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My Shit Day As a Mum – We All Have Them Right?

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You know those days where by the end of it you are completely and utterly exhausted? Those days you can barely holding it together? Well this was me yesterday.

I am usually a very laid back person, it takes a lot to break me. But I can say with all honesty that I have never in my 9 years of being a parent ever had a day that shit! I was woken by fighting kids, breakfast everywhere, my kitchen resembled a holding cell for untamed animals.

I thought once I dropped the boys at school surely my day would improve. I was wrong. So unbelievably wrong! My 2 year old daughter seems to have embraced the terrible two’s with open arms. There was just no letting up. She is a very strong willed child which I’m hoping will be a benefit in her older years but for now, she is driving me to breaking point. I ask her to do something. No. Please do it. No.

I am not typically a parent who resorts to bribing my children to do things (toilet training excluded, they can have whatever they frigging want if it means they will crap in the toilet!) however yesterday I was at my wits end. I did not know what to do. I was stressed, time deprived with my husband and I cannot remember the last time I left the house to do something for myself or by myself.
I’m just tired of being tired.

As the afternoon went on it didn’t improve. Homework arguments, racing the clock for swimming lessons because their class times had changed. Rushing out the door with an extremely overtired 2 year old, 3 month old baby and the boys, only to get there and be told they changed our lesson time to the next half an hour slot which meant I had to entertain the devil child, I mean toddler, for an hour instead of 30 minutes in what can only be described as a sauna. *It is a heated indoor pool in a shed that is ONLY for lessons.

By this point I was barely holding it together. I made dinner and was counting down the hours until my husband came home. He walked inside and asked me how my day was – I couldn’t contain it any longer – “It was fucked!”. There was no other way to explain it. The tears started flooding my face and as my husband comforted me, I fell into a messy sobbing heap. He asked me what had happened to make it such an awful day and as I told him, the crying got worse. But as I talked and cried, I began to feel lighter, less stressed, less irritated (possibly less irrational).

My husband being the wonderful man he is reminded me that everyone has bad days. It is ok to not be on top of everything every single day. Not to bottle it up until breaking point and that tomorrow will be better! And like always….. He was right.

Have you experienced days like this too? How do you prevent it from happening?

5 Foodie Ways to Get the Kids Through Witching Hour

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5 Foodie Ways to Get the Kids Through Witching Hour

Guest post by Simone Emery from Play with Food.

My favourite tool to have in my parenting arsenal is a good afternoon tea. A good afternoon tea sets the kids up for a decent window of opportunity to be productive without the “I’m bored” and “I’m hungry” complaints during the witching hour*.

*Actually, let’s be honest it should read hours. Next to afternoon tea is having something ready to occupy the youngsters. (Unless homework is in the picture for you and that is causing a whole lot of other “fun” at your place.)

Here are 5 foodie ideas to get through the afternoon that don’t require too much preparation. You should have most of the ingredients / resources on hand.

Play with food

1. Vegie Painting

Using some vegetables, try painting (or drawing around) them onto paper. You can make an edible paint by mixing a teaspoon of yoghurt with a drop of food colouring. Vegetables that make good brushes include asparagus, broccoli, rosemary stalks and carrot tops. Or you can cut a potato into two and make circle / oval stamps.

2. Grouping and Counting with Vegie Scraps

This is great if you have potato / carrot / sweet potato or the outer leaves of a leek available. Have the children tear them into pieces and then line them up in order from smallest to biggest. Or put them in groups of similar size pieces. Then they can tally up the number of pieces they have sorted out.

3. Mystery Sensory Challenge

In a shoe box, place some dry rolled oats and some small mystery fruits and vegetables for the children to find and determine what they are just by feeling them. This works well for small items like apricots, plums, cherries, beans, sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes. You could use shredded paper, dry rice or dry pasta to surround the mystery foods too.

4. Bubble Painting

In a small beach bucket over a messy mat or outside, place some detergent, food colouring and water. Put some paper over the bucket and poke a straw through it. The child then has to blow OUT to make bubbles that will reach up and colour the paper.

5. Food Sculptures

A great way to use their imagination and also to make some use of your scraps again too. With toothpicks, get them to try and make things like a car, digger, castle or dog out of food items. This can be simply done on a placemat on the floor beside you while you are making dinner.

Simone, from Play with Food, has plenty of tips to help you master your family mealtimes, especially with fussy eaters. She always aims to delight the taste buds and imagination of children with food.

How do you incorporate food into play? Tell me in the comments. 

Counting down the days

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I am counting down the days until school resumes. It feels like the longest 2 weeks ever. I have not been able to hear myself think with the constant talking, fighting and yelling. It’s like they feel they have to compete to be the loudest and thoroughly enjoy playing ‘How can push mum over the edge and send her bat shit crazy today?’. I’ll be honest; I love it when they go to school. I get to reclaim a portion of my sanity and take pleasure in a cup of coffee WHEN IT’S HOT!! Oh it really is the little things that bring me joy. Lol. It’s not all bad when they are on holidays because we do get to discover who the kids are again because they change so often but a few minutes of peace wouldn’t go astray. Counting down!

