November 2011

Archive | November, 2011

The Cost of Caring for your Breasts During and After Pregnancy

By Mum's the Word on November 30, 2011 in Guest Blogger

GUEST POST

Every woman’s pregnancy is a unique experience. But, I would contend that there are two irrefutable universal facts about pregnancy.

The first is that they are costly affairs. Especially in the case of your first baby, the shopping list is daunting. Pram, pushchair, baby clothes, bibs, bottles, a steriliser, food processor, nappies, the list goes on.

The second is that as a well as being one of life’s exceptionally beautiful moments, pregnancies can be a little on the fraught side, with many things to prepare, plan and organise. Naturally, all parents can be a little nervous at this time, with the mother and babies health a constant preoccupation.

Given this, many women forget to think about one very important aspect of their health, that of looking after their breasts. When summing up the costs of a new baby-to-be, maternity and nursing bra can seem a relative luxury, and many women tell themselves they can get by with what they already have, or buy a cheap new bra in a larger size.

This is a mistake. If you look after your breasts correctly while pregnant, you really reap the benefits later.

Your breasts usually start to grow between twelve and sixteen weeks into your pregnancy. This is the time to pack away your underwired bras. From now on until you stop nursing, you should only wear soft cup bras.

It is usual for a bra size o to increase 2 to 4 sizes during pregnancy. This increase in size and weight will of course cause your skin to stretch and the breast to drop, which is why it is so important for women to wear proper maternity bras.

When selecting a maternity bra, make sure that you give yourself room to grow. Wear it on the tightest hooks, and gradually loosen it outwards as your breasts and ribcage expand.

Taking these measures will help to maintain the shape and support of your breasts after pregnancy.

Along the same lines, once your baby is born, you may be in a position where you are able to breast feed. If you choose to do so, again, do not underestimate the importance of a good nursing bra.

A quality nursing bra is made from soft fabrics that are kind on your skin. Breasts and nipples can be extra-sensitive at this time. For the same reason, good nursing bras do not have seams. It is important that nursing bras should provide easy and comfortable access to the breast for both mother and baby. Bra straps should be adjustable with fasteners, but firmly connected. This gives your breasts support and prevents the straps from slipping backwards when opened.

When buying a nursing bra, check you can fit your hand inside the cup so that you will have enough space for breast pads.

It is recommendable to buy your nursing bras at the beginning of the eighth month of your pregnancy, as your weight won’t change much after this and your breasts have usually stopped growing by then. Measure yourself at eight months and buy that back size, but buy one cup size larger as your breasts size will increase when lactation begins after birth.

Investing in a maternity or a nursing bra is an important way of looking after your breasts, at a time when it is all too easy to forget about looking after yourself. The Dublin Lingerie Company was created with the belief that pretty and sensual lingerie should be available to all women, and offers a wide selection of carefully chosen maternity and nursing bras online, as well as plus size lingerie, sports lingerie, teenage girls lingerie, and post operative and mastectomy lingerie. You can watch a helpful video guide to measuring your breasts on their website to help you choose bras in the right size, over 70% of women are wearing bras which are the wrong size. Buying your bras online is a great way to save time, letting you enjoy and concentrate on your pregnancy.

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Mum’s the Word Gives Their Verdict on Moxie Girlz

By Mum's the Word on November 29, 2011 in Review

Anyone who read this post, which I wrote very early on in the life of my blog, will know that I’m not a fan of Barbie. I think the shape of the dolly gives girls an unrealistic idea of perfection and I think that on the whole, Barbie is represented as vapid, unintelligent and overtly feminine. I know there are plenty of girlie girls out there, but what about the tomboys amongst us?

Sausage is on a Barbie-ban, we don’t allow any of the insipid pink crap in our house, but there comes a time in every little girls’ life when all she wants is a doll that she can dress up. Just recently, we were asked to review Moxie Girlz, a new dolly on the block which represents a whole new ethos for little girls. The Moxie Girlz message is:

“Every girl has the strength to do something amazing.
Anything is possible as long as you stay true to yourself
& never give up your dreams!”

Okay, so far so good, an improvement on “oooh, let’s go shopping and have a sleepover!” (Because that’s obviously all females want to do…).

The doll we were sent was Sophina (Amazon – £13.99), who’s part of the Moxie Girlz Horse Riding Club. She’s a pretty doll with nice hair and a huge head! One thing I was a little unsure about was the fact that she’s wearing a very short skirt, but she is wearing leggings underneath and riding boots.

