Category: Family Time

Thanks to Zoe from thetaleofmummyhood.com for nominating me to do the #RockingMotherhood Tag. I’ve been interested in the tag since seeing it and having to think what do I actually rock at! Bigging myself up might feel weird to do but here goes, I’m sure once I get into the swing of it there will be no stopping me! The aim of the game is to write down 10 reasons why you rock at this motherhood lark. We are thrown in at the deep end so this is great to actually do a bit of reflecting and realise what we have accomplished.

1. I’ve always carefully thought about the decisions I make and how it will affect my boys. There were times when I wasn’t sure what to do for the best and had the whole moral dilemma going on but I gave it my best shot and it worked out.
2. I worked hard to make sure that I could afford a home for them and put food on the table.
3. When they cry they always have a pair of arms to wrap around them. I’ve also got great family, friends and man, so that helps too and provides even more pairs of arms!
4. I didn’t choose to shut myself away when things were tough, I got back out there and kept it together for the sake of my boys.
5. I love to do the lindy hop with my youngest as he learnt it for a school dance. We now do it as a way to get him through the 2 mins of teeth cleaning.
6. I try to guide my eldest in the difficult and sometimes challenging stage of being 11 and a half. If I struggle I pass over to the safe hands of his dad. I know where my skills lie and that’s sometimes in delegation.
7. I try and let them have their own space and encourage them to read more instead of being glued to their ipads.
8. I encourage them to have an understanding of individual differences. Our jobs mean that they have insights into these discussions.
9. I celebrate every occasion I can and make a big deal out of the smallest event. You gain a merit, well let’s party!
10. I love ice cream so we get to go to the local sundae cafe very frequently!
11. I knew that I would get into the swing of it and as I’m writing this it all boils down to the fact that I love my boys more than anything in the world. I enjoy telling them I love them every day and showing them by my actions. I’ve been described (like many mums) as a lioness when it comes to protecting them. That’s good, that’s me, the lioness.

The rules are lovely and simple

1. Thank the blogger that tagged you and link to their blog.
2. List 10 things you believe make you a good mother (this is just a guideline. It can be more or less than 10.)
3. Tag 3 – 5 bloggers to join in the #RockingMotherhood Tag.
4. Grab the #RockingMotherhgood badge below and add it to your post or sidebar.

I hope you have enjoyed reading why I think I rock. I also hope it has inspired you to write down why you rock. Instead of me tagging people in, if you would like to take part then please either tweet me here or write in the comments section below and I’ll tag you in. It’s great fun and go on, it’s time to big yourself up!

….well not really at all! However there is a little story I’d like to share with you……. Yesterday I had a slightly different thing happen to cut through the day-to-day school run, work type of thing. I got retweeted by Piers Morgan …not the biggest thing to happen I agree but to me it added some excitement, a bit of a laugh and certainly an eye-opening experience to my day.

Here’s what happened…. I like to watch Piers and Susanna on Good Morning Britain in the morning as I think  the whole ‘thing’ they have going on is pretty compelling and takes me back to the type of chemistry of Johnny and Denise on the channel 4 Big Breakfast sofa years ago (too early for some and a throw back memory for others). To be fair I think the whole team has a good balance and it suits me to have it on while I’m doing all the things I need to do to get the family ready for the day ahead. Yeah it’s sort of yelling, telling the boys to hurry up and putting my make-up on in the dark with normally tango faced horror results….normal stuff.

So, later in the day while I was scrolling through my phone, after work and waiting for my car to get sorted I came across a link to an article. It was about how Ewan McGregor had left the GMB studios where he was scheduled to be interviewed by Piers and Susanna because he found out it would be Piers interviewing him. Now apparently he then left because he disagreed with some comments Piers had made about a recent rally in America where people had flooded the streets of Washington in protest to the Trump administration. This link then took me to an article Piers had written in the daily mail in response to this.

Now, by this time I am stressing in the garage because the kids are due to come out of school in 20 mins and the garage I’m in is 15 mins away from there and my car is nowhere to be seen. I had already given the receptionist the story of how I needed the car quickly because of the kids etc but nevertheless the car is not there. I decided to read this one article so that I could divert my stress and give them another couple of minutes to produce my car and set me on my way. The article was really pretty good, a little direct and clearly taking a swipe at Ewan McGregor but it was direct and made some good points about pointing the finger and being able to debate if you feel strongly about something. It also made me smile in the ‘oh my goodness this will set the cat amongst the pigeons’ sort of way. So, because I enjoyed it I tweeted it and tagged Piers Morgan in –  just because I felt like it at the time.

I then leapt up and made another plea for my car which by sods law was being driven round to greet me just as I was starting to huff and puff at the receptionist. I didn’t think anything of the earlier tweet until I stopped outside school, amazingly still having a couple of minutes to spare and checked my phone. To my surprise Piers Morgan had decided to retweet my tweet! Now bearing in mind he has over 5 million followers it has the potential to get quite a bit of coverage. I smiled at that and though it would be a good story to tell the boys when they came out of school, a little bit of fun to add to the ‘what we all did today’ stories that we fill up our home run with.

When we got home I had another quick little look and realised that there were a few comments coming through that were OK and people were retweeting  which  was ok but I started to see that some were being really rude and offensive. I just stood there and was really taken aback. What was strange was the strength of either love or hate towards Piers Morgan and now me by association. Any real message was getting lost, pushed aside by people’s twitter relationship with the man himself.

When I wrote “Great and interesting read, spend 5 minutes and have a look” In my naive head I meant just that, that I thought it was interesting and  because it had fitted right in with the 5 minutes I had I tweeted words to that effect. No more – No less.

What people seemed to read into that was…. 1. I think everything Piers Morgan says is true. 2. I agree with everything Piers Morgan has said, did say and will ever say, whenever that may be. 3. I’m an awful person for reading anything that he writes.

Such an eye opener because shock, horror but I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me and I’m sure that there would be many things to disagree on. Exactly the same as my own nearest and dearest to me have different views which we can all talk about and get an understanding of even if we don’t agree.

What I did learn from this merest of delicate brushes with the wider twitter world outside of my cosseted blogger circle? Well, First and foremost I learnt that I need to think before I tweet. Secondly there are loads of people just waiting to pounce and shout their views, however mean or bitchy they come across they seem to revel in that outlet. But thirdly….. and on the flip side – look at this photo!!!

The one and only time I’ll see stats like that! Now it’s back to the world of being happy with 3 retweets for me!