My boys teachers are constantly telling me how well they get along and that they are like best friends but I am calling bull shit on that. (Sorry teachers) Maybe they just use up all their tolerance for one another at school and their personalities clash at home when they have been around each other too much but from where I stand I only ever get a glimpse of this ‘best bud’ behaviour you speak of. It actually reminds me of me and my brother and how we used to get along like a house on fire and then suddenly we were constantly fight – SORRY MUM!! You can call karma off now, surely I’ve paid my dues. I understand completely how exhausted you felt, not only physically but mentally. I am completely and utterly mentally drained. Still counting down the days.

Tell me it’s not just me – tell me your kids fight too. Tell me you count down the days until school resumes as well.

MAM Anti-Colic Baby Bottles

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Approximately 20% of babies will become colicky which is quite unfortunate for both baby and parents. I have been fortunate enough so far that I haven’t had to experience this personally however I have witnessed the torment, pain and sleepless nights it has caused friends of mine.  Which is why when I come across a great product that is going to help mothers stress less and help their baby be pain free I want to share it with everyone.

I have been giving the MAM Anti-Colic bottles a bit of a test run for the purpose of this review and even though I have been filling it with breast milk my baby took to the bottle like she was attached to my boob. It was like she didn’t know any better which is definitely saying something for the quality of these teats. They are extra soft just like a nipple making it easy to transition between breast and bottle. Now as I mentioned above my baby isn’t colicky but the way these bottles are designed I can definitely see how it would benefit if she was. The base is vented which ultimately reduces the air that is swallowed by bub.

I have found the benefits of these bottles great and will continue to use them once I stop breastfeeding. They have a nice wide opening at the top making them easy to clean, BPA free and they also self-sterilise! Yes you read that right – self-sterilising! If your baby suffers from colic than I would highly recommend giving these bottles a go just like one of Mad Mummas readers did. You can read her review below.

MAM Anti-Colic bottles can be found in Target, Big W & some Baby Bunting stores. You can also follow MAM Australia on facebook.

Reader Review

I wish I had known about these bottles with my first daughter who suffered from chronic reflux and colic so feeding was not a favourite time of the day!
I have used these bottles with my second child now 10 weeks old and they are amazing! The fact that they self-sterilize in 3 mins is a bonus and extremely handy when out and about! The teat was easy for my daughter to suck and I believe it did reduce her wind, which is also noticeable when my daughter feeds compared to other brands we have used. I am extremely happy with these bottles and would recommend them.

It Only Takes A Few Words

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The school year is coming to a close and for some states it already has. Declan my 5 year old started Kindergarten this year (otherwise known as prep for Qld readers) and we were extremely lucky to have gotten the teacher he did. She is not only a fantastic teacher; she really knows how to interact with the children. Mrs G has always put effort into the kids who want to learn and behave themselves instead of putting all her time and energy into the disruptive kids who don’t want to listen. This was very refreshing for me to see.

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Throughout the year I have heard other parents talk about her for one reason or another and basically how little they think of her. A few of them were even boasting to one another how they made her cry by yelling at her in front of the kids. Yes, that’s right some of these parents yelled at their childs teacher in front of a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds. Now that’s great parenting right there! I just couldn’t believe these women and how proud of themselves they were. This woman, this bright intelligent woman is so kind hearted and does everything in her power to challenge her students, encourage her students and in my opinion has done nothing but go above and beyond her role as a teacher. I am devastated he will not have her as a teacher next year as we are moving in the New Year to a different area.
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Teachers need to be acknowledged for the hard work they put in, they need to be shown appreciation for everything they do for your children. Whether you see it or not they are a huge support and put in many additional hours out of the kindness of their heart. We bought Mrs G a box of chocolates for Christmas as a way to thank her but I also attached a card with a little note. While I cannot remember exactly what I wrote it was along these lines ‘Thank you for everything you have done for Declan this year we really appreciate it. You have truly gone above and beyond and I cannot thank you enough. We couldn’t have possibly asked for a better teacher. Thank you.’
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Now I didn’t think too much more of this besides it showing her that we appreciate the hard work she has put into teaching our son this year however it is amazing how much a few kind words can mean to someone. Declan gave his present to Mrs G during the day and when I went to pick my son up in the afternoon his teacher came up and hugged me and thanked me for my kind words. She told me she had had a rough afternoon yesterday as another parent had abused her and quite nastily I might add. It was so obvious how much these few kind words that I wrote in her card meant to her, those simple words that obviously are not said enough.

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Please remember that it only takes a few words to crush a persons self esteem and ruin their day and a simple thank you so much or I appreciate you to make their day great.

Use and choose your words wisely!              

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