The Moxie Girlz dolls seem well made and the clothes seem to be of a good quality. I was quite happy to see that Sophina wasn’t endowed (or burdened) with an enormous bosom or legs of an unrealistically long proportion. All in all, the Moxie Girlz seem to be geared towards a much more positive message regarding self-image, which is a great thing in this day and age.

Sophina is part of the Moxie Girls Horse Riding Club, which means that there are various complementary items which can be bought to go with her such as, obviously, a horse. Of course, I’d love to see ‘Rocket Scientist Avery’ or ‘Brain Surgeon Lexa’, but I also concede that little girls do like to just be little girls now and again and just indulge themselves with a little bit of hair doing or pretending to be a princess and for those occasions, Moxie Girlz really do seem to be the best way to go.

Sausage, as expected, is utterly mental about her Moxie Girl and is *hoping* that Santa will bring her Sophina’s horse, Cricket. We’ll just have to see about that one, won’t we!

Sophina, in a different outfit. Pretty wholesome, wouldn't you say?

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The Best Card Ever…

By Mum's the Word on November 25, 2011 in Humour

Husband and Sausage love to draw together and I’m often presented with a card that she’s commissioned her Daddy to draw for me. I just got handed one and I think it’s my favourite yet:

Good to know, right? Just to add to the overall effect and presumably just in case I didn’t know what a stinky bum was, here’s the inside:

I wonder if Hallmark are looking for any new designs? ‘Cause this one is genius!

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Enough is enough.

By Mum's the Word on November 23, 2011 in Anger, Rant

: Excuse the dry skin, it’s still healing

Let me start this blog post by saying that I consider myself to be a charitable person. When I was a kid, I went door-to-door selling raffle tickets for Meningitis Trust, as an adult I’ve organised events for Lupus UK, I spent a whole year giving up my Saturdays to work in a Child Contact Centre and back in May I ran Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research. A few weeks ago, I even went and had a black ribbon tattooed on my leg for melanoma at an event organised by one of Husband’s good friends where the proceeds of every tattoo was donated to cancer charities.

But today, I can unequivocally say that I’ve had a gut-full of charity. Whilst walking up the high street to do the banking for my boss, one of those obnoxious charity collectors (who get PAID to fund raise…can you explain the logic of that to me?) stepped towards me and starting shouting her script at me, telling me that it was my responsibility to end poverty in Africa. On account of the fact that a) I didn’t have time to stop and b) I have a moral objection to that type of fundraising, I politely told her that I didn’t have time to stop and carried on walking while she stood behind me muttering.

On the way back down the high street after I had run my errands and much to my complete and utter incredulity, the very same chugger (as I’m reliably informed they’re called) tried to stop me again, this time by physically blocking my path. I told her that she’d already tried to stop me and that I STILL didn’t have the time to stop, only for her to make facetious comments about me as I walked away. Now, is it just me, or does that seem a little bit out of line?

This evening, we had Husband’s father and his wife over for dinner as she’s American and we wanted to give her a nice Thanksgiving dinner and just as they were leaving the telephone rang. I answered and a man introduced himself as a caller from Cancer Research. He thanked me for my money-raising efforts for Race for Life and asked me if I’d had a nice day. Next, he asked why I’d chosen to do it and I explained about Lorraine and how she’d recently lost her fight. He expressed sympathy and proceeded with his spiel, offering me the chance to give £8 a month directly from my bank account. I explained that I couldn’t afford to add to my monthly outgoings this close to Christmas, but said that if he was able to phone back in January that I may be able to contribute. He barreled on (I must add, totally ignoring the fact that I was crying on the other end of the phone, after he decided to tell me about the wonderful new treatments for extending the lives of cancer patients) pushing me to sign up. At this point, Husband had had enough of seeing me upset and told me to put the phone down, so I interrupted the bloke for the third time and told him that I needed to hang up.

As I’ve gone to great lengths to stress, I consider myself to be a charitable soul, giving not just money but also as much time and effort as I can spare too and yet I got off of the telephone this evening feeling as though I’d been completely wrung out by this charity worker. I don’t know if it’s the policy of Cancer Research to treat people this way, and I’d never speak ill of a charity which has done so much, but I really feel that these aggressive methods of fundraising are a step too far. I feel as though I’ve been harangued in my own home, chased up and down the high street and generally treated like shit.

