Tag Archives: parenting

Frost Loves LittleLife Backpacks

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Children seem to come with a lot of paraphernalia. Even when they are out of nappies and off to nursery. No parent wants to go out without a snack and some crayons. Frost loves the LittleLife Toddler Backpack. Fun and fabulous, they also come with a detachable Parents Safety Rein. The backpacks make your tot feel independent but the reins and the great handle on top give safety. This brilliant backpack is a rather cool unicorn. There are other styles available. Frost recommends.

Unicorn Toddler Backpack. Ideal for both nursery and family days out and about, the Unicorn Toddler Backpack doubles as an approved British Safety Rein, perfect for helping mini-explorers to find their feet.

 

The ultimate choice for unicorn-mad children (and their parents!), the magical new backpack features a pretty rainbow and star pattern paired with a special, sparkly silver horn and fluffy pink wings. Retaining all of the much-loved features usually found in a LittleLife Toddler Backpack, the bag has a 2-litre zipped compartment that can be used to store toys, an extra layer or a snack for days out and about. A name and address label on the interior of the backpack means it is less likely to go astray at pre-school or nursery.

 

Designed to comfortably fit children aged between 1-3, the Unicorn Toddler Backpack features fully adjustable and padded shoulder straps in a striking ice-blue colour. These are combined with a pink chest strap that can be tightened securely to prevent the backpack from slipping off little shoulders. Offering parental security without impacting on your toddler’s newfound independence, the backpack comes with a detachable Parents Safety Rein that transforms the fun bag into a BSEN-approved set of reins.

 

The Safety Rein can be clipped on when greater control is needed, yet detached to allow them to toddle free when desired. For even greater practicality, the backpack has a top grab handle – perfect for balancing children as they learn to walk.

 

For more information about the Unicorn Toddler Backpack visit  www.littlelife.com.

 

The Empowered Mama

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the empowered mama, parenting, motherhoodThe Empowered Mama

The Empowered Mama is a practical and interactive workbook full of simple, powerful tools to help moms reconnect with themselves on the journey through motherhood.

Moms often try to juggle the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker while also being professional, competent woman. Many moms feel like they can’t take time to replenish their bodies and minds despite their many roles. There’s just not enough time in the day, and it seems selfish to take time when families and work still demand more.

The Empowered Mama is a practical workbook full of simple, powerful tools to help you reconnect with yourself on the journey through motherhood. Author Lisa Druxman uplifts, inspires, and takes moms on a journey not just to rediscover themselves, but to fall in love with motherhood again. Whether you are a working mom or a stay-at-home mom, this book will add balance to your life.

Since there will never be more hours in the day, The Empowered Mama will help you maximize the hours you do have to accomplish what matters most. This guide focuses on all parts of a mom’s life — work relationships, built-up stressors, cleaning up your diet, even going green and being more mindful about the environment — all with the intuitive understanding that getting the rest of your life in order will only reap huge dividends for your family.

I really loved this interactive book. It was impossible to not be inspired. I found myself nodding along as I read, happy that it was not just me, or feeling enlightened by the shared experience. Particularly in the part that explained why you still feel like crap after having a baby: baby sling wearing, tiredness, pushing a pram, sore muscles…. The Empowered Mama is full of quotes, exercises and information to make you the best you can be. It is easy to neglect yourself when you are a mother and anything that makes you focus on yourself is to be applauded. This book makes you the best you. Brilliant stuff.

The Empowered Mama is available here. 

 

The Fourth Trimester Companion: How to Take Care of Your Body, Mind, and Family as You Welcome Your New Baby

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baby, new baby, parenting, A well-cared-for baby is a baby whose mother is taking care of herself. Put simply: good mother care Is good baby care. 

That’s the core of the Fourth Trimester concept. In recent years doctors, nurses, midwives, and others involved in providing baby care have adopted this vital concept enthusiastically. The Fourth Trimester emphasizes that how a mother takes care of herself in the first three months of a new baby’s life brings crucial benefits for her, for her baby, and for her partner and family.

With this important new book, moms (as well as their partners and other caregivers, whether lay or professional) now have the resources to have an ideal Fourth Trimester experience. Cynthia Gabriel, a doula and the author of the best-selling book Natural Hospital Birth, delivers all the information, guidance, and encouragement new mothers need to take care of their bodies, minds, and spirits during the vital months of the Fourth Trimester—so that they feel their best and so their babies have the best possible chance to thrive.

