Dear friend,
Welcome to the "best of...#ablogginggoodtime." Katie and I are overwhelmed by the number of fantastic posts linked up each week and in an effort to give something back I decided to run a monthly feature to showcase some of the brilliant bloggers who regularly link up with us.
The diversity of posts linked up every month is amazing...everything from recipes to poems and lists, heartfelt and inspiring stories to hilarious tales and brilliant tips. Thank you so much! I know that we both struggle every week to pick out a featured post.
This months featured posts include:
What’s in a name? Musings on marriage, surnames & feminism.
JULY 28, 2016
~ BABIESBISCUITSANDBOOZe
I don’t want to alarm anybody but I am a feminist. I know, I’ve lulled you all into a false sense of security because I hadn’t mentioned bra burning or Germaine Greer in any of my other blog posts, but it’s true. I was actually going to start a feminist blog but then I got pregnant and it got put on the back burner and eventually it made more sense to start a parenting blog! The reason I mention it now is because I have been thinking about surnames again recently and it reminded me of something I wrote a while back on all the arguments I had to come up with for why I kept my own surname when I got married.
Read more...
The amazing Jade stood in for me whilst I was on holiday and this post was her choice (one I was extremely happy with!!!) Jade said: I love a child related mummy post but I also love one that makes me think and nod. Poignant and very balanced, considered post about a personal choice from the lovely Babies, biscuits and booze. What's in a name? Musings on marriage, surnames and feminism.
Learning to Love – The Hardest Diet Of All?
I’m having a love / hate relationship with my body and diet again. I say “again” because I’ve written about body image before on the blog, which you can read about here.
Actually, it’s more of a hate / hate relationship this week. I’ve returned from holiday, carrying just a few pounds of excess baggage and I’m not talking about my suitcases (although there is definitely some ‘junk in the trunk’).
If you go off my BMI (body mass index) then I’m not really overweight. At 24.9, I’m teetering on the edge of healthy weight / overweight. Basically, I’m one sausage roll away from fat. In myself, though I’m feeling huge. I hate that.
Now, depending on which day you catch me on, I will say one of the following things about my weight:
“I only had a baby 6 (lies it’s 7) months ago.”
“I’m at least two stone overweight. It’s disgusting.”
“I’m not bothered, I think I look fine (more lies).”
“I’m proud of my body – I’ve grown two human beings in it!”
You get the picture.
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Fi wrote a brilliant post called: Learning to Love - The hardest Diet of all. In it she explored her feelings around self image and how her opinion changes according to how she feels. This post really struck a chord with me particularly after my recent musings on the topic of self image when I wrote; Stop shaming my mummy tummy. Fi is spot on, you need to learn to love yourself first and that is hard! Go and give this a read please...
SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE PARENTING?
Parenting really is a funny thing. Iv been thinking about it alot recently. It is a part of life for everyone, whether you are the parent or have of course been parented. There is a huge spectrum of parenthood and how everyone approaches the challenge. Make no mistake, it is a challenge.
Parenting blogs are a great example of how we deal with said challenge. There are the funny ones, laughing at the hard times. There are those who power through the difficulties by lovingly sharing their experiences. Then there are those who exude positivity. They are all fabulous blogs In their own right and after all variety is the spice of life eh.
Im not sure where I fall. My blog isnt solely funnies of shit hitting the fan, although it does, often. It isn’t just the loving mushy posts either, my kids are too annoying to be mushy all the time. Perhaps it is somewhere inbetween. A diary of the good and bad.
What I do know is I started my blog with a vow of honesty, and wrote posts such as The Other Side of Being Mum, which was an honest description of a particularly bad day and The Alternate Mummy Awards, documenting some epic #mumfails. Yet along the way somewhere I think I have started to get lost. I have surcome to the pressure of picture perfect parenting. I have started to give myself a hard time over things I perhaps wouldn’t have a few months back, it is what inspired my recent post Tomorrow I’ll Do Better. Fortunately many like minded bloggers came to my aid in reassuring me I was just being unduly hard on myself.
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I loved this amazingly honest post from Tammy mum; Socially unacceptable parenting. I don’t think that you should ever have to apologise for feeling shit or having a crap day and parenting is bloody hard! I too sometimes feel the pressure to be positive or to be super mum but I’ve found that people appreciate your honesty and sometimes we have to let it out. I don’t think wanting time to be you makes you a crap parent either I think it makes you a better one as you are not resentful.
Good for Her! Not for me.
Yes, Please by Amy Poehler.
In one of the earliest posts on the blog, I wrote about Confidence and Women I Wish I Was. Top of my inspiring women list was Amy Poehler. Many readers agreed and like me had also read Poehler’s recent memoir ‘Yes , Please’. Before reading this book, I admired her as a ballsy, confident, successful actress, comedian and writer. Her sitcom ‘Parks and Recreation’ portrays a nerdy, ambitious woman who puts female friendship before romantic liaisons, or ‘Ovaries before Breviaries‘.
I read ‘Yes , Please’ last summer, and picked it up again last week when I was having some confidence wobbles and wondering as to the focus and purpose behind the blog. What’s the point? was the regular, feeble refrain I could hear in the back of my mind. I picked up the Poehler for inspiration and was reminded.Read more...
Such a positive and inspirational piece. It is no secret that I’ve been having a blogfidence crisis too and this was just what I needed to read! The stand out quote for me was don’t quiet your voice because you’re worried it isn’t perfect! Thank you for sharing this with us. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you pop over, it will make you feel more positive, I guarantee!
If, like many, you find the experience of supermarket shopping with a toddler to be slightly less pleasant than poking hot forks in your eyes whilst listening to One Direction on loop, then this is the guide you have been waiting for! Read on to learn how you can minimise the utter misery of the supermarket shop and help make the whole experience partially tolerable.
Step 1 – A warning
Abandon all hope. One of the key mistakes made by people embarking upon a supermarket shop with a toddler is hoping that the experience will be better than last time. It won’t. Accept it.
Step 2 – Arrive at the supermarket car park
On entering the supermarket car park, head towards the Parent and Child spaces. Drive past these spaces slowly, taking time to observe the burly men getting out of their white van to buy a sandwich (without a child), the pensioners hobbling from their car to the supermarket entrance to buy Battenburg (without a child), and the empty, child car seat-less BMW (without a child). While making a pointless mental note of all the unauthorised parkers, mutter obscenities to yourself. This will help to put you in the right frame of mind for your imminent supermarket shop with a toddler.
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OMG this brought back such fond memories of shopping with toddlers.