I won’t say that this has put me off of donating to charity, I’ll always give where I can. But I hope someone, somewhere, will read this post and maybe think about the way that they approach people. I don’t deserve to be made to feel guilty and reminded of personal grief. I’m a good person and this isn’t the way to make me part with my cash.

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Tarberts Meats Review – Mr. Mum’s the Word SPEAKS!

By Mum's the Word on November 22, 2011 in Review

I’m so very excited to have for you a review, done by my gorgeous Husband, of some meat that we were sent by Tarberts Fine Foods, so without further ado here’s what he thought:

I’m a carnivore. There, I said it. I’m one of the people that militant vegetarians dislike. I love meat.

I love vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and all that other stuff that’s good for me too, but deep, deep down I like nothing more than tucking into a thick sandwich, full of roast beef and horseradish sauce and washing it down with a glass of beer (or the odd splash of wine if I’m feeling cosmopolitan).

With that in mind, you can imagine my response when my wife approached me and asked me to trough my way through a hamper of quality cold-cuts, take notes, and wax lyrical about the process!

The cold-cuts in question were provided by Tarbert Fine Foods, and we were very pleased to receive a nice selection, including topside of beef, butter basted chicken, heather honey ham and (the wee one’s favourite) ham with Arran mustard, with a mind to offering an informed opinion in the run-up to Christmas.

The first part was easy. The eating.

I happily sat, and with the help of my beautiful assistant (my daughter) munched my way through sandwiches, rolls, baps, bagels, salads and even a nice omelette. The quality of the produce was universally excellent. All the meat that Tarbert’s sell comes from specially selected Scottish sources and, well, it shows.

But once we had completed the fun part I began to agonise – how do you review meat?

I didn’t want to chuck a lot of garbled clichés onto my lovely wife’s blog, and hope that it passed for writing. So I decided that the only way to give you a fair, accurate representation of the produce would be for me to ask my lovely, precocious and delightfully blunt daughter to give me her opinions, and here they are!

Daughter – “It was yummy! Can I have some more, please?!”

Me – “All of it? Was it all yummy? Come on, be scientific!”

Daughter – “Can I have some more please, Daddy?”

Me – “No. You’ll go pop!”

Daughter – “But Ponyo eats lots of ham and she’s magic!”

Me – “Yes, but..erm…it’s, she’s..”

And at that point I gave up, slapped myself on the forehead and shelved the idea in favour of being honest and less lazy.

The meat tasted like it was freshly carved, and when you’re used to grabbing a Dairy Lea Dunker and a soggy sandwich full of ‘wafer thin ham’ on your down time you notice things like that.

The heather honey ham made a fantastic meal, served with nothing more than a couple of fried eggs and a plain green salad, and it was something that even I, the worst chef in the world, could knock together in a trice.

The cuts of beef were superb too. They weren’t dry, but moist and succulent and went down a treat with some English mustard (or a dollop of ketchup in the wee one’s case).

But then, all of it was fantastic. It’s high quality, fresh tasting food that is directly comparable to something you’d buy from your local quality butcher or deli counter, and the fact that it’s pre-packed means you can rely on it lasting a while.

In all honesty my ‘review’ could have been one sentence:

“It’s good, old fashioned, nice tasting meat and I recommend you go out, buy some and eat it at once.”

Wouldn’t that have been better?

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The Mummy Quiz

By Mum's the Word on November 21, 2011 in Parenting, Personal

The other day, a blog post by Karin over at Cafe Bebe popped into my inbox where she had completed ‘The Mummy Quiz’ and inviting the rest of us to get involved, so I thought I’d give my answers too. Here it is:

Before my child can fall asleep I have to…

Give her snuggles! Even at almost three and a half, Sausage still goes to sleep on the sofa with Husband and I and she tends to alternate between the two of our laps. It’s one of our favourite times of day as a family and I hope it continues until she’s far too big to be falling asleep on our laps!

One thing I do that makes my child laugh is…

Nerps. Yes, you read that right, I said nerps. How do I explain this one? Well, basically it’s tickling but every time I tickle her I say ‘nerp’ in a funny voice. It’s evolved too as now I sometimes tickle her in time with a song or jingle, for example; have you seen the Moxie Girlz advert? We use that one “Nerp nerp neeerrp, nerpy nerp nerp nerp nerp”. Oh and recently she watched Madagascar, so now we do “I like to nerp it, nerp it. I like to nerp it, nerp it.” I know, it sounds mental, but it has Sausage in hysterics!

