Blog of the Week – Tea and Toast

Posted on June 19, 2013 by

Blog_of_the_week_badgeOur Blog of the Week this week comes from Wholesome Ireland who blogs about feeding a family wholesome meals whilst on a strict budget.

Of course she’s not suggesting you feed them tea and toast for every meal – but there is a lot to be said for it…!

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It seems like such a simple meal, tea and toast, it’s meagre almost. So why on earth would I even consider it a meal? Recently I was asked if I could eat in any restaurant, anywhere in the world, what would I have?

I paused for a minute to gather myself. Wracked my brains to think of a restaurant that I’d eaten in over the past few years; was there an outstanding meal?

Outstanding? I’ve eaten some beautiful food, don’t get me wrong but something that sticks in my memory?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath then stepped into my “mind palace“. I visualised myself sitting at a table, looked down at the plate and saw……

Tea and toast.

I’m a huge fan of tea and I’m very specific about how I like it too but on this occasion the tea was fairly mediocre. The toast was cold and dry and there was none of that sugary caramelisation that you get from bringing a slice of toast just to point of mild incineration. The butter was rock hard, so I put the foil-wrapped pat under my teacup to melt it a little and make it more spreadable.

The entire meal though was like beautiful nectar.

I ate every single morsel with one shaky hand.

In the crook of my other arm lay a brand new pink baby.

Thank you to Sinéad from Bumbles of Rice blog who just sent me her recent picture of the real tea & toast (below). Congratulations to her on her arrival of her bumble of pink!

Hospital Tea & Toast

The best meal I’ve ever eaten was tea and toast. What was yours?

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What makes a Wonder Woman?

Posted on June 17, 2013 by

Wonder WomenToday’s guest blog is from author Rosie Fiore, who has a new book out just now called ‘Wonder Women’. Rosie writes about what makes a wonder woman and shares with us some of the amazing women in her life. We have ten copies of ‘Wonder Women’ by Rosie Fiore to giveaway. To enter leave a comment telling us who the ‘Wonder Women’ in your own life are and why.

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What makes a Wonder Woman? – Rosie Fiore

“There’s no one who can put themselves down like us. If an Italian woman serves you a Rosie Fioremeal, she says ‘Buon appetito!’ If a French woman does, she says ‘Bon appetit!’ If an Englishwoman serves you a meal, she says ‘Oh god, I’m sorry about the potatoes.’” – Jane Garvey of Woman’s Hour, speaking at an event at the Houses of Parliament this week, held to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the death of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.

We all laughed, but there’s such a ring of truth, it’s almost not funny. We love to put ourselves down and so often the media we consume does it for us. We see magazines where celebrities are berated for being too fat, too thin, for being out with their kids, for being out without their kids, for being slutty, for pretty much everything. In the movies, both those aimed at us and our kids, there always seems to be a woman who needs rescuing, or who is ditzy and falls over. And so too, in some of the commercial fiction out there. It can be hard to find heroines that aren’t a little bit fluffy or silly, or incompetent. I know as a reader it drives me crazy, because you see, I’ve never met one of those dizzy birds. The women I know aren’t like that.

I don’t think I’m alone in this – when I look around me, I see hundreds upon hundreds of women doing a bloody awesome job, thank you very much. Women juggling careers and family. Women fighting to claim their places in male dominated professions, women starting businesses, caring for ill or elderly relatives, campaigning for justice, creating great art, and doing it all with humour, strength and courage. In small ways and big, it seems to me that all the women I know are warriors, wonder women and stars.

Just glancing down my Facebook friends list, here are just ten examples.

  1. A friend who is a single mum and has run her own exceptionally successful PR business for 17 years
  2. A friend who is mother to twins, and has just finished writing her first book
  3. A sister who is a leading researcher in HIV and TB, and mother to three kids at university
  4. A friend who is fighting breast cancer, and leads in developing community involvement programmes in her area
  5. A niece who balances a career as a psychologist with caring for two small children
  6. A young woman of twenty launching a career as a baker, and working as a trainee in some of the most prestigious kitchens in London
  7. A friend who had launched her own knitting business from home, and now has a formidable social media presence and a bulging order book
  8. The teenage mum of a severely disabled child who is raising her daughter with strength and wisdom way beyond her years
  9. A friend who donated a kidney to one of her three children (who is now well and healthy), and who maintains a career as a performer when she isn’t running ultra-marathons (really).
  10. A friend who spends her days working as child-minder, and her nights caring for her elderly learning disabled aunt

