New Home

We've got a new home! :)

Please go to http://www.aworkingmum.com/ to continue reading my blog.

Many thanks.

JMBT.

Stay At Home Mum v Working Mum

I've recently gone back to work after being off on maternity leave with my son and I still keep wondering what's best,  a Stay at Home Mum or a Working Mum?

There are always pros and cons with everything, but with this decision there's the added parental guilt to take into account as well.

Pros of a Stay at Home Mum :

• By choosing to be a stay at home mum you're able to be there for them 24 hours a day, and if they've had a bad night you don't have to go to that all important early morning meeting looking like you've been dragged through a hedge backwards! Mind you, if you've had a bad night then you might end up looking like that anyway!
• If they're ill, which can be a regular occurrence once they start to socialise with other children at the various playgroups and baby clubs, you'll be able to nurse them until they're better, without having to worry about what your boss will say as you've already been off a few times this month will a sick child
• You're able to do all sorts of fun things with them, and spend real quality time when with them rather than just seeing them for an hour or two in the evening before it's bed time
• You don't have to folk out thousands every year for child care in a nursery or hand them over to friends or family every morning

Cons of a Stay at Home Mum :

• Unless your other half has a relatively large income then you'll probably have to make some sacrifices, how small or large these are will obviously vary according to circumstance
• Unless you can establish yourself within a group of friends at the many playgroups or baby clubs then you may find that not working can quite isolating
• You may find that you talk non-stop to your off half when they come home of an evening as you may not have much adult company, if any, all day
• Unless you can wangle a career break from work you may end up sacrificing your career by taking time out.

• If you decide to re-enter the workplace again in a few years time the chances are you'll have to start at the bottom again, or at least a good bit further down the ladder from where you were when you left

Pros of being a Working Mum :

• The main, and obvious one, is that you get paid at the end of the month!
• You can have your lunch in peace.
• Drink a hot cup of tea whilst it's still hot
• You get the chance to converse with other adults, and even about non-baby related stuff!
• Your own identity reappears, you’re not just someone’s mum any more

Cons of Being a Working Mum :

• You've got to hand you child over to either, if you're lucky, friends or family to child-mind, or to a nursery
• Your salary will take a massive hit if you've to enrol your child in a nursery
• Whoever is looking after you child may not do things the way that you would like them to be done
• You don't actually see that much of your child during the week, by the time you've picked them up from the nursery it's usually dinner time, bath and bed
• If you've had a bad night you've still got to go into work the next day looking fresh and ready to tackle the tasks for that day

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Once you've made that all important decision, you then will have to take into account that you really need to make time for yourselves as a couple. That doesn't have to be an expensive thing to do though -  watching a DVD whilst snuggle up on the sofa, or having a ready meal with a glass of wine once the wee one's in bed

Everyone have to make the choice about being a working mum or a stay at home mum, based on what’s best for their own family and circumstances.

Say Cheese!

We decided to skip the kebabs for dinner until tomorrow night and we opted for good old macaroni cheese instead.


 As you can see our little fella loved it! It's possibly his all time favourite food.

Roll on the kebabs tomorrow night.

Off The Rails

Some parts of the UK are having this thing called "Summer" and as usual, during the few days that we actually get to see this "yellow ball" in the sky, everything goes into shock!

Some rail services have been cancelled in London today, whilst other services have had speed restrictions imposed on them. The transport problems are apparently due to the design of the overhead line equipment.

I'm all for transport, and things in general, operating safely, but all too often the trains are "off the rails"

It's either too hot, or too cold, leaves on the rails, wrong sort of snow ... the list goes on infinitum.

What is the ambient temp that's needed for things to run smoothly??

Not that I'm complaining that it's summer, well to be more precise summer in certain parts of the UK. If you live in Scotland, as we do, it's business as usual - cloud, wind, and if you're lucky, it'll stay dry for a few mins.

That's Dinner Sorted!

Well tonight's dinner is sorted courtesy of  crumbs

We're having kebabs, they look scrummy, and they take 5 mins to cook! My sort of cooking.

I might even get my other half to make them, as last week's attempt at boil-in-the-bag kedgeree didn't go exactly to plan. He said NO, or words to that effect!

Can't blame the poor boy really, he can't stand fish.

