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The Mummy Whisperer's Six Steps To A Sparkling You And Enjoying Being a Mum ........................................
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The perfect 'pick me up' in a book for overwhelmed and stressed Mums.

Do you find yourself exhausted, and sometimes so tired you can't even look at a problem, let alone do anything about it? Do you sometimes take your frustration out on the kids and end up shouting at them? Are you terrified of disappearing into the grey mundaneness of suburban motherhood?

This book is simple, practical, easy to fit into your life, and packed with a massive punch to turn your world around. It will give you more Contentment, more Time, more Energy, more Space, more Money and most importantly more Sparkle.

Plus as a special gift she has included for free at the end of her book, her common sense, no diet, easy, guaranteed way of getting healthier, fitter and slimmer. So if you would love to lose weight as well, this book has everything you need.

Even better, you can do all this without changing your children, partner, life, house or financial situation.

Reviews

Nickie O'Hara: it’s just the thing I could have done with when my kids were a lot younger.

Muddling Along Mummy: incredibly I’ve flipped myself out of a bad patch and into a good patch ... Simple but effective.

Helen Redding: Easy to do and instills a sense of perspective.

Featured articles

  • Sparkling You
  • Healthy, Fit and Slim
  • Weight Loss
  • Healthy Eating For Rubbish Cooks
  • Question Corner

When Is Discussion Healthy or Unhealthy?

When Is Discussion Healthy or Unhealthy?I’m trying to work out whether I’m a fan of discussion or not.  I like a good old chinwag, and brainstorm.  But discussion?  There is a strong tendency in me to want ‘efficiency’;  So a part of me kicks in with ‘seriously, isn’t it obvious?’, but clearly it really often isn’t!

A ‘healthy’ discussion to me is where both sides learn things; either to understand other perspectives, or to shift theirs a little.  It’s where all parties are confident enough in themselves to be open to new ideas, and to not need to convince other people of their ‘right-itude’ (you know what I mean – the fact that they are more right than anyone else in the conversation).

To me an ‘unhealthy’ discussion is where no one hears each other, everyone is stuck in their ‘right-itude’ so it starts to descend quickly into a personal attack.

But I’m seeing as I write this that if there’s to be discussion, there is bound to be a bit of both ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ in it.  I wonder whether my concern over this has sometimes limited my blog, because I’ll often cover all aspects, rather than leave it to be discussed in the comments?

There have been a lot of incidents over the past few months that have got me thinking, in particular about discussion amongst Mums:

There was a big spat when someone called ‘Real Mum’ (great right-itude name) had a go at one of the newer bloggers, Mammasaurus.  It was just plain old nasty ‘Mums judging Mums’ stuff, quickly descended into bullied victim + persecutor scenario.  But if we all learnt to control our outbursts, would the mummy blogging community literally get bored?

There’s bitching behind the scenes in the mummy blogging community about ‘blagger’s as well.   A number of people commented on a post I wrote called ‘I’m a blagger blogger, fancy joining me‘, without actually reading it, just desperate to not be associated with the term; so not much discussion there.

It’s not just Mummy Bloggers, celeb Mums love to have a good go to; Sally Bercow insulted Kirstie Allsopp in the Daily Mail: which to me felt like a complete waste of time.  Plus publicly slagging off another mother, in a society where Mums aren’t regarded with deep respect anyway, is surely going to just make matters worse?

Twitter is full of spats between celeb mums taking umbrage at someone else using a different parenting technique.  Half of them ended up in the big brother house together, where they realised surprise surprise ‘she’s actually quite nice’!  Perhaps the short written word like Twitter, Facebook or blogs isn’t ideal for discussion?

There’s been some neighbourhood incidents where Mums bitterly fell out mainly due to a lack of empathy for different scenarios, ages, relationship lengths, no’s of children and financial situations.  There was absolutely no discussion which is probably why it went all tits up.  Perhaps ‘pastures new’ will be good for the Mums though?

Whereas there was another little spat in the blogging community back on Mammasaurus’s blog (she must be the lucky one heh!), which seemed to be respectfully resolved in the whole discussion/commenting process between the parties, with the slagging off commenting well controlled.  Perhaps that was a good example of where it’s wise to get things out in the open and discuss them, otherwise it could have become really gruesome in a few months time?

I experienced being involved in a blogging community discussion after launching my ‘Mums Standing Up Together‘ campaign.  I’d approached all the mummy blogging communities, but was more obviously supported by Britmums in their blogging prompts.  Blimey do these women know how to press buttons and get the discussion going.  Initially I was disconcerted (not upset) by the feeling that there were people writing about what I’d said and misunderstanding it.  After lots of tea I decided it had been useful to ensure that I was really clear about what I meant.

At home there are plenty of ‘discussions’ between me and the hubby.  Over 22yrs I’ve tried all sorts of things, like raising issues every couple of months (a bit like the big blow ups in the blogging community), or just compromising and keeping my opinions to myself which isn’t so good for my own identity.  A constant regular stream of little discussions before they blow up seems like the best compromise for us.  It’s unrealistic to not expect misunderstandings between the southern cheeriness of me and the hairy northernness of him.

