There are many things that as a parent I suck at, I am very open about these things and I often laugh about my shortcomings because quite frankly some of them put me in situations where you either laugh or cry. I use this blog to moan about the many hurdles of parenting and all the things it throws at you. I do not (often) shout about my successes. These are my top five things I feel that I do well as mother and implore you to do your own, they won’t all be the same but let’s face it children are so challenging that it’s likely that what you are good at this week won’t mean shit next week.
- Everyone always has clean underwear.
I mean pants and knickers, they are not always so lucky with socks because we have a dog that likes to swallow just one of each pair. I am pretty good at keeping on top of the washing, which is a minor miracle being that one child cannot bare to wear PJ’s for more than one night and the other likes to get so messy at breakfast time that it is not an option. When you couple this with the washing line being in semi-retirement during this season it makes it even more amazing. - People are fed. Relatively well.
I do probably more than 90% of the cooking in this house, and always have even when working. I do breakfast, lunch and dinner and all the snacks in between. I like to cook and that means we eat (mostly) homemade, whilst I don’t judge those who do not eat as well, I am very proud that I do this. - I am honest.
I lie about shit like fairies and unicorns because once you blow this shit out of the water you cannot get it back but I am honest about everything else. We have started talking about drugs for example, recommended by drug expert David Nutt and as per his advice there has to be complete transparency so we have extended this to everything. - I lose my shit but not about the stuff I should.
This sounds backwards but hear me out, I get super stressed sometimes about things like my partner not emptying a pot noodle of the left over water before putting it in the bin in a precarious fashion as not to spill out (wait till he gets home). I do NOT lose it when my daughter covers her new pj’s in acrylic paint when she is supposed to be sleeping, I don’t do this because I want her to always be able to come to me when she has made a mistake. - We do it alone.
Whilst we do get the occasional nanny-sitter for an evening it is a rarity, we’ve got this, we juggle everything without getting a couple of hours here and there to clean the house or to do anything. When we have my mum over we do it all and put the sprouts to bed before we leave and we are always back by 12 to be ready for any wake up’s. Since having George I have had one night away from him where I was back at 6.30 am to boob feed. I have had a maximum of 3 days away from George, two weddings and a trip to Thorpe Park, we would love more time and more help but I’m super proud that we having killed each other.