Flashbacks and farting

Flashbacks and Farting

Just saw this fantastic post and had to share. I had tears of laughter rolling down my face!

As our son made his entrance thru the sunroof we didn’t have quite the same experience, thankfully, but farting does seem to be a regular occurrence in this household, not by me I might add

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges

I’ve just seen this shocking article in the Guardian.


guardian.co.uk

Women's rights campaigners see the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion.


Woman in America are now being accused of murder, but the crime they have alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. They are facing life in prison in over the death of their unborn child.

At least 38 of the 50 states across America have introduced foetal homicide laws that were intended to protect pregnant women and their unborn children from violent attacks by third parties – usually abusive male partners – but are increasingly being turned by renegade prosecutors against the women themselves.


South Carolina was one of the first states to introduce such a foetal homicide law. National Advocates for Pregnant Women has found only one case of a South Carolina man who assaulted a pregnant woman having been charged under its terms, and his conviction was eventually overturned. Yet the group estimates there have been up to 300 women arrested for their actions during pregnancy.


In other states laws designed to protect children against the damaging effects of drugs have similarly been twisted to punish childbearers.

Social Whirlwind!

This weekend has been quite a plethora of socialising for us. Since our son was born we’ve been holed up every evening and weekend trying to catch up on sleep and trying to get to grips with being a first-time parent.

Last night we headed off to a 40th birthday party, whilst my parent’s babysat for us. This was the very first time that we’d been out at a social event on our own since our son was born 14 months ago!

It felt weird at first, but after a few minutes of being out, we were soon in the swing of the party, and the party had a theme – fancy dress, “come as what you wanted to be when you grew up”  We chickened out as came as ourselves.

The party was fab, it was a children’s party all evening, but with no children!  It was even complete with children’s games, a good time was had by all.

When we arrived home, our little bundle had been as good as gold, which was fantastic, as that means we can ask them to babysit for us again!


Today we had gone to to a 1st birthday party. We became friends with a few of the couples from our parent craft classes when I was pregnant and the party was one of the said parent’s little boy. All the couple’s that we’ve stayed friends with have all had little boys, so when we meet up it’s like the “boys on tour” outing!

Our little lad had so much fun today, as did all the children. All in all a great, but exhausting weekend!

Go The F*ck to Sleep !

The book "It's Time to Sleep, My Love"  has been in the news lately as someone has written an alleged parody of the book "Go the F*ck to Sleep" and it's landed a place in the best sellers list!


http://mommyish.com/childrearing/does-laughing-at-go-the-fck-to-sleep-make-you-rageful-and-sexless


I think that's the latest addition to my reading list.

Foot Fetish

 My other half and I noticed from quite an early age that our son has a foot fetish, and he’s not too shy about who knows it either.

He’d cuddle slippers, the fancier the pattern the better, shoes and even bare feet. Once he was able to move around a bit more he began to pick up the shoes and slippers and actually sniff them, and even try to bury his face inside them.

If you were wanting to distract him from something all you had to do was to give him your slipper and he was away in another world, sniffing the slippers for all they were worth!

A few days ago our son took his first unaided steps and as we have wooden floors, which can be slippery at times, I thought I would buy him a pair of crawling shoes to give him a bit more of a grip.

I expected these shoes to be showered with the same love as everyone else’s, but he didn’t seem to be too bothered.

I even tried to put the shoes on him but he wouldn’t let me, he ended getting quite upset and trying to pull his feet away, it looks as if he was frightened of the shoes!

Have we cured him of this particular fetish?? Time will tell.

Feline Demise

I managed to escaped from the office today. I was carrying out, along with a few other people, some inspections of certain areas within another site.

I know the people that I was with quite well, but as it turns out, not as well as I thought …

I was reliably informed today about the best way to bump off a cat! I’m not really a cat person, but I wouldn’t want to bump off old pussy.

Apparently you can do this by using lily scented paracetamol washed down with some antifreeze!

It was really quite a strange day today.

What’s in a Name?

From the minute that you realise you’re going to become a parent everything changes. There’s the initial excitement, then the blind panic (maybe that was just us) but the most important decision that will ultimately have to be made is the name.

For the last few years we been watching the construction of a new museum whilst on our way to work, and it finally opened its doors yesterday. They’ve even put up road signs to advertise the new museum to attract as many people as possible.

But what did they decide to call this museum? The Riverside Museum. What sort of museum does the name suggest? A maritime museum perhaps? No, it’s actually the new name for the transport museum!

The Transport Museum has been situated in a few buildings over the years, but regardless of where the exhibits were housed, it was always called the Transport museum.

Call me old fashioned, but what’s wrong with “The Transport Museum” for a name for the new museum? Regardless of the new name it’ll still be the transport museum to most folk.

We had an addition of a new bridge to the city a few years back, and it became quite a feature, and what was the name of this new bridge? They called it  “The Squinty Bridge” and guess what ...  that's right, it’s squint!

Normal Service has been Resumed

Well normal service has been restored – we’ve got chocolate biscuits!!

After reading my blog from last night, my other half thought it was a subtle hint, and he took himself off and bought me some of my favourite chocolate biscuits

Shock of the Day : Out of Chocolate Biscuits!

It’s 9pm and you’ve finished doing the usual chores in the evening – the baby’s asleep, dishes in dishwasher, we’ve been fed, the dog’s been fed and the washing been hung up to dry. You think I’ll relax with my usual fix of a recession latte (mug of hot milk with a smidgen of instant coffee) and the all important chocolate biscuit, well not tonight, as shocker, we’re out of chocolate biscuits !!!!

I’m not quite sure how we’ve managed to let things slip like this, things are obviously getting out of hand.

I’ve had a scout around in the kitchen cupboards and I’ve found some digestives, the non chocolate kind, but I don’t think it’s going to hit the spot though.

We’ve got into, well I have, the bad habit of having something sweet after dinner with our coffee, it’s not much, but like tonight when the cupboard’s bare, you realise how much you really miss those biscuits

Tentative First Steps !!

Proud Parent Alert :
I was watching my son playing this morning when he simply walked unaided from one piece of furniture to the next!!!!

It may not be a big deal to some folks, but to us it’s blooming marvellous, and quite scary! He’s not done it again since, but it shows that he’s moving on to the next stage – proper walking!

God help the dog when he’s up and about on his feet properly!

What has happened to my teeny tiny baby? Not that long ago he was in neonatal and I was frightened to pick him up in case I broke him, and now he’s grown up in to a  toddler!

I know they have to grow up, and I’m loving the stage that he’s at now, in fact I’ve loved all the stages, but I wish I could freeze him at the stage he’s at just now. Not for ever, just for a bit.

Shock of the Week : Poop Skating

Whilst reading one of my favourite blogs, I came across this : “Poop Skating”

Here’s one for the baby album!


Their child unfortunately had a bad bout of diarrhoea, and as you would expect the first thing to hand was a camera!

http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/post/2935973718/click-to-enlarge-poop-skating-please-take-a

Problems with Tooth Brushing ... Try the Ann Summer's Way!

Our son has five and a half teeth, and we've been trying religiously to brush them every morning and night since they first appeared. He used to open his mouth for us no problem, but for the last few months his mouth is firmly shut when he sees the brush, even to the extend that he'll try to laugh with his mouth closed when my other half tickles him. Occasionally he's even used it as a hair brush, complete with toothpaste on it!

We've even tried the tactic of watching the episode from "In the Night Garden" , where the Tombliboos spend most of the time brushing their teeth, over and over again, but to no effect.

He'll open his mouth no problems at all when we we're at the dentist for our 6 monthly check-up, but will he do it at home, will he heck!

Thought I'd try a new tactic, I ordered a chewable toothbrush and it arrived today. It did look rather strange on the website, but once we opened it up, it looks like something that probably wouldn't look out of place on an Ann Summer's shelf!

We thought we'd give it a try before he went to bed tonight, and when presented with the choice of a normal toothbrush or the Ann Summer's one, he chose the normal one. Result!

Shock of The Day - Other Half Learing to Cook!!

I was talking to my other half at the weekend about the difficulties of trying to juggling work and home-life and I mentioned that if he learnt to cook it would be an enormous help, and I was quite shocked when he agreed!

Friends and family that know my husband, know that he's never cooked in his life, even although he had a bachelor pad for many years prior to meeting me.

I found a recipe today which I thought sounded delicious, and looks ideal for my husband to try out his virginal culinary skills : Boil-in-the-bag kedgeree

The recipe is from a fellow blogger   http://crumbsfeedyourfamily.blogspot.com/

It uses boil-in-the-bag rice as well as, yes you got it, boil-in-the-bag fish. I didn't even know boil-in-the bag-fish existed!

There is a flaw with this plan though ... my other half hates fish! But other the other hand, he gets to cook it but doesn't actually have to eat it!

We'll see how this pans out.

Considering a Water Birth? : Koi Assisted Water birth

http://koibirth.blogspot.com/

A friend of mine posted this on facebook and I just had to share it, it's too good to keep to myself.

A couple are planning an assisted water birth for their son, due October 2011. They've set up website to answer the many questions that people have asked them when they've mentioned that their planning on having a Koi assisted water birth.

http://koibirth.blogspot.com/2011/06/frequently-asked-questions.html

Her husband is even going to be on standby just incase they need a net when the time comes!

Question is though ... is that for their son or for the fish??

Sleep … is it Overrated?

When our son was born we were overwhelmed by sleep deprivation, as are all new parents. As time went on things became a little easier and we became used to having less sleep, to the extend that I can now feel “normal” and function properly on very little sleep compared to what I thought I needed pre-children.

The question that springs to my mind is, “do our bodies become “addicted” to a certain amount of sleep, and if we don’t manage to have that same length of “fix” every night are we causing long term damage to our bodies??”

I know my memory has suffered since I gave birth but not sure if that’s down to motherhood in general (baby brain) or old age (elderly primi) or due to lack of sleep?

How much sleep do you think you need every night??

Frugal Parent Alert : Kidstart

hppt://www.kidstart.co.uk

I was introduced to kidstart through a friend and at first I wasn’t too sure what it was all about. It’s a kind of loyalty programme but the difference is that with this one you actually earn money for your children! You can also save for grandchildren, nieces and nephews, friend's children, school or children's charity when shopping at a wide range of retailers, service providers and other similar companies.

When we delved a bit further, it turns out that you can also collect nectar points with purchases from Sainsburys, if you’re part of their loyalty programme.

I think it’s a fantastic idea, where else would you get paid to go shopping?

If you’re like me and hate shopping, you can go shopping on-line, earn money and you don’t even have to leave the house. Result!

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to my other half, dad, father-in-law and all fathers. We were looking forward to visiting both sets of parents today to drop off cards and a small something for the dads but today has instead turned in to a fog of sleep deprivation.

Father’s day last year was another day of very little sleep but as our son was only 2 months old we couldn’t really expect anything else. This time though we have the combination of the start of a cold and the on-going saga of teething.

At least it’s Sunday, the thought of having to go to work today would have finished the two of us off.

So looking forward to going to my bed tonight  ZZzzzz

Frugal Parent Alert : Baby Booty Sale

As we're all very well aware the cost of bring up a child is quickly escalating. With that mind I'd thought I'd let you know about a website that I recently came across

 http://www.babybootysale.co.uk/

The site is run by two mums who organise a table top market for nearly new maternity and children's items. The next event is on next weekend and we're off to see what's on offer.

We've opted to take a table for their July event as our flat is beginning to resemble an Aladdin's cave!

Shock of the Week : Poostache

I came across this when I was reading another blog site and thought I would share it with you, but if you're eating maybe best to wait until you've finished ...

If our son had an accident in the bath and ended up with a "poostache" taking a photo of it and posting up on Facebook is not the first thing that would that I would do, whereas if you ask my other half ...   

http://www.stfuparentsblog.com/tagged/Bathroom%20Behavior

To Leave or Not To Leave ??

I always feel guilty every time I leave my little fella and go off to work, and it's not helped knowing that my work is currently offering a voluntary severance scheme.

They're offering you a years salary, which if you're frugal you could possibly stretch that to last say 15 -18 months. There's always the possibility of looking for some evening work and / or weekend work, that way I would be able to look after our son during that day as well as bringing in some income. We'd get by, we wouldn't be rich by any stretch of the imagination, but you can't put a price on spending time with your children.

It is very tempting, well I think it is, but my other half keeps telling me NO.

I know that in the long run he's right, grrr, but I just feel that I'm going to be missing out on his "firsts" by other people looking after him ... no offence to our parents who carry out a wonderful job of looking after him whilst we're at work, but I would like to see him taking his first steps, not just to hear about it when I get home of an evening.

On the other hand, there are advantages to being back at work, apart from the obvious monetary one :

• you can have an uninterrupted hot cup of tea 
• you get a lunch break and you can even eat your lunch without someone trying to stick their finger up your nostril 
• you can go to the toilet on your own 
• you can eat a chocolate biscuit (or two, or even three) without having to try and disguise them as something healthy!
• your clothes are not covered in sick, food, or anything else that you care to mention!

But I guess my guilt will have to continue, as unfortunately, I'll be heading off to work on Monday morning as usual.

Friday Night!

It's Friday evening and that can only mean one thing - IT'S THE WEEKEND !!!!!

I'm looking forward to a long lie tomorrow, well as long as you can actually get with a one year old!

We tend to potter around at the weekends, do what we have to, but try and not run ourselves ragged, we do enough of that during the week!

Our flat overlooks our local park and if it's dry tomorrow we'll take our greyhound for a walk and stop off at the small pond to feed the ducks. At the moment our son's really not paying that much attention to the ducks, but quite often a little hand will reach out for some of the bread, even although he's just eaten his breakfast. Our boy does love his food!

Frugal Parent Alert : Cheeky Wipes

http://www.cheekywipes.com/  


I thought I would share with you one thing we bought not long after our son was born, and we think they're fantastic. It's such a simple idea.

We haven't bought any disposable wipes for over nine months, and when you add up how much most people spend on wipes over the lifetime of a baby you can make quite a saving! Of course you'll make even more of a saving if you hang on to them and use them with baby number 2!

For those of you wondering, there's no smell from the used wipes when the box is closed, and even my other half thinks they're fab!

Frugal Parent Alert : Cheap Pampers

 Like many parents we're on a tight budget and I recently realised how to buy 164 pampers nappies for an amazing price of £5 !!

Lovefilm.com are offering a £15 Amazon.co.uk voucher if you sign up for a free 30 day trial, and you can use your voucher to purchase the nappies from amazon.

Amazon are also doing a "subscribe and save offer" on nappies, as well as a vast range of other products, where you can save 10% of the cost price. You can arrange to have the nappies sent out when it's convenient for you, and you an very easily change your subscription.

Our little lad's room now has a bumper crop of nappies.

Back at Work!

It's Thursday today , which means back to work for me :(  The upside of Thursday is that the next day's Friday, and that means IT'S THE WEEKEND !!!!!!!!!!

My other half came up with the idea at the weekend of making sandwiches to take to work instead of forking out everyday for over priced, often tasteless, sandwiches for lunch.

Sounds good in theory but in practice it's just one more task that has to be done before we run out of the door in the morning. By the time we leave for work we're almost exhausted, and that's before you start your day job!

There are some days when you really just want to crawl back under the duvet instead of going to work, especially if you've been up for a few hours during the night with a teething baby, or is that just me??

I think I need another cup of caffeine!!

Long Sleep

Well the "long sleep" thankfully turned out to be too much fun with Gran yesterday!

It's Wednesday!!

Well it's Wed today, which is my day off :) It's great having a day off mid week, I only ever have to work two days in a row before I get a day off. Not so great though when it comes to pay day ...

Normally on a Wed we go to our local playgroup but this morning the wee fella is back in his bed, and it's only 9.45am! Not sure if he's coming down with something or just over tired from yesterday's fun day with gran. Time will tell.

Whilst he's asleep I'd better try and tackle the mess of the flat. It's not easy trying to keep on top of the household chores and also working nearly full time. Something has to give, usually it's my sanity, but as often as not it's the housework.

Anyway better go and get something done before he wakes up.

Introductions

Hello! I'm a working mum who has recently, and reluctantly, gone back to work four days a week after my maternity leave has come to an end.

I would love to be a "stay at home mum" but like so many mothers I've had to go back to work for financial reasons.

This blog/diary is somewhere for me to pen my ramblings whilst I try to juggle the many roles that I have to fill - wife, mother and working employee.

If anyone enjoys reading my ramblings please feel free to comment.