Showing all posts in Life

In Life

Parenting: Why is there so much judgement?

Author LisaPosted on 19 Comments

I’ve written before about how fantastic I’ve found online parenting groups in helping me to muddle my way through the early days of raising my little boy. I’ve found them to be incredible sources of wisdom about the little things and places where I can gripe about how many times he was up last night and not get “Well, you knew what you were signing up for”. There have been many days where I’ve read blogs written by fellow Irish Parenting Bloggers when they’ve expressed their frustration or written about their days of everything going wrong and I’ve laughed hysterically or cried along with them, thanking every god out there that it isn’t just me, it isn’t my child and I’m not a bad Mammy because it is happening to other people.

Parenting- Trial By Jury Of Your Peers - Judgement by Others

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In Being Mammy, Life, Netflix

Can’t Sleep, Netflix Time.

Author LisaPosted on

What to do when you’re being deprived of the right to catch a bit of shut eye? May as well find something good to watch. Our house at the moment is an awake one, reluctantly for the adults, enthusiastically for our tiny tyrant. I get where he’s coming from; Mammy used to spend all day with him so he had all day with her and all night to sleep. Now Mammy goes away for the day so something has to go, and its not the time with Mammy that he is willing to forfeit. His little eyes have full-on suitcases under them, but he’s bouncing awake three hours after bedtime every night this week, and grumpy because he’s tired and we’re less enthusiastic about play with every hour that goes by. Read More

In Life

Life, resumed.

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

liferesumed

I went to work today. I got up at five past seven (oh, what a glorious lie in!), threw on the outfit I’d picked out in my head especially, did my makeup, had breakfast, kissed the man friend goodbye and walked out the door to work. Tiny man was still in Wexford, so less goodbyes needed there, and affording me the lie in. I looked like a normal 23 year old going to work and going about her day. It was just like a normal morning, but I had to go be productive and a contributing member of society again, which never seemed like such a big deal until I stepped out of that world.

Ten months away from work. Read More

In Life, Netflix

Happiness is…

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

happiness is

 

I tend to like September. It always signalled to me the start of something new. It’s when I started each school year, when I moved to Cork, started my degree. It also helps that there is a healthy dose of birthday cake in the middle of the month, as my dad, brother and I all have our birthdays within five days of each other, in the next week.  Read More

In Being Mammy, Life

The Parenting Theory Test

Author LisaPosted on

I failed my theory test by one question the other day. The fact that it was one question is what annoys me most about it, but I’m confident that next time, when I haven’t been moving house for the previous week while learning to cope with a five month old practicing drop-and-rolls constantly, I’ll manage it.The theory test was filled with questions that for some of them, had nonsense answers – the obvious ones, I grant you – Option D for one question about what to do when an elderly person is crossing the road when the light turned green suggested to shout at them to move along and keep driving. It was also filled with questions that had multiple answers, i.e. the real law abiding answer, and the how everyone does it answer. It got me thinking; what if there had to be a parenting theory test?

A Parenting Theory Test

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In Life

Tiny Victories

Author LisaPosted on 1 Comment

We’ve moved into our new place. We’re in that limbo area of still having the last place and needing to get everything out and the place deep-cleaned, and having very little stuff handy in the new place, but we’ve slept here overnight and theres milk in the fridge, so I guess its home now.

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In Life

An open letter to Mary Curtis…

Author LisaPosted on 4 Comments

Dear Mary Curtis,

Thank you so much for your comments in today’s paper about your target audience for your new TV channel, UTV Ireland. It does help me to know that it is one I can happily skip over, as there must not be anything for me on there, as I will soon be returning to work, and will not be one of those housebound women laden down with her children who has nothing to do bar watch yet another repeat of Jeremy Kyle, or Loose Women. Apparently my leaving my child means that I’ve got a life I would not have if I stayed at home with him. I’ve managed not to marry the house, unless its something I’ve erased from memory. Oh the party lifestyle afforded to me from my office chair, scoffing at those happily sitting on their couches, watching mindless drivel through the afternoon. Read More

In Being Mammy, Life

Final days before Back to Work..

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

 

I’ve less than a month left of my maternity leave. I’ve been into work, to arrange a day to come back, and how I’m going to take my holiday balance (quite healthy due to the fact I haven’t been in since November of last year..), and about changes that have happened in those months that I’ve vacated the premises. The days of my lounging around for the morning with tiny man in one arm being fed his bottle, while attempting to eat my own breakfast and having a sneaky cuddle are to come to an end.

Final Days Of Maternity Leave Before Going Back To Work

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In Life

Moving on up!

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

It’s a week of change here. We’re moving house next weekend to an apartment with a lift (much improvement!), a bath and a balcony – as soon as we manage to get everything packed up. We’ve got two weeks left on the lease of this place but we’re planning on moving the vast majority of our stuff over next weekend when we’ve got access to help and a van to bring all the stuff over. Read More

In Life

We Want Choice: Repeal the 8th Amendment

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

Ireland, 2014. A country reclaiming itself from economic ruin, with an educated workforce, first world health service and political backing towards becoming a more equal society in a referendum next year to ensure marriage equality becomes a part of our constitution. So far, so good. Yes, that health service may be crippled under huge waiting lists, that educated workforce vastly under-utilised and unemployed and an inference that equality is not something which should be campaigned for using our national media has occurred in the last week, but hey, we’re getting there. Our women are even allowed vote for the politician of their choice, and drive cars, and have full autonomy over their own bodies… oh, wait. We’re not talking about the same Ireland.

repeal the 8th

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In Being Mammy, Life

Back To Normal (We hope) – Return of the Amber Beads

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

BvE0vqPIMAAwZRn.jpg-large

A week late, the amber necklace has arrived. Appropriately enough, it was ten minutes after the discovery of the package in my letterbox and the given amount of jumping for joy while sedately pushing the buggy, fearing waking the sleeping child, that I discovered a shop that sells them. In Cork. A place I’ve walked past every single day for the last week, but only spotted them today. Absolutely typical. Read More

In Life

Becoming a Proper Grownup (TM)

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

I applied for my theory test the other night.

