The Preemie Poem

I entered this poem about the birth of my preemie, 

Autumn into a competition hosted by 

Slow Down Mummy

 and I won! 

Yaaaay!

Making The Most of Sick Days

Sick days are not fun. Whether its you, the kids or everyone, being sick seriously puts a downer on things and worse they have a habit of invading your life at the most inconvenient times. But sick days don't have to be wasted days. There are plenty of ways to make them practical or fun, or both.

When the kids are sick:

Poorly Box...

Have a "Poorly Box" on standby or, spend a little while making one with your unwell one. We have these at our house and they are a huge success when one of our kiddies are under the weather. We fill them with colouring pens and pads, books and playing cards, small toys, iPads and iPods if you have them, balloons, stuffed animals, puzzles etc. You child can keep the box next to them and swap it for different activities throughout the day as they are tucked up in bed or on the sofa.

Catch up on school work/home work...

When a child if off sick, it is a great time for them to snuggle up with you and read to you or sit and do some fun learning activities online. Lots of schools now offer online learning activities for children to do at home and of course for the older children, there is always homework. If your child has no homework and you are able to pop to the school, call them and ask them to set aside some work that you can collect. That way the kids not only get to stay up-to-date with their work, but they get to see that you are taking an interest in what they are learning too.

Have a clear out...

The dreaded clear-out is always less fun than you think its going to be. You think you're going to Spring Clean and everything will be great, but in truth, you have to make more mess to get rid of what you no longer need.
When you have a child at home sick, it may seem like you'll never get anything done as they want you to be by their side constantly. Now is the time to tackle their bedroom. If they are up for helping, they can go through their old toys and clothes etc with you and decide what they want to keep, what they want to pass on or sell on and what needs to go in the rubbish. If they aren't feeling up to helping, they can boss you around or simply watch, knowing that you are close by.

Watch a movie or catch up on a boxset...

Obviously, what you watch here, depends on your child's age. In our house, when one of the kids is having a poorly day, we will snuggle down and watch something together under a blanket on the sofa. Quite often it leads to said child falling asleep, at which point I will do some laundry and load the dishwasher or something similar. If they don't fall asleep, then we will just stay snuggled and
I will let the chores wait until later. Either way, a little telly time usually cheers us both up and despite sitting down doing nothing, I feel like I am doing something, just by being there.

Make up stories...

This is another fun thing the kids like to do when they are poorly and quite often just when I want them to wind down in the evenings. One of us will start a story with the first sentence and then we will take it in turns in saying a sentence and seeing where our story takes us. Sometimes the end results can be quite funny.

When Mum is sick:

When you are sick, it doesn't mean a wasted day. If you aren't up to the chores, leave them. They will still be there when you are better.
Instead, use that time to sit and sort through some paperwork under a blanket, or write your shopping list. Plan a day out with the kids in detail, ready for when you are better or for the summer. Sit and assess your finances and look on comparison websites to see what savings you could be making. Do some blogging or scrapbooking. or organise your photos on your laptop, ready for printing. Start putting together ideas for Christmas, not just pressies, but new activities or family traditions you'd like to introduce. Reassess your family routines or set up new reward systems for the kids.
There are so many things that you can be doing while you are sick that will stop you from feeling guilty about having a lazy day. I used today's sick day to start work on this blog that I have been promising myself I would do for ages.

And remember, if you really don't feel up to doing anything, then just read or watch telly. You are not super-human, you need time to rest and recharge every once in a while.

Why This Blog?

URGH!

If there is one thing I hate, it is those perfect mothers with their perfect kids and their perfect figures and their perfect hair and nails and their perfect homes. You know the ones I mean, the Stepford Mothers! They all drive pristine cars that never have a mark on them and they all live in those perfectly perfect houses that don't have a speck of dust or a single toy EVER on the living room floor. Their dining room never looks used, they are never picking popcorn out of their sofa after movie night and they never EVER run out of toilet roll.

Why do I hate those mothers? Because I want to be one! I want to have the perfectly organised kitchen cupboards, I want the bath tub that never looks bathed in, I want the kids who never shout and NEVER have mud on them, but who instead sit and read quietly and play tennis on our own private court.

Wait... Tennis? OK, scratch that. I'll just have the strawberries and Pimms thank you very much! But truthfully... Do I really want that life or am I just fantasising about a TV fairytale? Do I really want to be worried about mud when I want to splash in puddles with my kids? Of course not. Do I really care if every spice jar is in alphabetical order? Hell no! But do I want the kids to stop screaming at each other and pick up their toys before I break my neck? Of course I do.

Do I want to manage to have children AND a career? Yes please! I really would like to have my own identity and my own income as well as doing the most important job in the world, raising my kids.

So how do we manage this between falling over toys, holding dinner parties for twelve year olds and scrubbing the loo? How do we get the balance between disaster and Stepford?

Welcome to Mother Aspirations... Please join me as I find out...

xSx