This is a great book to help mothers- and fathers- get through a difficult time. Full of great, accessible information, this book is enjoyable to read. It is like having a friend with you. It is US based but is still relevant to UK readers. Highly recommended.
The Fourth Trimester Companion: How to Take Care of Your Body, Mind, and Family as You Welcome Your New Baby is available here.

Frost Loves: Hape Pound N Tap Bench

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hape, toys, reviews, This glorious musical toy arrived at the weekend. Much to the delight of the Frost toddler. The Frost baby was also fascinated by the colour and the noise, but was swiftly moved along for being too young to play with it. It is a smart idea and well made. As all Hape toys are. Lots of fun is to be had with this and the xylophone also pulls out and can be played with individually. Frost loves….

The Hape pound and tap bench features a pull out xylophone and pounding station. Explore cause and effect as balls drop when they hit the pounding area which sends the balls tinkling over the xylophone. Pull out the keyboard and the xylophone can be played solo. Experiment with playful rhythm patterns for a musical delight and sound experience

 

Suitable from 12 Months+ The Hape Pound N Tap Bench is available from Poppets for £24.95.

mush – a new app that brings mums together

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Becoming a mother can be incredibly isolating. Which is why Frost got very excited to hear about mush, a free app that lets mothers find each other. It is basically Tinder for mums.

mush is a new free app for mums that was born out of the difficulty its two founders had after having their second babies. Katie was fresh back from New York and Sarah had beaten her other mum friends to a second baby. They awkwardly exchanged numbers in a cold playground on their first chance meeting. Both of them needed to find someone to share those difficult days at home with small children, and felt that the serendipitous approach to making mum friends was just not good enough in 2016 in a world that was so well serviced with other ‘dating’ apps. mush has been described as Tinder meets mother’s group and matches mums according to their location, kids’ ages and mutual friends.

 

The mush app has three core functions:

 

  • Mushmatcher – to find mums based on an algorithm of kids’ ages, location and mutual friends
  • Let’s mush- to plan events with mums and organise your mummy diary, seeing who is free to play right now
  • Mushguides – content written by mum for mums, to inspire mums to make their lives easier and have more fun

 

mush will show which of your connections are free right now, based on the insight that it’s hard to plan ahead with small kids. It will also allow you to create groups of mums for messaging and support as well as having a content hub designed to give practical and positive information to parents and parents-to-be.

 

mush has received backing from a number of private investors and a social impact fund and is available to download from the app store and google play.

 

A survey of 4000 mums showed the following:

  • half of mums find it hard to plan with kids
  • 80% of mums prefer to go to playgroup with a friend
  • 22% mums only have one local mum friend (62% have 4 or less local mum friends)
  • half go to the shops primarily for adult interraction
  • half find it hard to make local mum friends
  • 60% of mums go a full day without adult interaction
  • 82% of mums thinks having mum friends makes you a happier. more positive mum

 

Find out more at www.letsmush.com.

 

More about the founders.

 

Katie Massie-Taylor, 33, Mortlake, London

Katie was an equity derivatives broker in the City having graduated from Bristol University in BA Hons Spanish. She was one of  8 female brokers on a thousand-strong male trading floor, so learnt pretty early that she needed to hustle for her business wins (though not literally, that would be illegal). She joined a currency trading start-up as her first foray into the entrepreneur world, then tried a number of other industries when she tired of the busy City entertaining circus. She worked in a PR agency, a member network subscription service and most recently as a matchmaker in New York for high end clients looking for love.  Mush is an amalgamation of all of her previous skills, having always known she would end up with a business of her own.

She met her husband aged 13 (her brother’s best friend) and got married in 2011. Simon is Commercial Director at England RFU. She has two little girls Tilly, 3 and Lyla, 1. They have lived around South West London and in New York. It was her experience of moving twice with babies that made her realise the world was crying out for mush.

Sarah Hesz, 34, East Sheen, London

Sarah’s experience is from the world of advertising where she led business development and worked with global brands spanning the likes of Unilever and Dell. She has always dreamed of having a start up and previously launched an award-winning marketing agency. She has two kids (Rosie, 3 and Leo,1).

