After almost a decade of writing about parenting, and 16 years as a parent myself, there's only one thing I know for sure: happy people raise happy kids. It makes sense, of course. While there's no doubt that happy people can and do raise unhappy kids (we have all...
Confession time: I'm over the whole 'mum guilt' thing. Yes, mothering is a b*tch of a thing because we love those little terrors so deeply and utterly that we want everything to be absolutely perfect for them. We often sacrifice our own happiness to make that happen...
There's a theme that keeps coming up the more I talk to my fellow mums about parenting: we worry way too much about being judged. In fact, while we talk a lot about mums of newborns feeling judged, worrying about what other people think seems to become more of a...
By the end of last year, I felt totally depleted and fatigued by doing all the things that we mothers do. The mothering, the schooling, the working, the cooking, the washing, the emotional caring, the disciplining, the routine making, the routine keeping,...
There's a very clear reason why we launched Mumlyfe in February 2018: mums stop talking about parenting. There's just not a lot being said about parenting the over fives out there. It was really clear to me as a parenting writer because I found myself writing...
Listen up! I was part of Kinderling Kids Radio show this morning, on their The Parent Panel podcast. It was such a blast! We talked about the value of work and why I don't want my kids seeing work as interfering with 'real life' (more on this later). I don't know why...
The #1 parenting issue I get asked for advice about is "how to balance work and family". How do I balance my work and family life? How do I balance being a working mother? How do I balance work and kids? Except for three lots of maternity leave (each a little...
When my kids were little, I never felt the need to banish working mum guilt. I felt it, I gave it some space, I let working mum guilt just be. I think I realised quite early on that I was a mother who needed to work. There's a good chance that I didn't have to work,...
I was an angry mum for way too long. It actually felt like my set-point was Angry Mum - I was just constantly going mental about something and the little respites of not being angry started to get further and further apart. I regularly yelled and felt justified in the...
At some stage (usually day #11 of the newborn stage), at some time (anytime), every mother - no matter how much she wanted to be a mother, no matter how much she loves being a mother, no matter - will regret having kids. I mean, she might not want to admit that out...
I've fallen so far behind in everything in life (I know you've been there). I was supposed to introduce you to this marvellous apple and blackberry pie from Sophie Hanson's new book at least a month ago. Yet here we are. Don't let my delayed introduction put you off...
If you're in the middle of your HSC (or equivalent) and you're already searching for 'different ways to get into uni not ATAR', I get ya! We're in the weeds of year 12 at the moment, with my eldest muddling through. I say muddling deliberately because he isn't the...
So here we are. My son turns 18 very soon. EIGHTEEN! It feels bitter sweet, but mostly bitter. I see him there, this child about to be thrust into adulthood. He is six foot six, broad and big boned - incontestably a total unit. Larger than life and full of unstoppable...
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