacted me about the launch of their new "Puppy Points" scheme. The trolley dash sounded like loads of fun, but since I don't have any pets I politely declined. Of course I felt silly when hubby informed me that Andrex make toilet tissue and they have adorable lab pups on their label (I buy the cheapest I can find at Tesco so hadn't noticed this before).

Summer time

 

Four Red Kites sitting in the tree,

Eight nice sunflowers growing in the garden,

One yellow sun shining in the sky,

It's summer time now,

Let's play!

Written by Emily Scott (7 years old)

Photo credit

And now for another public service announcement...

Ohferchristsake, give Holly Steele a break

My seven-year-old daughter really wanted Holly Steele to win Britain's Got Talent; possibly more than Holly herself. She immediately identified with the girl that is just a few years older. As she watched the entire final, analysing all the acts (the grandfather and granddaughter act was a close second) she kept chanting "I want Holly, I want Holly".

In case you live in a cave and missed Friday's semi-final, Holly broke into tears after she made a mistake and was told she couldn't have another go. I'm sure every mother's heart collectively broke when in the midst of tears, Holly said she wanted her mummy.