I am a mother of one little girl, and the mummy and manager of Mummy Mondays. In December I'm returning to my pre-mum job as a change manager- some change! So I guess, after a wonderfully uneventful summer of first motherhood, I am finally a modern working mum and enjoying it all.
Mummy Mondays
Mummy Mondays was an idea conceived by the boys at childfriendly.co.uk to reward their community of mums and use all the great reviews they already have for child friendly businesses all over the country. We're building the community through facebook and then getting all the child-friendly (and more importantly mummy-friendly) businesses to pledge deals. We especially want the London local businesses that we treasure and would like to use even more of if we could save a bit too. All the deals come out once we have a big enough following, and then run every Monday. No more boring,quiet and expensive Mondays....
Family friendly London:
I think it's the best! We live in London Fields, with swimming, playgrounds, great cafes and children's centres on the doorstop. We can walk everywhere to meet all kinds of cool mamas, and we can mix things up and have some culture and soft play in the same afternoon. Granted, the air is a bit stinky some times, but it's not that hard to jump in the car and get some lung-fulls of oxygen at the seaside.
My nickname for the little one is:
Marley or Marlo. Others come up depending on what face she's pulling- currently the 'naughty elf' look is quite popular.
The one thing I know I shouldn’t let my daughter do but allow it anyways:
We're a bit Spanish when it comes to bedtime and she's always happy to be up with us late, which of course backfires when we want her tucked up so we can leave her behind sometimes.
The thing I’m happy Marley inherited from me:
Marley is pretty relaxed in almost any set up and likes a crowd. We took her to her first festival in the summer and she was raving till at least 8pm!
Me, a LatteMama?
I'm flattered you think so! I've never been interested in staying in and slobbing around and have tried always to have Marley come with us on our adventures, and I think we make a pretty good team. I'm never scared to t ake her anywhere and it's paid off brilliantly, especially travelling to India earlier this year. Now having a few projects on too makes me feel like I'm using every bit of my brain which took a bit of a rest earlier in the year.
How motherhood has changed me and my style:
I've been told by friends I believe that it hasn't changed me too much, but I think moving to Hackney at the same time has probably had some impact on my style too, which is now looser and more colourful. My godson broke my old specs so I know have some super-styley Prada ones that are heavily affecting the rest of my look at the moment too . And I'm slightly obsessed by having hands-free shoes so have been wearing men's Chelsea boots pretty much every day.
My one advice to new mothers is:
Don't take advice from random people who you wouldn't trust for advice on clothes or cafés, let alone how to raise your children. And take them everywhere while they're tiny.
Coming up:
I'm helping to set up a school in Hackney, the Hackney New School,which we hope with enough support from local parents will be open for secondary pupils from Sept 2013. Plus a country wide roll-out for Mummy Mondays once we've got a big enough London following.
Mine and my husbands pick from LatteMama:
My husband wants the Arctic Blue Penguin jumper now, but I'm going for the Moose Dress.
