Why why why?

My little girl hasn't quite reached the why stage yet, which is a stroke of luck, as I am not one of those people with a bank of general knowledge. I'm also not really a why person, I think as I was growing up the general theme was – well life's not always going to be fair so make the most of it – which is what I do, and enjoy it! There are somethings in life though which just shouldn't be and do deserve a massive, hands on head, "but WHY????"

Mummy Central started this great meme: after endless why's from her little ones, she's now bombarding them with some questions of her own for a change. It's our chance to join in, here are the rules:

1. Post your whys – as few or as many as you like

2. Link up your post to Mummy Central, and it would be great if you could leave a comment too

3. Tag 5 bloggers to keep this going

4. If you’re not a blogger, leave your whys as a comment below. We’d love to read them

5. Show your support by reading a few others and commenting on them

I was tagged by the lovely Debra at 'My Darlings and Me', you should really go and read her 'whys', they are fab and I could have just copied and pasted the lot as I agreed with them all! She may have noticed though, so here is my very own unplagiarised list:


For my daughter:
Why... do you take food off my plate when I have served you your own plate of the same dinner?

Why... did you tell me you didn't need a wee over and over when is soon became clear you did?

Why... is it funny to hit the telly with lego bricks / toy animals / fairy wands? You love the telly!

Why... do you love me so much when I'm always telling you what you must not do? (She is amazing, I'm such a lucky mummy)



For life in general:
Why.... after a rainy weekend is it always sunny on a Monday morning?

Why... are the baby / child sections in shops always upstairs?

Why... can I never find my keys? (I have caught my daughter playing 'I can't find my keys' a few times – that's how bad it is.)

Why... am I scared of spiders?

Why... is Piers Morgan on the television?


Too pass on the fun I tag:
Momma of Mojo
The Chaos Queen
A Mummy's View
Cupcake Mumma
Busy Bee

Why? Because I thought it might give you a giggle x

Scummy Mummy

Hurrah my kind of meme... Miss Cisco at The Ramblings of a Formerly Rock 'n' Roll Mum is uniting us slightly more scummy than yummy mummies in her alternative meme. I just filled out the Yummy Mummy meme the other day which was great fun too but I couldn't help feeling my answers weren't too high up there in the glamorous stakes.

P.s. I too had no idea what a meme was when I entered the world of blogging... I guess I still don't, but look at me – I'm meme mad I tell you!

So here it is, don't judge me:



5 Things that make me a scummy mummy

1. You'll see me on the platform in the morning looking in awe at all the ladies with their straightened hair. I'm the one with the wet hair (or icicles in the winter) who doesn't even attempt to dry it before I leave the house. By the time I reach the office, I'm the one with the frizzy mop, which is then promptly swept up in a pony tail when I catch an 'eek' glimpse in the mirror.

2. I've always got a grotty hair band around my wrist 'just in case'. Have been thinking about upgrading it to a scrunchy so as to relive my eighties days.

3. Our ironing board has been broken for well over a year – should give you a rough idea of how often I iron my clothes.

4. I've left the house a few times without realising I either have stickers stuck to my bottom, or worse, a pink bunny rabbit clip still in my hair.

5. When other lovely ladies pay me a nice compliment and ask what make my top is, I usually reply "no idea, have a look" and then bend down so they can see the label. Pretty confident that's not the work of a yummy mummy!


I can't blame being a mummy though, I have always been like this... apart from the rabbit hair clips.

Does being a little bit too lazy to think of anyone to tag right now make me scummy too? I tag anyone who reads this post and is struggling to narrow it down to 5 like I was! x

Ten things I tell myself every day

The lovely @farfromhomemama who blogs over at 'Three years, one stone then home' has tagged me in a fab meme! It was started by 'Mum of Three Boys'. You need to go and check out both of their posts, they are very funny!

Hope you enjoy mine...


1. If I walk up the escalators on the tube it is roughly equivalent to a 30 minute work out at the gym.

2. I may be 3 dress sizes bigger than when I was 17 but I look better 'in my skin' now.

3. Home made cake has a lot fewer calories than brought cake.

4. I'm probably going to win a shopping spree today so it is worth all that time I spend looking at fashion pages on the internet.

5. If I had a proper food mixer my cakes would absolutely be giving Delia's a run for their money.

6. Talking to yourself is the first sign of creativity.

7. I'm pretty sure the cinema's closed down now anyway.

8. Having twitter open on my desktop actually makes me more productive.

9. I don't need to watch the news, pingu is actually very informative.

10. Tea is hydrating. 

Fancy a go? I tag...