These are all genuine examples of women I know and love, and I could easily write a list Wonder Womenten times as long. You know women like this too. You quite possibly are one. So it seems to me that these were the women I wanted to feature in my novel – the women we all know. The women we are. When Jo Dickinson, editor at Quercus, suggested Wonder Women as a title for the book, I was just thrilled, because it summed up the characters I’d created, ordinary women who do extraordinary things every day, without fuss. Yes Jo, Holly and Mel have problems. We all do. But they tackle them head on and get on with life, and they do it wearing fabulous shoes.  I hope you see something of yourself in one of the characters, and I hope it gives you a moment to be proud of yourself and all that you do.

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Wonder WomenTell us about the Wonder Women in your life and from all comments left by midnight on 30th June we will pick out ten who will all win a copy of ‘Wonder Women’ by Rosie Fiore. usual Netmums terms and conditions apply. Team Netmums have read the book and devoured is in one sitting- we’re sure you will love it just as much as we did.

Posted in Authors, Books and reading, Competition, Friends, Mums, Woman - the woman behind the mum | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Do TV dads give fathers a bad name? A dad shares his view…

Posted on June 13, 2013 by

Author and father of five, Angus Kennedy shares with us his views on the lastest Netmums research showing that 93% of parents feel that children’s shows don’t represent real-life dads this Father’s day.

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Actually I can mix up a wicked formula bottle and I really did give my wife a weekend

Angus and his family

Angus and his family

retreat as a valentines present so she could have a break from our five young kids and as I write, I have a pot of mash heating up nicely which I will tend to shortly when I get to the end of the paragraph. It’s truly amazing that I manage to write anything at all and when I see Mr. Daddy Pig of Peppa Pig sitting with his paper and deck chair saying ‘that’s what daddy does, sits around and reads the paper’, it confirms that the producers of these shows and many others that portray dads like blissful twits, either have never had children, are living in the dark ages or, perhaps they really do have no idea of what it’s like to bring up children. In which case we must forgive them for their ignorance.

So why make programmes for my children showing that most dads, are consistently useless? It doesn’t matter at all if our kids splash in puddles and make a complete mess of our carpet and we might not subsequently get a deposit back from the landlord when the tenancy is up. All our hard work in parenting and here’s a programme that ruins it all. Being a dad is a wonderful and fully involved experience. I always said that I don’t know that I have actually made love until I see the baby.

Netmums nailed it, 93% of parents think that the portrayal of dads does not represent what we do in life. But then, look at many of the other media houses and producers and how thin the women are when they have had three kids and the smiling faces on nappy packets. I don’t know about you, but when I change a ‘number two’ neither baby nor me is smiling much laughing at all.

Dads are not on the radar I am afraid, and mainly we are made out to be blubbering idiotsThe Kitchen Baby in books, TV shows, adverts and magazines as Netmums members demonstrated. Well I can tell you that we dads can be handy. I delivered my own son at home and saved not his life, but my wife’s too, with no medical assistance. So I wrote a book about it – The Kitchen Baby. Dads can write about emotions too!

But it is a concern, we pop our little ones in front of the telly to get a little bit of peace (yes, yes, ok I know that’s not possible). But we do try and we think it’s OK because those nice producers that make programmes for our kids like Peppa Pig, are responsible people. But actually Daddy Pig is an unshaven, particularly lazy, and brilliantly disconnected kind of pig that seems to laugh at anything because everything is funny. Even when his prize vegetables are trampled on by his kids; yes that’s really funny, oink, oink!

But what is most interesting this time (and the first time I have seen this) is that it has been mums at Netmums that came to dad’s defence. Ahaa, this time, we had no person running up Big Ben with underpants on top of his trousers to defend us.

But this is why, this time it worked. People do listen to women! A man is not at one, in my opionion until at harmony with a woman. Well a happy dad is a man with a happy partner right? I have five kids and that’s my biggest mission, to take the pressure off where I can for mum, and she does, where she can, for me. Media’s values like those of Daddy Pig are precisely the opposite of what most of us hard working parents are trying to achieve.