Five years after most other people my age, I’m going to put on my big girl boots and answer a few inane questions in order to put myself behind the wheel of a “coffin on tyres” to attempt to master the one way systems and roundabouts of Cork city. I am terrified. I’ve a fear of the road as it is (not without reason) and my opinion on the driving standard of 90% of the drivers in Cork isn’t the most positive one around. But Bus Eireann isn’t the most buggy friendly entity in the world and has a habit of not showing up on time, so I think it may be about time to get over the fear and do it anyway. Read More

In Being Mammy, Life

Cork LGBT Pride :)

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments
Cork LGBT Pride :)

This weekend is the Cork LGBT Pride Weekend. There’s a massive list of things on for the last few days, culminating in the parade which took place this afternoon. We went along after a lovely brunch in town, buggy and all, and brought E to his first parade. We were afraid he’d freak out with the loud music. We had nothing to worry about, he slept through the blasts of “Euphoria”, a song I realised I had only ever heard playing on the dance floor of the gay bar whose float was blasting it today. Read More

In Being Mammy, Life, Parenting, The Baby Days

How is it August already? Things I Didn’t Know When I Found Out I Was Pregnant

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

Today is the second day of August, the eighth month of the year. It’s almost a year to the day that I found out I was pregnant last year – that has simply flown. I sit here now with my gorgeous little man in my arms, accustomed to sleep deprivation, able to make up bottles with one hand and no longer disgusted by much of anything that may get on my person – dealing with baby explosions of all types will do that to you. Back then I was pure terrified – 21, not feeling like a grown up at all, much less a responsible one who would be in charge of making sure someone else had a good life. (To be fair, not much has changed there. Mammy guilt is ever present.)

It's August Already - Things I Didn't Know When I Found Out I Was Pregnant

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In Life

Happy Bits of The Week

Author LisaPosted on 1 Comment
Happy Bits of The Week

It’s been a quiet enough week here, thanks to lack of broadband (and internet access for the most part – rural Wexford and E Mobile are not friends, its like reverting to the land God forgot). It’s been really nice, a break away from the city for a week, to recharge the batteries, and having E spoilt rotten by every person we come across. He’s been a bit of a teething mess this week, poor little pet. Still no sign of any white dots, just a poor frustrated mite who is going to dissolve the skin on his hands soon from all the chewing (Sophie la Girafe gets hugs, not chews, he prefers his fists it seems). Read More

In Being Mammy, Life

Haunted

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

This heat is absolutely all encompassing. It’s required us to keep the windows open day and night, allowing in quite a few members of the insect population of Cork, seeking our (still rather overheated) shade. Not that it seems to make a blind bit of difference, it appears the landlord forgot to write “Seasonal Sauna” in the ad on Daft last year (along with various other omissions that have irked us, but thats another story). As of last night, it seems he also left out the fact that we have a resident ghost… Read More

In Life

Another Week, another happy story.

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

This week has been one of those where I keep telling myself I should sit down and write, but each time I do it, E starts screaming. We are well and truly teething but not a sign of any white dots yet – not sure how much more of this can be taken without seeing progress. The poor little mite has taken to giving Sophie la Girafe hugs while he gnaws on his fists, bubbling at the mouth, dribble bib an eternal fixture. Read More

In Life

A potential cure to my music issue..

Author LisaPosted on

So last night, I was doing very important things on the computer (liking a few Facebook photos, deleting emails), when on my news feed appeared a video. You may recall that a few weeks back I divulged my tiny tyrant’s love for a certain misogynistic song, which was quite the hit last Summer. Try as I might, my attempts to re-word the song into something more appropriate for a 16 week old aren’t going very well (the child knows full well the words aren’t “You know you wanna sleep”). Any attempts of searching for others in this predicament and their cures for it only led to even dodgier suggested lyrics, or rants about how terrible a parent you must be if you expose your child to such material. Read More

In Being Mammy, Life

Mama needs a holiday – Wonder Week #4

Author LisaPosted on 3 Comments

So, if Google is to be believed, the last three nights in a  row have been part of the fourth wonder week. We’ve hit 16 weeks old and it seems we have entered this vortex of sleepless hell, the four month sleep regression – and worse, it supposedly can last five or six weeks. We were just getting the hang of waking up once overnight, and then up at six am. I was actually getting used to being an early bird. But now its a fight to go to sleep, and worse, a fight to stay asleep. My lovely placid baby has been replaced by this screaming, angry tiny tyrant. I am not a fan.

Wonder Week 4 - Mama Needs A Holiday

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In Life

Loves of the Week!

Author LisaPosted on 2 Comments

So it has been a hectic week here – one could say a pretty harsh week if you observed all of the broken sleep and screaming baby-ness (teething is taking it out of the whole lot of us and its only just begun..). However, theres no point in dwelling in the negativity and as a whole it hasn’t been a completely diabolical week. So in that vein, I’ve decided to compile a list of things I’ve loved this week – I’ve seen a few other bloggers do this and in order to mix up the blog to avoid negativity, I’m joining the bandwagon. Read More