I'm Not The Mum I thought I Was Going To Be.

When I was pregnant with the nine year old I had visions of being a homely, mother nature type with all sorts of arts and crafts on offer, making school dress-up costumes being generally fantastic.

I'm not sure what hit me. First off nine year old was a prem baby so that was a bit of a shock.  Because of spending time in SCBU he was in a routine from the day he came home and he slept fairly well at night.  So why couldn't I get manage to get dressed before midday? 

Four and a half years later along came the now four year old.  Although not premature, she was  high risk and also spent time in SCBU. Hello baby in a routine, I quite liked this!

The four year old has never played with play-doh at home. I learnt from when the nine year old was a toddler that it gets mushed into balls of hard stuff that have turned khaki green and get trodden into the carpet where I have to get on my hands and knees to scrape it up and pick at it for hours.  We don't paint, (too messy), we rarely bake, (too messy).  Felt tips are smuggled out of the house like I'm a Colombian drug dealer.  I "re-cycle" the reams of artwork produced at nursery. I mean I keep the best bits but the rest is hidden under a newspaper in the recycling box.

I made one costume for World Book Day when nine year old was in reception..

note I was on maternity leave then.  

He's only had two other proper dress up days, one I sent him in as George from Roald Dahl's book "George's Marvellous Medicine"  (red jumper and jeans). The other he went as Harry Hill, bald head wig & glasses from joke shop, a school blazer from eBay and a few badges and pens. 

Can you see how much effort I put in?  

I'm definitely not the Mum I thought I was going to be, hopefully the kids haven't noticed and are happy with the Mum I am.