Hi everyone,
Mama-tude has moved to a brand new site.
All the old posts and much more can now be found at Mama-tude.com
So come on over, take a look around and keep up to date with all that's going on - including some VERY exciting projects that are in the pipeline.
See you there,
Jen xx
(new website can be accessed through link above or through the address Mama-tude.com)
Mama-tude
I'm Jen and I'm a mum of seven. Life is hectic, crazy and certainly never dull. In between the mayhem and taking advantage of sleep deprivation, I'm also an author, freelance writer, media contributor and do-er of stuff around the house. My first parenting book "The Real Mum's Guide to Surviving Parenthood" is out now. You can like and follow me on Facebook too at https://m.facebook.com/mamatude7.ie/, Twitter at mama_tude or email me at mamatude7@gmail.com
Monday 9 April 2018
Sunday 25 March 2018
21 activities to keep the kids occupied this Easter
The Easter
hols are here and thanks to recent snow days and a patron saint’s bank holiday,
the novelty of having the kids at home may have worn off before it’s even
begun!
So to keep
your troops occupied and your sanity in check, I’ve compiled a list of cheap or
free things to do over the coming two weeks. May the force be with you through
it all!
1. Cinema clubs – the old reliable,
especially for those rainy or cold days. Many cinemas have morning screenings
of kids’ movies at a reduced rate over the school holidays. Some even discount
their popcorn and fizz for an extra treat!
2. Picnic at the park – make hay while
(and if) the sun shines. Lunch outdoors is an adventure of its own. Throw in a
football or take in a playground and the kids can burn off some energy while
you’re at it.
3. Write a family newspaper – as simple
as it sounds. Assign all kids in the house a story to cover relating to your
family or what’s going on that day. Then add some phone-taken photos or some
drawings to accompany their articles and voila – you have your equivalent of
“The Hogan Times” and the bonus of something for “show and tell” upon their
return!
4. Visit the National Museum - There’s
loads to see and entry is free! Thanks to school projects there’s sure to be
several things that catch your children’s attention and it’s a pretty enjoyable
visit for parents too. You can find more info at www.museum.ie
5. Playdates - Have some pals over to keep your troops
occupied. There’s always the chance the favour might be returned over the course
of the holidays, giving the double bonus of another day’s fun for your child
and a bit of breathing space for you.
6. Go swimming - An activity everyone
can enjoy, that’s not weather dependent or overly expensive. And it might tire
them out a bit too!
7. Visit some relatives, or invite some
over - With the restrictions of school
and after school activities it’s hard to find the time to visit relations who
might live that bit further away. If cousins are involved, the visit made or
received is sure to cause even more excitement.
8. Board games - Always fun and often
overlooked in favour of the computer type. And the great thing is that all ages
can get involved!
9. Treasure hunt (indoor or outdoor).
Draw up the clues and hide them inside or outside the house and let the kids do
the rest
10. Build a fort – Timeless fun and a
great way to keep the kids busy on a rainy day. And if you’ve a few kids, build
two. They can visit each other.
11. Games from our youth – Remember how
much time we spent outdoors growing up, wary of going indoors to use the
bathroom even in case you weren’t let back out again? The games that kept us
occupied for hours would no doubt do the same for our own children. So why not
teach your kids how to play them? Hopscotch, Red Rover, Crocodile Crocodile,
What time is it Mr Wolf, Rounders, Kick the can, Balls and Skipping – to name
but a few!
12. Home baking – Most kids love baking
and even those of us with limited baking skills can help our littles to make
fairy buns, rice krispie buns and maybe something more. Happy bonus - dessert is sorted!
13. A walk on the beach – Even if it’s
raining. Skimming stones and wave dodging are fun, rain or shine for the bigs
and smalls in the family
14. Trip to the library - to browse and borrow books or to enjoy the
different activities that regularly take place there, details of which can
usually be found online.
15. Write a letter – To a grandparent,
other relative or friend because who doesn’t love receiving mail that isn’t a
bill.
16. Make sock puppets – Get crafty and
creative to the best of yours and their ability. And then afterwards, do a
puppet show
17. Visit a pet farm – Kids generally
love visiting animals and a pet farm gives them the opportunity to get a little
bit closer. Have a scour online for some in your locality. There’s lots of
cheap and cheerful ones – and even some free ones too.
18. Play doh – messy, get everywhere,
maddening stuff – that the kids just love!