 

How they met

Sarah & Katie met in a playground on a cold and rainy day. They had 2 week old babies strapped to their fronts and sub-2 year olds hanging precariously from climbing frames. Katie was close to tears having moved back from New York, and Sarah was mateless in Mortlake having had babies in quick succession. Sarah approached Katie and asked for her number, with no preamble, which she jokes is the only chat-up line she has ever used. They kept each other sane for the weeks and months that followed, having realised they had facebook friends in common, lived three streets away and had kids of identical ages. Over one celebratory tea time eating pizza and drinking prosecco (celebrating their survival of that ‘fourth trimester’) they talked about the dream of setting up a company together and both landed on the loneliness issue they had experienced.. Mush was born. And then began the adventure.

Working around ad hoc childcare, the first few months were a blur of last minute meetings, breastfeeding and business plans. They secured funding a year after that celebratory tea, and launched in April 2016.

 

The mush start-up story

Mush is the lovechild of Sarah & Katie’s vision that no mum does it alone. They raised money (250k GBP) pre- product from various angel investors (only a few of whom they knew before the journey began- read they kissed a lot of frogs!) with their passion and their pitch deck. One institutional seed investor was Mustard Seed Social Impact, who focusses on companies who do social good.

 

Their app was developed in the Ukraine, and launched in April, and the app got immediate take up locally in SW London from a few flyers and posters in playgrounds. The majority of the 25,000 mush mums are in the UK, with groundswells of activity in New York and Melbourne.

 

Mush has opened its next round of funding for 950k GBP, which they will raise their angel investors and a Crowdcube campaign starting in November 2016. It will allow them to reach their goal: to be the biggest global social media platform for mums.

 

 

Plus One is The Loneliest Number: On The Loneliness of Motherhood

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lonely, loneliness of motherhood, loneliness of parenthood. the loneliness of being a parent, parenting, There are many hard things about parenthood. Some are obvious: sleepless nights, exhaustion, lack of me time, endless nappies. But there is one that is not talked about as much and that should be, and that is the crippling loneliness of motherhood (or fatherhood if the man is the stay-at-home parent). Now some people may wonder how you can be lonely when you are looking after a baby but here is the thing: they cannot talk. Even when they do start to talk you still crave adult company. You yearn for a decent conversation. A moment to relate to another human being can feel like a life-saving moment.

Since I had my son almost two years ago I have had moments of loneliness that were so extreme I felt like they might suffocate me. I have worked from home for years but I also went to a lot of events and reviewed restaurants. I talked to people, I interviewed people. I was important. Now I am just someone’s mother and the only person I have proper conversations with for weeks on end is my husband. I have always been a social person and there were times when I thought the isolation might break me. My family live in Scotland which I have found hard since having a child. My friends mostly work normal working hours.

It is not that I have not tried to make friends with other parents. We moved when my son was a baby and by the time I found groups to take him to people had already formed cliques. I tried to join in and be friends but the mean girl vibe does not wane when (some) women grow up and become mothers. Other times I would connect with someone and think we were going to become friends, only to never see them again. It wasn’t that I did not try. I really put myself out there and the constant rejection only made it worse.

I believe we have to talk more about how lonely being a parent can be. There are thousands of parents struggling to just get through the day. They are isolated and can go for weeks without any other human contact. There are now apps for mothers to meet up like Mush which is a tinder style app for mothers to meet up with each other. It is growing in popularity and I hope every mother who needs someone to talk to joins up.

Now that my son is nearly two I feel I have come out the other side. I take him to numerous events. He has a better social life than I do. Recently I have found that I have become friends with the other mothers from one of the groups I take him to. The mean girls have fallen away, leaving only a hard core group who go at least once a week. Last week we all talked for hours as our children played. I could tell that it made these mothers happy to have someone to talk to. Some were shocked when I started talking to them properly but we quickly got into the swing of it. We even shared tips for making more mum friends. It was a wonderful moment and a long time coming. I hope it is only the start.

 

This article was originally published on Feb 21, 2017. We republished it because it was popular.

Hape The Rainbow Route Railway and Station Set Review

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So the every spoiled Frost toddler has yet again had his eyes light up. A train fanatic at the best of times, he spends hours building his train sets and playing with his trains. So this Hape The Rainbow Route Railway and Station Set was sure to be a hit, and, boy, was it so. It is the ultimate train set. There is a little of everything to keep the toddler entertained for hours while you have a G&T, sorry, I mean, get on with work or chores. There is a musical element in the shape of a xylophone and tambourine track, as well as some puzzle tracks. The track is bright and fun with plenty to educate as well as entertain. We cannot say just how much we love this train set for little ones. It is the perfect gift for any special occasion. Frost loves, and so does the Frost toddler. 