One thing my child does that makes me laugh is…

Oh gosh, EVERYTHING! My child has some serious comedy chops, she seems to know when she’s being hilarious. She comes out with some priceless little sayings, not all of them entirely appropriate, like the other day when she walked into Husband’s Aunties’ house, stood in the middle of the lounge and shouted “BITE MY SHINY METAL ASS!”. (Thanks for that one, Futurama.)

I’m more lenient than I thought I would be about…

Erm, I don’t know if I am more lenient than I thought I would be about things, in fact I think I’m surprised every time I managed to stick to my guns and be strict with her. I come from a long line of softies (Yes, Mum and Nan, that means you) and Husband and I are pretty chilled out with Sausage because she’s usually so well-behaved that we don’t ever need to be tough with her, but I can be when I need to be. There have been times when she’s ignored warnings and been put to bed for being naughty and even though she’s sitting in her room crying and I feel like my heart is ripping in two, I manage to see it through.

One of the most ridiculous things I’ve said as a parent is…

I don’t know if I’ve said ridiculous things as a parent, I think the majority of the ridiculous things that I said were during my pregnancy. I think most new parents have this long list of ideals that they thing they’re going to stick to stringently and then as soon as the baby comes along, they realise that babies don’t stick to plans or schedules and they start to become more flexible. In fact, I have to say, I think the new parents who really have a hard time and have the darkest bags under their eyes are the ones who don’t catch onto this and adapt accordingly.

The best rule in our house is…

Love. We’re a very close and loving little family and we ALWAYS tell each other we love one another. Snuggles take priority over everything and we always take the time to be affectionate and kind. I tell Husband and Sausage I love them about a hundred times a day and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Sometimes I wish I could snap my fingers and make my child…

That’s a very difficult one as I think she’s perfect! She has her stubborn streak, but hey, so do I and I think being strong-willed shows great character. I know it’s a cliché to say that I think she’s perfect but honestly, she sleeps well, eats well, is just as happy to occupy herself as she is to play with others, all in all she’s a really content and well-behaved child…who’d risk changing that?!

So, that’s The Mummy Quiz’! Why not have a go yourself or head over to Cafe Bebe to read where it all began!

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A Step Towards ‘The System’ – An Update

By Mum's the Word on November 19, 2011 in iVillage Posts, Parenting, Personal

Anyone who read this post that I wrote for iVillage will know that I had more than a few reservations about sending Sausage to nursery. She turned three back in August and Husband and I (but mostly I, to be fair) made the decision to send Sausage to our local children’s centre, three mornings a week. She’s only there for nine hours a week and I work fifteen hours which fit around her sessions.

We’d been very lucky up until that point, Husband making enough money and me chipping in with the odd bit of freelance work for me to stay at home with Sausage, but once she started going to nursery it seemed pointless for me to sit at home twiddling my thumbs while she was out of the house. Fortunately for me, my old boss was looking to take someone on to do the job that I had done before I’d had Sausage. Kismet, some might say?

Anyway, the point is, Sausage has been going to nursery for nine weeks now and just last night, Husband and I were having a conversation about how much she’s changed in those nine weeks. She’s still the Sausage we know and love, but just somehow bigger in every way! She’s even more talkative (if that’s humanly possible…), more outgoing, more confident on her feet, she’s just generally even more full of life than before. It’s so heartwarming to see, I love nothing more than getting home from work and hearing her telling me about her day.

We’ve had some upsets, like in the first fortnight when Husband went to pick her up and she burst into tears upon seeing him, apparently so relieved to know that we hadn’t abandoned her! Just this week, Husband had to sign the accident book after Sausage fell off of a Space Hopper and grazed her head, and while I could be indignant and say that she’s never had a grazed head under our care, part of me is pleased that she’s getting involved in activities where she can graze her head. Husband and I (again, probably more I) can be a little guilty of wrapping her in the proverbial cotton wool and always being there to catch them actually isn’t necessarily always a good thing. Sometimes they need to learn what it feels like to fall.

I can’t deny that I ask her every day if she wants to go to nursery, some half a percent of me hoping that one day she’ll say “No, Mummy, actually I don’t” and then I can pull her out, give up work and go back to the cosy and sometimes insular life that we had before but the rest of me, the majority of me, is thrilled that we were able to make such a huge lifestyle change all at once and have it go so well. Just goes to show, as well as the already endless list of amazing qualities that I can attribute to my daughter, resilience and adaptability are two more things she has under her belt.*

(*more so than her Mummy. I walk to the bus stop feeling like I’m going to cry after dropping her off each day, but for her sake, I suck it up and act like a grown up. Just about.)