19. Go out for muffin – a treat in a
cakeshop always goes down well. (And the muffin is bribery to behave ;-))
20. Get everyone to do a self-portrait
and make a collage – One to treasure and frame.
21. Have a karaoke competition - because,
ahem cough, cough, you can have the craic joining in too.
Thursday 15 March 2018
Still me
I think
every parent gets excited about a night out. What’s rare is wonderful they say
and last weekend was very rare indeed – I had a night out with my college
buddies. It’s been a very long time since we were all out together. I’d admit
exactly how long if I had actually come to terms with my age yet, which I haven’t,
so I won’t. But suffice to say I hadn’t seen some people since I’d left college
and Whigfield was big at the time.
It was easy
to see by the chosen venue that some of us (not me) have retained our coolness
more than others. The music was loud, very loud. I’ll be honest I’m not even
sure it was music – I think Madame Gazelle might refer to it as noise.
Conversations
were roared over the din. I coped with the volume quite well – I think as a mum
of seven I may measure loudness and shouting on a different scale to
others.
We moved somewhere quieter to catch up properly and laughter
replaced the noise. Laughter at recollections of our youth, laughter at our proven
inaccurate theories and laughter at stories from our current lives.
I am a much more sophisticated being now and my college drinks
of 20/20 and Ritz have been replaced with a penchant for red wine – you know,
whatever is on special in the local supermarket. What has remained the same are
my lightweight tendencies. As the giggles continued, aided by fabulous company
and wine, a friend I hadn’t seen since we left college turned to me and said “Look
at you, seven kids later and you’re still Jen”. She made my night.
And as I reluctantly said my goodbyes to my fabulous college
pals, a promise of a karaoke night to follow was made. Brief discussions were
held before my departure about solos and involvement and “enthusiastic
participants”.
A song I loved came on the radio in the taxi on the way
home. I figured it was the perfect chance to practice for our upcoming event – so I did, because after all I’m
still me ;-)
Wednesday 7 March 2018
Out with the old?
We took
advantage of the snow days and did a clear out. Not the most exciting way to
spend a few days but after fun in the snow, and constantly gnawing away on
chocolate, to facilitate the rationing of bread of course, it was a welcome
distraction from the cabin fever that was setting in - OK not welcome, but
necessary in the interest of our sanity and future good family relations!
The great
thing about having a large family is that there’s lots of “stuff” to pass on to
other siblings. The bad thing about having a large family is that there’s lots
of “stuff” to hoard that you might pass on the other siblings, or that you
convince yourself you might because you don’t want to part with it.
It’s not
that I’m a particular hoarder, I’ll happily discard any of himself’s newspapers
and magazines whether he’s read them or not – and I have no issue “losing”
certain horrendous gaudy-coloured football shirts that pass through the wash.
Before anyone thinks this might border on spousal cruelty, I do his washing for
him – it’s a hazard of the chore!
When it
comes to my babies’ belongings however, I’m not so great. “We have 6 of the
same sized coat hanging in the wardrobe” came the call from the youngest boys’
room. “I’ll put 5 of them in the charity bag”. In a time Usain Bolt would have
been proud of I sprinted to the room. “ I need to check everything first” I
said, “I know what ones I want to keep and what ones we should give away” There
was also the matter of the pile that was going to the attic for memories’ sake
and, just in case…
As each
item of clothing was handed to me, I reminisced about which child had worn it
first and decided if it should be given away, passed to the child it would now
fit or put in the ever-growing attic pile that I was hiding down the side of one
bed. Every now and then himself would show a moment of weakness and say “ah I
remember this on…..”. I took that comment as confirmation that I should keep
that item too.
I realised
as I literally waded through small vests of every colour and size that my
emotional attachment to my kids clothing and the very limited storage
facilities in my house were not compatible. Something was going to have to
give. “You’ve an awful lot of football shirts taking up space in those drawers
under the bed” I said to himself “and those bloody football programmes too,
could we get rid of some of them to make some space?”. He wasn’t keen.
Ruthlessly
I discarded 3 or 4 vests to the “not being kept pile”. Everytime a bag for the
charity shop was filled, I announced it loudly– “that’s five of them now – I’m
making great progress” I said. I figured it would soften the blow when he
realised how many bags of “I love these too much to part with them” he would
have to find a home for in the attic. It didn’t.
“We don’t
have space for all of this” he said. I dismissed the notion, he found space.