For the chop?
It’s about time the media that set programmes for our children should be more responsible and woke up to the modern responsible dad that yes does have emotions too; a dad that above all would lay down his life at any minute for the continued unconditional love of his family. I think Daddy Pig and many other farcicle characters that portray dads like this might just be in for the chop!

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What do you think about the way dads are portrayed in the media? Do you agree with Angus that the media should be more responsible? Leave us a comment and let us know. 

The Kitchen Baby is father of five, Angus Kennedy’s dramatic account of how he had to deliver his fifth baby with a unique father’s view from pregnancy, birth and beyond.

Posted in Authors, Babies, Books and reading, dads, Netmums, News and current affairs | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Blog of the Week – The lesser spotted teenager

Posted on June 12, 2013 by

Blog_of_the_week_badge

This week’s blog of the week sees The 40 year old Domestic Goddess sharing her insights into the lesser spotted teenager.

And you thought having toddlers was hard…..

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I’m not going to lie to you all but last week was a bit emotional for me as a mum. I was struggling with something that I had no power over, something so natural yet so frightening….I am talking about ………Time. And in particular time slipping away to fast for me to catch up with it. My kids are no longer babies, toddlers, pre-school age, primary school age and one of them is now no longer Secondary school age.

It all began on Wednesday morning when The Whirlwind burst into our bedroom to

Image: Netmums

Image: Netmums

announce in a rather loud voice that he had “A” hair under his armpit. Just the one, but it was definitely there for all to see. He towel dried himself very carefully in fear of it falling out and then used ”Dads” stronger deodorant just in case. Then he noticed more hair on his legs….Well, that was it…”Yippee” he yelled “I’m a man”.

Everyone else found it thoroughly amusing. But I did not. For me this was the beginning of the end of childhood and the end of reason, humour and cuddles for Mummy. I’ve seen all the programmes, read all the books and dreaded this moment for months. I’ve even had to do a quick course in a new language called “Grunting”. This language resembles a Chewbacca (hairy thing from star wars) noise when asked to do anything remotely concerning leaving the vicinity of the Xbox, it then gets louder the more they protest and results in the very impressive “Door Slam”manoeuvre.

I have also noticed since the arrival of “The Lone Hair” a change in the smell of his room. A bit like a cross between a football changing room (after the match) and, well, (how can I put this politely?)a public lavatory. I have started waiting until he is up and downstairs before flinging the window open to relive the air pressure and then spraying 4 gallons of air freshener until I choke or suffer an asthma attack. The strange thing is that he doesn’t even seem to notice the pungent smell and carries on regardless of the Febrezey type fog all around him.

Image: netmums

Image: netmums

The hair style is another story and now resembles that age old fashionable hair cut know only to Teenagers as “The Bieber”. He kind of dips his head then flicks it all sideways looking like he has a nervous twitch ever 2 seconds. And if you touch it……Well…..Light The Touch paper and stand back…”MUUUMMMMMMM DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR….IVE JUST GOT IT RIGHT” the strange flicky, Bieber like creature yells at me.

Where has my little boy gone?…What have you done with him Mother Nature and when will I get him back please? The answer to this unfortunately is “Not for a long time Dear girl”.

I have come to the conclusion that “If your child smells, grunts, shouts, is prone to mood swings and generally has become unrecognisable then you have a perfectly normal Teenager. Do not fear this and embrace it as the next chapter”. I have printed this statement off and am regularly reading it each time I forget that its normal to have this new species living with us.

Its the following Tuesday now and I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that my little compliable, easily bribed children are now that rare breed of human known as………The Lesser Spotted Teenager.

Up until 2 hours ago I had accepted this and felt strong enough to cope with anything The

Image: Netmums

Image: Netmums

Teenagers may throw at me (not literally of course) and was feeling quite positive about the challenges ahead. That was until the letter box clanged and a “Plop” was heard followed by a squeal of delight from The Female Teenager. “OMG..OMG…………..IVE ONLY GOT MY NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBER MUM” she screamed. “ITS MY NATIONAL INSURANCE NUMBER MUM, CAN I DRIVE NOW?” she continued as I held the piece of paper in my hand “WHAT DOES IT MEAN?” she asked. “It means, you have to pay some of your wages to the Government now when you have a job and start earning money” I replied. With that she burst into fits of laughter “Yeahhhh, right…What’s it really for?” she asked. Bless her. She actually thinks I’m joking. Once I had explained it all to her she stared at me with horror and confusion. “God……….I wish I was little again” was the reply as she swept out of the room in disgust.