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Mum’s the Word Recommends…The Christmas Edition

By Mum's the Word on November 18, 2011 in Review

This year, we’ve found it a bit difficult to come up with a list of things to get Sausage for Christmas. Of course, we’ve had the inevitable “Oooh, I WANT ONE OF THOSE!” during every ad break on Nick Jnr., but not all of her selections are suitable (a dog who shits as part of the game? Not gonna happen.) She’s at that age where she’s kind of in-between, lots of stuff is way too young and lots of stuff is way too old. Oh, then there’s the problem that she’s the child who has everything, including two parents who don’t know how to say no!

Husband and I have been brain storming about the things that we want to get Sausage and I thought I’d share some of our ideas, just in case they prompt anyone else who’s struggling. There’s a couple of bits in there that she already has and loves too, just for some added inspiration. So, without further ado, heres:

THE CRAMMOND GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS

(or, What to Buy the Under Five Who Has Everything)

1. Sylvanian Families - starting from under £5.00

We’ve been looking longingly at Sylvanian Families for a while and we finally think Sausage is at a stage where she’ll look after them properly, and not let all of the little pieces go missing! We’ve been very kindly sent the motorcycle and sidecar set which includes two characters, the awesomely named George and Mildred Mulberry, but we’ll be adding to her collection with one of the houses, some furniture and some more characters. One that I totally love is the Special Edition Kate and William Balmoral wedding set, which includes the Bride and Groom, two beautiful bunnies, Bridesmaids, Page Boys and even Rev. Kelvin Waters, the beaver clergyman!

I had Sylvanian Families when I was a kid, I vaguely remember a tree-house and some cats, and I can absolutely attest to the fact that they are still just as brilliant quality as they were back then. I adore these toys, they’re sweet, innocent and such brilliant sets for little girls and the beauty of it is, there’s so many to choose from that if a relative or friend is stuck for what to buy for your child, they can pick from any one of hundreds of Sylvanian flavoured options! What’s not to love?

2. Disney Princess Magic Rise Oven - £32.99

Now, I know we should all be against the subjectification of little girls and that toys should be unisex…yadda yadda…but sometimes, a girl just wants to wear a tiara, pretend she’s a Princess and bake some flippin’ cakes. The Disney Princess Magic Rise oven is a brilliant bit of kit, which actually makes your play cakes look like they’re rising in the oven (hence the name…). You can then decorate the cakes using the prettifying bits they give you, and hey presto!

I have to admit, as much as Sausage loves the one that we were sent, it’s actually ME who’s mesmerised by it! There’s something about putting those squashed bits of rubber in the oven and watching them magically pop up that just blows my tiny mind! Sausage and I have had hours of fun with this thing so far!

3. Julia Donaldson ‘The Gruffalo’ set – £9.99 (should be £59.99)

We were probably a bit late to the party on this one, as I know the world seems to be Gruffalo mad at the moment, but we’ve bought Sausage a few other Julia Donaldson books lately that we absolutely love. This set is full of the slightly lesser known books, but if all of her others are anything to go by, these will all become firm favourites too. I can’t wait to read them all to Sausage, curled up on the sofa at Christmas!

4. Playmobil Zoo – £71.99

For as long as we can remember, Sausage has been mad about animals. We took her to the Sealife Centre on her first birthday and she still talks about it now! One of her favourite places in the world is Colchester Zoo, so when we saw that Playmobil have a Zoo set int heir range, we both thought that this would be ideal for out little animal-lover.

It’s not cheap at just over seventy quid, but Playmobil stuff is brilliant quality and we know she’ll adore it so it’s worth every penny. It comes with a huge amount of animals, characters and scenery and all of the reviews on Amazon are really positive, which has concreted our choice in our minds.

5. Kinectimals, Now with Bears! – £31.98

Just recently, I’ve been doing some work for a software company and we were lucky enough to be given an Xbox 360 and a Kinect so that we can review games. I really love the Kinect concept because unlike the Wii where with many games you can kind of get away with just shaking the remote up and down, with the Kinect your whole body is scanned, so there’s no way of phoning it in.

As I mentioned above, Sausage loves animals, so what better console game for her than one where she actually gets to pretend to be an animal? I cannot wait to see her prancing about the living room, enjoying this game, I suspect there will be a lot of post-Christmas video footage of her playing this, while me and Husband squeak on about how cute she is!