Momentarily
I wondered if I had actually kept too much – and then I remembered there was a
pile of washing waiting to be done….;-)
Sunday 18 February 2018
Tips for a more harmonious school week.
I can’t
quite believe the mid-term is over already. Granted the primary and montessori schoolers
only had two days off but the teenagers had the full week, and even that seems
to have gone by in the blink of an eye. And after a lovely, albeit rainy, afternoon
spent at the beach, I’m finding, as Sunday night comes around again that I’m
taking the ostrich approach to the uniform situation – well for an hour anyway –
as I remain in denial about the task in hand. There’s a certain dread fills me
going into the week ahead, and I swear I feel it more than the kids.
It’s not
that everything was perfect last week. In fact in spite of having three
teenagers in the house (my daughter’s pal stayed over) a phone call to a radio
station nearly went horribly wrong. As I went on air to discuss a suitable
tax-funded childcare solution, the two and four year olds antennae went up –
mum was missing and needed to be tracked down immediately. And track me down
they did to the youngest’s bedroom, which incidentally is there purely for decoration
as his favourite place to sleep is firmly beside me – and not as much as a centimetre
apart. However in spite of his lack of familiarity with his supposed designated
sleeping area, he and his big brother found me and proceeded to pound on the
door.
“Mum we
need to see you. Mum were are you, I did a poo!” came the indignant call from
little voices as I kept my foot pressed firmly against the door. As I answered the radio host’s questions and
tried to keep my focus, I felt sure one of the teenagers would come to my
rescue – they knew what I was doing after all. But no, t’was not to be and the
attempts to break into me continued.
When the
call came to an end I went to investigate what possible terrible fate had
befallen the teenagers in my house to have allowed such a thing to happen. It
turns out “Back to the future” and the online pursuit of Longitude tickets had
caused them to lose all awareness of their surroundings and had resulted in a temporary
loss of their hearing.
On the plus
side however, there was no homework.
But we’re
back to normality tomorrow and so without any more ado or further digression, here’s
my top tips to making the school week more harmonious and altogether lovely!
1. Leave out everything the night
before – every. single. thing. Shoes, jocks, socks, change needed for the next
day, spare football boots, drama folders etc . Don’t believe any child that
tells you something in this category is in a particular place without seeing
proof! Failure to do this will inevitably result in the discovery that a shoe
or something equally important has disappeared from the face of the earth just
as you’re about to leave the house. Such a discovery is likely to send you into
fishwife mode – which is neither a harmonious or lovely start to the day for
anyone, especially you.
2. Make the lunches the night before –
I know they taste nicer if they’re made that morning, but the time saved is
invaluable when you’re already under pressure.
3. When it comes to homework, choose
your children’s seating arrangements wisely. Know which pairings work best and
don’t be tempted to veer from them - and
get all bathroom stops, snack requests and general avoidance tactics out of the
way beforehand to give the children as straight a run as possible at the task
in hand.
4. Set an age appropriate amount of
time for your children to complete their homework within, and stop them when
that time is up! It’s hard to know sometimes whether daydreaming or quantity is the cause of some children spending so long doing their homework. Consistency
with a set time approach should make it obvious pretty quickly. If you feel quantity
is the problem then consider prioritising your child’s homework for them. If for
example they have 10 questions to complete in one subject, getting them to do
questions 2,4,6,8 and 10 should offer a good balance in terms of scope and progressive
difficulty, rather than 1,2,3,4 and 5.
5. Don’t overcommit to afterschool
activities. Give yourself and the rest of the family some downtime. It’s lovely
to be able to offer our children the chance to try different activities but be
careful that it doesn’t come at the cost of putting you and the rest of the
family under unreasonable time pressures and constraints
6. Get a wall planner/ calendar for
your fridge and keep it up to date so that you and the older members of the
family can see at a glance what commitments you have for the week
7. Remember that the evenings are yours
to enjoy as well – not just the weekends. There may be lots to do, but make taking
the time to chill a priority also. Sometimes
it’s just necessary to park the non- essentials. We’re all living in a time-poor society but all work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy but also
leaves Jacqueline feeling frustrated and overwhelmed.
8. Leave your own clothes out the night
before too – it’s a surprising timesaver. And get up, get dressed and have
breakfast before the kids too. It’s so much more relaxed than the alternative
of being called to mop up juice while you’ve just one leg in your trousers.
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