I’ve had two babies. I’m expecting my third any day now. During those first days and weeks, I received a number of gifts from friends and family. And I have truly appreciated every single person who visited and every single gift that was brought. But after all these years, and many conversations with new and veteran mothers, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is something very wrong about this ‘tradition’.
I was listening to a podcast about juggling motherhood and a business and something was mentioned about tricky people. It was completely irrelevant and not discussed further but it hit a nerve so I decided to look into it. It turns out everything we knew and have been telling our kids about strangers should be revised because tricky people are the new strangers.
I spend a lot of time in my car. We don’t live close to Georgie’s school so everyday I have a good hour seated behind a steering wheel. Traffic used to be a problem but not anymore because I have discovered podcasts! I’m actually not even ashamed to admit that I would rather click the podcast app on my phone and connect it to the car audio system instead of blasting my usual tunes. I might be a bit late to the podcast party nevertheless because I find them so freaking awesome and have become obsessed I wanted to share my favourite ones, so far.
The brilliant authors of How To Talk So Kids Will Listen came up with this one. Which I have to say is more of a habit you have to get used to than a simple catchphrase or single word. But it works! And it saves you hours of lecturing and losing your mind.
The other day a family friend looked at my bump and said the nicest thing: Wow! Such a cute little belly. You look great! I was caught off-guard because usually people are quick to note that I look huge but I gave her a big smile, said thank you and went on to explain that as this is my third pregnancy I feel I have become an expert in ‘dressing the bump’.