From Slummy to Yummy Mummy

The Fabulous Mom's Guide

A Twenty Something Mum

A Mother’s Work Meme

My post for Mother.Wife.Me's 'A Mother’s Work Meme', enjoy! x 


Rules:
Please post the rules
Answer the questions in as much or as little detail as suits you
Leave a comment on mother.wife.me so we can keep track of the meme
Tag 3 people and link to them on your blog
Let them know you tagged them
Tweet loudly about taking part (well ok, that isn’t a rule, but how about if we start a hashtag – #amothersworkmeme)

Questions:
1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
2.  What is your current situation?
3.  Freestyle – got your own point you’d like to get across on this issue? Here’s your chance…

And, most importantly…. you’re tagged!!



1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
Yes I had worked at my current company for 6 years before taking my maternity leave.

2.  What is your current situation?
I work 4 days a week and have one very precious day with my daughter, plus our weekends. I work long days due to my commute to work so my day off means everything to me. We've had the same routine now since I went back to work after 9 months and she is now 2 years old.

3. Freestyle
I wanted to write a little from the point of view of the commuting mum, maybe it's just me this has affected but I would love to hear from anyone in the same boat. I think I would happily have been a stay at home mum, but the mortgage said otherwise, so I started back to work after 9 months leave. In the run up to me returning to work I decided I really wanted to go back just three days a week, at least to start off with. I knew that my commuting would mean long hours and minimal time with my little one on the days I was at work and after being with my little on 24/7 for 9 months, this length of time apart felt a heartbreaking prospect. In my head I felt working three days would have meant that family time still outweighed work time, which is a good thing psychologically! Also there was the childcare issue, my mum had offered to help out for two days a week and my mother-in-law for one so it would have been perfect. 


When I looked into it and did my sums however, I found my train travel costs were going to be the same whether I worked three or five days. I would be paying for a service I wasn't using and my options were pretty frozen. It was really frustrating at the time especially for a slightly over emotional mummy, how could this be fair fares?! In balance we worked out we could afford everything if I did a four day week and my wonder mum said she would help an extra day but it meant asking more of her than I'd hoped. 


I've read a few newspaper articles recently about the percentage of wages that are going on travel but they never seem to mention the part-time mum. With reduced wages due to reduced hours, when I work out my monthly pay/travel expenses percentage, it's pretty disheartening. Now I work 4 days a week about 38% of my monthly take home wage goes on travel. If I had gone for 3 day working week I would have been paying roughly 50% on travel, can anyone afford this much? On top of this, during the shake up I also lost my working tax credits which were a big help. I'm realistic that there isn't an endless pot of mummy to hand out but they don't take into account such big outgoings when they look at your wage do they?

All in all I can't complain about life, I enjoy my job and I have a wonderful family. We are a happy little family and gorgeous girl enjoys all her time with her grandparents and also with me, so our routine works out in its own little way. As she starts preschool our routine will inevitably have to change, so I'm waiting with baited breathe to find what the future holds, I've been promised part of it will be massive hikes in rail fares!

Why not head over to the fantastic blog Mother.Wife.Me who started this meme and read the other entries? She'd love people to join in, so you are all invited!


And now the rules say tag three people, no pressure but if you fancy it, I tag...

http://mummyvswork.co.uk
http://whatmeandtheboyssay.posterous.com/
http://i-heart-motherhood.blogspot.co.uk/

What was the number 1 hit in the music charts when your baby was born?

I've been tagged! Thanks From Slummy to Yummy Mummy for making me feel loved!

So the rules of this meme are to cast your mind back to the wonderful day our little ones were born and post the number one song and album at the time... no I wasn't listening to the chart show either, I was scaring all the other mums in the hospital with my best screaming, so I had to look it up. As recommended I found out at Every Hit.

I love the results! Squiggle is destined to be 100% pure pop!

Number 1 single was:
"Everybody in Love" by JLS
I had forgotten but we actually used to sing this too her and change the lyrics! "All the mummy's in love, put your hands up" and so on, you get the idea! Silly but a nice memory to have back.

Number 1 album was:
Cheryl Cole
Eek not so sure about this one, doesn't bring back any memories of my daughter, just of Rufus Hound and his excellent 'fight for this love' routine.

What were yours?

I'm tagging these lovely ladies (if your up for it) and anyone else who would like to join in! x

The Goriami Family

Its a London Bird Thing!

A Twenty Something Mum