Author: Becky

6

A Frazzled Yummy Mummy

Parenting can turn you from super-sizzling career woman to frazzled but yummy mummy. I'm not entirely sure at which point the transformation takes place. I think it might just be a change in the way the brain works that occurs at conception and becomes increasingly obvious once your precious bundle of joy arrives.

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1

It Makes It All Worthwhile...

• when I see my 'special needs' child comforting his little brother

• when I see the excitement and anticipation in his face as he gives me a home made card or bunch of dandelions

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7

Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child?

'You must beat it out of them' 'You have to break the spirit' 'A short sharp smack is what you need - shock them' 'It has to hurt to be a deterrent otherwise what's the point?' 'If you love your children you will smack them - it's the only way to show them who's boss'

Have you heard any of these or do you agree with any of these? These are all direct pieces of advice I have been given over the last five years. Smacking is one of those controversial areas that evokes all sorts of emotional and moral responses, but rarely (as far as I can work out) is it based on logic.

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4

Work In Progress

Last night was one of those nights. Sometimes it feels like I must be the only mum on the planet whose 22 month old still goes through phases of waking up at unearthly hours of the night. When they are new-born you can take comfort in the fact that while you are perched uncomfortably on the edge of a toy box with an apparently starving baby voraciously sucking at your breast at 11pm, 2 am and 4am, there are literally thousands of other mums across the UK doing exactly the same. Read more

6

Mum I Want A Pet

Uh oh - I've been dreading those words - and yet I knew that once I had kids there was a certain inevitability that they would come my way at some point. Just not yet. I wanted to be prepared for the question; I wanted to be loaded with some great responses; I didn't want to have the question thrown at me while I was in the middle of some crisis. Read more

6

The Orangatanned Man

I can feel my patience ebbing away. I'm trying hard to find my supermum smile but failing miserably. I just want to curl up in a hole somewhere with a duvet and a hot chocolate and get lost in romantic novels.

As I drive along the A57 at 2 miles an hour, regretting the second cuppa that is now sat heavily in my bladder; the rain hammering down, the screams from my toddler hammering on my ear drum and the incessant chat of my 4 year old. "Mummy did you see that sign? Read more