parenting

Why I Love My Stomach Rolls

Rookie Mom
Last week at yoga, I was effectively forced to stare at pools of sweat gathering in my stomach rolls. The pose had me sitting down, folded over, head hanging into my lap, looking at my belly. I don’t what this yoga pose is actually called. Probably Folded Moon or Curled Up Squirrel or something like…
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How To Be A Better Parent All The Time At Everything

Rookie Mom
Dear Parent, You’re probably thirty-something. You probably have a child or two under the age of four. You never knew you could feel SO MUCH LOVE, but you also never knew it was going to be THIS HARD. There are moments of sheer delight, but they’re often separated by long, mundane hours that range from…
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Rookie Mom: A Pretty Ordinary Day

Rookie Mom
4.00am – “MAMA! I’m awake! Look, it’s a morning! What’s today?” We’ll never go out of style – T.S Stumbling out of bed, I switch on the kettle. One bottle of rooibos tea with honey, one bottle of formula, one cup of green tea. The boys and I lie on the couch sipping on our…
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Rookie Mom: How to Partner with Teachers

Rookie Mom
First days. If you live in South Africa, this week your Facebook feed has been filled with pictures of kids on their first day of school. If you’re like me, you’ve been sending messages back and forth about kids who are fine, mothers who are not, hints of tears and declarations of wine. When I imagine having…
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Are You a Terrible Parent?

Rookie Mom
This is a photo of Will crying because another child was playing on the part of the jungle gym he was playing in before we left the jungle gym to have a snack. Obviously. Last week, I was informed by a perfect stranger in a public place that I was a terrible parent. When a…
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What My Father Taught Me

Rookie Mom
“Don’t you wish you had a son?” This question was often directed at my father, who has three daughters of which I am the oldest. Every time, he answered surely and quickly, “Nope. I love being a dad to girls.” And he really does. Even when the house was full of GHDs, giggling girls and…
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Word of the Day: BRAVE

Rookie Mom
Maybe its because I’m now officially in my thirties. Maybe its because of the whole marriage-children thing. Maybe its because the WiFi signal I’m on keeps freaking dropping. Everything is so hard! But it seems like everything is SO HARD. And not just for me. I bet you can think of people you know, people who…
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Parenting is Not a Profession

Rookie Mom
Along with the chocolates, flowers and – wait, NOTHING FOR ME BECAUSE ALL MY BOYS DID NOT DO ANYTHING (insert sheepish apology from Husband here), Mother’s Day came and went with dozens of viral blogs and videos. They ranged from extolling motherhood as the hardest “job” in the world to lamenting the emphasis of mothering…
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A Tribute to All the Mombies – My Messy, Beautiful

Rookie Mom
Yes. He’s wearing Cross Fit exercise arm bands. You may be wondering what a Mombie is, but you’ve seen her at the Mall. Dark rings under her bloodshot eyes. No make up. Cereal smeared down her shirt. Her toddler is crying because he can’t hold his truck and his juice bottle in the same hand,…
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