Well, there you have it, a Very Crammond Christmas! I hope I’ve inspired some of you with my choices and if any of you have any other suggestions of things you think the kids will love, I’d love to hear them, just leave me a comment below.

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Don’t Forget Your Posting Dates!

By Mum's the Word on November 14, 2011 in Christmas, Sponsored Posts

You all know what it’s like; you spend ages planning out your Christmas gift list, you buy everything, get it wrapped – only to realise that you’re a day too late to post out Great Auntie Mabel’s lavender soap and Cousin Greg’s naked lady cooking apron. Inevitably, they sit in a cupboard until next year when you go out and buy exactly the same items for them, forgetting you never sent last years ones and eventually you realise that you’re 70 years old and no longer have room for a television because your whole house is filled up with ageing, wrapped Christmas presents that you never sent.

Powerful imagery, huh?

Okay, so that might be a little bit over the top but having the Christmas posting dates in mind is always a good thing and ParcelForce, diligent as ever, want to remind us of their posting dates.

Above are the dates for the UK, but if you want to check the dates for any other part of the world, you can do that HERE and get to look at some pretty baubles too.

All I’m saying is, why go to the effort of picking out the perfect pepper mill for your Kiwi second cousin, only to find out that you missed the posting deadline (4th December for the Value option to New Zealand, just in case you were wondering…). Better still, write the dates on your calender. Go on, go and do it. GO!

(Oh and if anyone wants to buy ME a pre-Christmas present, I’ve got my eye on THESE rubber stamps!)

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Use Your Illusion – Parts I and II

By Mum's the Word on November 13, 2011 in Opinion, Personal

No, this isn’t a post about Guns ‘n’ Roses, although I do bloody love that band. November Rain is still one of my favourite songs, and I wish I could go back to the 80′s and 90′s to visit Slash’s L.A. house which was more or less turned into a giant, walk-in vivarium. But I digress…

I was checking my Facebook this morning when I came across a status update from my best friend, which read as follows:

After I stopped rolling around my living room floor, guffawing from the depths of my toes, I stopped to think. Isn’t it funny to think how we come across to others? Now, knowing my darling bestie, there could well be an element of sarcasm in there, but assuming she’s being serious, she’s got a properly demented view of my life!

On paper, I might seem ‘together’. I have two jobs, a three-year-old, various writing commitments, yadda yadda….no more than anyone else has to contend with really, but I suppose it’s more ‘obvious’ because I choose to broadcast it all via my blog and various social media profiles. But what those profiles don’t tell you is that I have a pile of washing up to my waist, I have a lawn full of dog poo that I need to go and pick up, Sausage gets bored with asking me to get her dressed on non-nursery days and often takes herself off to her room to search for something to wear that isn’t pyjamas, and I regularly leave my washing up until we have nothing left to eat or drink with.

So you see, while I talk about the good bits, the boring day-today bits or areas where I’m shamefully slack often go unmentioned. And don’t forget, Husband works from home too, which means he takes care of the shopping, dog walking, collecting Sausage from nursery and much else besides!

I should also add here, that I have ONE child. Bestie has THREE. And that’s not just any three kids, she has three boys under three, two of whom are twins! How the woman isn’t entirely grey is beyond me! (Here’s where I enter a disclaimer and say that I adore the boys and want to eat them because they’re so gorgeous, I just can’t imagine how difficult it would be to have three boys so close in age).

But it’s all about how we project ourselves, isn’t it? I’ve written a few posts in the past about honesty through social media (here and here) and despite that fact that we put more of ourselves out there than ever before through blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, StumbleUpon (delete as appropriate), we still only let on what we want people to know. I mean, I get it, no one cares about the mundane parts like that fact that I often spend all day in pyjamas if I have nowhere to go, or that I eat too many crisps, but at the same time, it’s impossible to get a full view of a persons day-to-day tooings and froings, despite how much we all talk about ourselves.

It made me think that we might be holding ourselves up against this perceived yardstick of how successful other people are, when in fact the standards that we’re imagining are actually impossible to reach. So I’ll go first, I’ll be honest. If I can get away with it, I’m really fucking lazy. When I have a day off, I like nothing better than sitting on the couch with Sausage, or catching up with my favourite TV programmes and more often than not, housework is the farthest thing from my mind. I don’t know if I feel better or worse for getting that dirty little secret out there, but I hope it might make people feel better when they take a totally skewed look at my life and come away feeling bad about themselves.

(Dedicated to Jamillah, who is officially SuperWoman, despite what she may think)