Finally I saw a conversation on twitter where a mum took umbrage at Kelly Rose Bradford’s article in the Daily Mail and was pulled up for publicly criticising her (the joy of twitter!).  Kelly didn’t reply to all the nasty comments on the Daily Mail and said that ‘I wrote it purely to spark a debate‘, plus that all her family and friends understood her job.  This was a HUGE eye opener to me, because she saw the debate as the objective, whereas I see the resulting consensus or agreement to differ as the objective.  This is potentially where I’ve often been going ‘wrong’.  She didn’t feel the worry that I had about being misunderstood.  What a huge revelation!

I blogged recently about setting Life Priorities for the chinese new year, maybe I need clear ‘people priorities’, so that I can be clear on who it matters understand me?

Oh and it definitely convinced me that photo’s are massively important, because that is one bad photo of you Kelly!  Anyone fancy doing a photo shoot for me in return for a blog post, because mine looks a bit too ‘nice’ (back to the blagging!).

Top Tips For Healthy Eating In A Family

Healthy Eating For Families

Here is my first post in my series of ‘Healthy Eating For Rubbish Cooks‘ – Yay!

15 Simple Rules To Remember

 

What are the rules I try to follow that make my cooking healthy?

Eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables a day (a portion of fruit is probably a handful, otherwise it’s obvious with apples/ bananas/oranges) Eat different colours of fruit and vegetables a day Limit the wheat intake per day so not cereal, plus a sandwich, plus pasta for dinner Eat the brown version: bread, sugar, rice, pasta Assume any ready meal or . . . → Read More: Top Tips For Healthy Eating In A Family

Smart Meters making the geek and tree hugger in me really happy

BritishGasBritMums

Energy Saving: the problem is how to go about it without appearing like a nag!  Plus my brain isn’t what it was, and although I remember that I was taught how to work out what having a light on would cost, I can’t for the life of me remember how to do it.  With the big hairy northern one home having been made redundant, I’m both wanting to save money and also encourage more light turning off now there are more people in the house!

So . . . → Read More: Smart Meters making the geek and tree hugger in me really happy

Dump, Delegate, Do, Delay – my motto for today

To do list

Yesterday I pulled something in my back, it hurts and the last couple of days I’ve fancied a jolly good cry, which means it’s time to listen to a bit of my own advice.   So I’m sharing this, not so that you worry about me, but just so that you know that I too am not always so tough or sorted.

The problem at the moment is feeling a bit overwhelmed with how much needs doing and how many decisions there are to be made.  They could be looked on as ‘ . . . → Read More: Dump, Delegate, Do, Delay – my motto for today

A Name For Our Revolution: Come and have your say

Mums in each others shoes right

I’ve got a plan for a revolution.  First starting with mummy bloggers, and then spreading out into the world.  It’s your revolution too, so I’d like to know what you’d prefer to call it.

So what’s the idea?

To strengthen the position of Mums in society. To encourage Mums to feel strong and confident in our differences To help them to appreciate that given different circumstances and different shoes, they might be different too

 

A ‘good mother’ is a mother who is herself, not trying . . . → Read More: A Name For Our Revolution: Come and have your say

How To Be A Good Mother: I have the answer

Be A Happy Mum

I reckon I know ‘How to be a good mother’.

Mind you I don’t reckon I get it right all the time.

But I do think I know what I did when I don’t get it right.

Ironically, I was approached for that Channel 4 program with Sharon Horgan on ‘How to be a good mother’.  I was hesitant initially, and then they decided that I didn’t match the bill.  I can see why I didn’t match it as none of my ideas would be extreme enough for them, which is what I expected initially.  But it’s irritating too as . . . → Read More: How To Be A Good Mother: I have the answer

Money Saving Tip: Use up month!

Money Management Tips

With Christmas credit card bills enroute, Little Dimples birthday one month away, and hubby still looking for a job having been made redundant, my money saving tips are definitely relevant for me, so I thought this one might help you too.

I call it the ‘Use everything up month‘!  It’s great when combined with a good de-clutter, and if you want to make a bit of extra money a quick . . . → Read More: Money Saving Tip: Use up month!

Would you take back a present, or is it mean and rude?

Presents

 

For years I have taken the attitude that the Big Hairy Northern Hubby knew something I didn’t when buying me presents, and that given time if they didn’t quite hit the spot immediately, their purpose would become clear.  Not sure that quite worked with the model of the Star Ship Enterprise, but with most things it did.  He has always been very generous and ‘its the thought that counts’ right?

Well, this year I’ve taken a difficult and much harder decision.  To take back about 80% of what I was given.  We’d agreed to not spend . . . → Read More: Would you take back a present, or is it mean and rude?

An alternative to New Years Resolutions: Your Top 3 Life Priorities

Life Priorities

I’m not a fan of New Years Resolutions, I think it’s more a time for maybe a bit of a detox, clear out and rest or rejuvenation.

Later on at the end of the month is a better time, when we hit the chinese new year (That’s how I did mine last year).

 

Or an even better solution is to have NO resolutions at all.

Instead, pick your Top 3 Life Priorities.

 

Life Priorities help you to organise your time, energy and money spends . . . → Read More: An alternative to New Years Resolutions: Your Top 3 Life Priorities

Beware the refunds policy when buying presents

Presents

I know this post is a bit late for christmas, but there is all the birthday’s next year and Christmas in 12 months time.

Basically, BEWARE buying presents for people without being sure of the refunds policy, especially if it’s not a big name shop you are buying from.  You may end up only being able to get a credit note, exchange or even worse, nothing at all.

Also, if you do want to take things back, get your butt going, because you might be running out of time; I ran into that problem after one of . . . → Read More: Beware the refunds policy when buying presents