You and me both sweetheart…You and me both.

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Have you encountered any lesser spotted teenagers in your home yet? Do you get emotional when you think of how quickly your children grow up?

Posted in Blog of the Week, Teenagers | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Father’s Day – the dads are blogging

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

Father’s Day is on the horizon and all this week DAD.info’s bloggers will be talking about Father's DayFather’s Day. Here is a special preview of next week’s dad blogs.

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Marc – dad of Ben & Alec  Monday 10th June

“As a father, my ideal Father’s day would be where my boys laughed, smiled and enjoyed themselves with an abundance of good father/son time. It would be a day where I didn’t have to worry about money, the cost of lunch or getting the boys back to my ex wife on time. So swimming in a lake, camping, climbing trees … or a day at a theme park, it doesn’t matter…Being relaxed and worry free with my boys is all that should matter.”

Mrunal – dad of Arun, Meri & Rohan Tuesday 11th June

“Shortly before Father’s day five years ago, Clare bought me a wonderful present. As we walked to Great Ormond Street Hospital to visit Rohan, who was in intensive care there, she presented me with a small, turquoise package. I recognised it as a jewellery box from Tiffany’s. Inside was a pair of beautifully simple silver cufflinks. One had “Arun” engraved on it; the other “Rohan”.

To this day I treasure these cufflinks and wear them only on the most precious occasions. They remind me of my boys and the hope and fear that came to characterise their first difficult months on this earth.”

Simon – dad of Adlai & Koa    Wednesday 12th June

“I have a problem with Peppa Pig. More specifically, I have a problem with Daddy Pig. …Daddy Pig is hopeless, fat and most of his efforts to do anything end in a humorous failure.

Daddy Pig isn’t the only strange father figure portrayed unflatteringly by the media. Almost every advert presents fathers as well-meaning comedic failures. And with Father’s Day coming up, a glance at the cards on the shelves shows that dads are drunk, sport-obsessed, sex addicts.

The role of the father is under attack. The world seems to tell us we are expendable, optional extras of family life. My Dad though, was more than a punch line. His fathering has influenced every area of my character and taught me what it is to be a man. That is something worth celebrating.”

Scott – dad of Zak & Oscar  Friday 14th Junefather and son

“Every day my dad chooses to consider his children in every decision he makes. He considers the impact of his actions on us, long before he thinks of the consequences on his own life. And that’s a big thing. For me though, an even bigger deal was the realisation that my dad did something even more amazing… He actually chose to do that just for me and he stuck at it through a lot of thick and thin. I don’t mean he chose to have kids and all that comes with it (he definitely did that for my sisters) but he chose to be a dad to a little boy who didn’t have a dad to look up to.”

Luther – dad of Tom Guest Blog, Friday 14th June.

“Father’s Day, found Janet in labour in Caerphilly Miner’s hospital – guess where I was? Yes, on the golf course “working”! When I arrived in the delivery room, it was obvious things were not going to plan. After a failed forceps delivery, Thomas was born via Caesarean section. After a few weeks, we came to the realisation that Thomas was not responding normally. It transpired that Tom was severely brain damaged and profoundly handicapped.”

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With huge thanks to DADInfo for sharing these blogs with us. Do go over and read the blogs in full over on their website.

DadInfo

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A weekend of fun with The Weekend Box

Posted on June 10, 2013 by

Last week we were lucky enough to be sent a Weekend Box to review – a new scheme where parents can sign up for one off deliveries or monthly subscriptions to receive a Weekend Box crammed full of a variety of different activities for children.

Weekend Box logo

The Weekend Box is a new scheme, devised by Andy. The idea began after looking for gift ideas for his four nieces and nephews: nothing (he felt) seemed to embody the mix of healthy living, green and creative content that he feels is so important to child development so he decided to quit his job and launch Weekend Box.

Each Weekend Box has four activities to complete with your little ones:

Something healthy to cook (with a special ingredient)
Something green (something to plant or make from recycled items)
Something to make (a craft kit of some description)
Something to read/write/draw (a story to read, write and draw before passing on)

Weekend Box

It was with great excitement that we scooped up our Weekend Box from the doormat, opened it and peeked inside to see what tasks we had been set.