Hape inject a pop of bright colors with added fun and entertainment, transforming your traditional train sets into something like never before with The Rainbow Route Railway and Station Set. Perfectly suited to your toddler’s attention span around every corner excitement awaits as children aboard a journey fuelled with music and color!

With The Rainbow Route Railway and Station Set little ones have everything they could ever need, perfect for all those budding railway enthusiasts. Creating music to your ears, this set includes a number of musically interactive elements. Find your way through the bead maze then journey onwards taking the bumpy road across the tambourine track, but beware it isn’t just all fun and games as a problem solving puzzle await, sort the different shapes to venture safely back.

But what’s missing? Every railway set needs a station, and how about decoration? Why not add some beautiful trees to your railroad? With this 30 piece set nothing has been missed to create the ultimate experience.

Creating an opportunity for little ones to work in perfect harmony, this set encourages interaction between peers, ideal for entertaining the kids this summer and getting some peace and quiet.  There is no mistaking the fact that this track is sure to head to the top of the toy box.

As a treat for both the eyes and ears with the sights and sounds track, Hape‘s railway collection can grow along with your little ones as you add additional tracks and elements to suit the development of your child, sparking imagination and creativity in the youngest of railway fans.

The Rainbow Route Railway & Station Set is suitable for ages 18M + and is available to buy online from Amazon.

Designed first and foremost for the child, Hape make only the best for your little ones. Using only natural materials and water based paints while exceeding quality and safety standards, make an investment that matters to encouraging endless fun and laughter.

MumsThread On Parents Taking It Easy On Themselves

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baby, shared parental leave, feminism, equality, childcare, leave, maternal, work, working mothers, lean inThis column is late. It’s late because my son was ill. But mostly, it is late because I decided to take it easy on myself. We are doing our Christmas gift lists at the moment and they are a huge amount of work. That on top of all of my other jobs and activities, along with caring for an ill child, meant I was working hard and working a lot. So I decided to be easier on myself. Not killing myself by overworking, getting a takeaway so we didn’t have to cook, or going into the playpen with the toddler so you don’t have to chase him around the home. Unless you are a surgeon, or you work in a war zone, parenting is the hardest job in the world. It is 24/7 with no sick days. But you already know that. What you might not be doing is taking it easy on yourself. So I am going to tell you of because self care is important. Be kind to yourself. That is the only way you can be the best parent to your child. Here are some tips for you to help you take it easier on yourself.

 

Prioritise.

Some things are important, and those should always be done. Others can wait. Sure the oven needs cleaned but you have been on your feet all day and it can wait a few days. Every day do what really needs done, anything else can wait.  As for cleaning, make your home as clean and tidy as you are comfortable with. Unless you really want to, don’t waste your time making your home look like a show home. Your time is limited, don’t waste it cleaning.

 

Life Hacks.

There is usually an easier way to do something. A quicker way to cook, an easier way to clean, a better way to do your work quicker. Efficiency is important when you have a child. Cook one pot meals, it cuts down on cleaning afterwards and is quicker. Always cook too much so the extra can be used for lunch or supper the next day. Do your emails on the go, or when you are out and the baby is napping in the pram. Make sure you get the other half to pull their weight. That always makes a difference.

 

Don’t care what other people think. Know that compromise is fine. 

So what if your child is not wearing matching socks, If sometimes you feed him food from a jar or that you sometimes need to put a cartoon on? The most infuriating thing when you have a child is that everyone has an opinion on how you should raise them. That’s fine. Every one is allowed an opinion, but they should have the grace to keep it to themselves. It is your child, not theirs. Good for her, not for you. People will be rude and sometimes bitch. Ignore them. They clearly don’t care about your feelings, so don’t care about theirs. I have no childcare. I work and take care of my son. I do it well and I do it efficiently. My son rarely watches cartoons during the day, it doesn’t stop people bitching the times that he does. And on the subject of cartoons: I don’t get the snobby attitude towards TV. I know for a fact that some cartoons have helped my son progress. Say this aloud: screw them and screw their opinion. For extra help read the The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k: How to stop spending time you don’t have doing things you don’t want to do with people you don’t like it is a great book for clearing your mental clutter.

 

Clear the physical clutter.

 

The thing that has made the most difference to my life is clearing out clutter. The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to worry about. The less things to clean and the easier the surface area is to clean. It just makes sense that the less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to worry about. Personally, it has made such a difference to my stress levels and our home is looking much better.

 

Do you have any tips? Share them below.

 

 

This article was originally published in December 2016. We republished it because it was popular.