With the help of an eager mini Team Netmums helper (Feena, aged 9) we set to our tasks.

First off we made a colourful Bertie Bird window hanger. Feena was fascinated by mixing up blue powder paint and loved all the glue-ing to create her window hanging.

weekend box Bertie Bird

Next we sowed our lettuce seeds. Again there was magic to be found in watching the compost tablets swell and expand in water. The instruction card told us to talk to our seeds to help them grow and Feena took this very seriously.

weekend box talking to our seeds

It paid off as our seedlings are flourishing and we can’t wait to harvest and eat them.

weekend box super saladNext we wrote a story about Sammy the Shy Squirrel. The story prompts really fired Feena’s imagination and she spent a happy hour penning her tale:

weekend box story writingAnd then in the sunshine we made some fabric letters (which we are going to frame and hang on Feena’s bedroom wall).

weekend box lettersDue to an exceptionally sunny weekend filled with barbecues, parties and paddling pool fun we didn’t get round to our final activity of making gingerbread cookies – but we certainly will in the next few days.

The box came complete with stickers to mark off each task as it was completed – something little ones will love.

We had more than a weekend full of fun and love the Weekend Box scheme. It inspired creativity, exploration and fired imagination. We loved how the box contained all the bits and pieces you need to complete the activities as well as a magical mix of things to do that kids will love.

We have some special promo codes just for you. so you can try out the fantastic Weekend Boxes too. Simply head to the website and use one of the following codes:

WBNM100 – Free box for first 100 subscribers of a monthly or quarterly plan. After free box, monthly plan is £15 p/month and quarterly is £42 p/quarter

WBNM5 – One-off Weekend Box for £5 including delivery

Both codes include free delivery to the UK.

You can also find the Weekend Box on Facebook and on Twitter

Posted in Competition, Crafts, Home, Summer | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Father’s Day – easy gifts to make

Posted on June 7, 2013 by

Father’s Day is on the horizon (Sunday 16th) and we have put together some quick and easy but utterly lovely gifts for your children to make for their dads.

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Say it with Scrabble Letters

Father's day gift ideas

Such a simple but lovely idea. To make this gorgeous framed picture simply glue Scrabble letters (to spell out a phrase of your choice) to a nice background and then add to a frame. You can either raid the Scrabble box, pick up an old Scrabble game at a charity shop or you can buy Scrabble letters quite cheaply online (we found ours on EBay). You could cut out letters from a magazine instead.

Dad Rocks!

Gather flat stones on a walk. Cut out letters to spell ‘Dad’ or ‘Daddy’ and glue them onto the rocks using PVA. Paint a layer of varnish over your rocks to finish. You could paint on letters instead if you prefer or model them from Fimo.

Father's Day gift ideas

I Love you thiiiiiiiis much!

We love this idea for a home made card. Draw round your children’s hands on cardboard and cut out two hand shapes. Then cut a thin strip of paper, fold in a concertina and tape to the hands. On the top hand write ‘I Love you’ and on the other write ‘this much’. So simple – so fab!

Fathers day gift ideas

Cheers!

Decorate some coasters for dad. You can buy cork coasters really cheaply (again we got ours from EBay) or scour charity chops for coasters you can easily cover. We used washi tape for the striped coaster, pretty papers covered in varnish for the designed coasters and for the other one we criss crossed masking tape across the coaster, painted it then peeled off the tape to reveal a pretty pattern. Of course – you can be as creative as you like in your own designs.

Fathers day gift ideas

Goodie bags

Make a goodie bag stuffed with treats  – such as dad’s favourite sweets or chocolates. Take a plain white bag and cut out the shape of a tie from patterned paper. Then simply stick it to the bag to make it look like a shirt and tie.

fathers day gift bags

Top tip – you can pick up pretty papers for crafting inside many of the craft magazines or look out for fab wrapping papers instead.

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Find out more ideas on how to celebrate Father’s Day in style over on Netmums. We’ve got Father’s Day cards and pictures to print out too. There are also some fabulous ideas from our lovely bloggers on the Parent Bloggers Network.

Posted in Crafts, dads, Father's Day, Team Netmums | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment