Tag Archives: mothering

Frost Loves: ‘Things I Wish I’d Known’ by parenting influencer Emily Norris

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* The long-awaited book from the undisputed doyenne of mum-hacks, Emily Norris *

THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN:

My hacks for a tidy home, happy kids and a calmer you

Things I Wish I’d Known is the go-to guide for easy and original mum hacks and habits. Packed with honest, gimmick-free and relatable advice to create a more harmonious family life from the much-loved influencer with over a million followers, Emily Norris, it’s the ultimate parenting guide.

Like Emily Morris I am a mum-of-three children. It is full-on and a happy chaos. Parenting is joyful and full of the highest of highs, but it is also hard and relentless. Anything that can make your life easier can make a huge difference. Emily Norris’s book is full of absolute gems I will be incorporating into my life. From slow cooker hot chocolate stations to rainy day hacks Emily Norris is a master of the lifestyle hack.

Things I Wish I’d Known is a fantastic resource to elevate your life and make parenting easier. Few people enjoy doing housework and there is plenty in this book to make it easier. The book is broken into sections and is easy-to-read and find whatever gem you loved again. This book is fantastic resource for parents and I can’t recommend it enough.

“Being a parent is hard. It can be boring and lonely and stressful and it’s OK to say that out loud. But I truly believe that even the mundane side of motherhood can actually be rather lovely: there is joy to be found even in the mundane.

My motherhood journey hasn’t always been plain-sailing. I’d gone from being a busy marketing director to just ‘mummy’. I loved being a full-time mum to my boys, but I missed the adult interaction I’d had at work and, as a result, my self-confidence took a knock. One thing I really enjoyed was getting tips and ideas from other mums on YouTube. Picking up simple tricks while juggling the ups and downs of motherhood saved me precious time, energy and money – they even saved my sanity on more than one occasion!

Every single hack and habit I’ve written about has been tried and tested on my own family and I hope make Things I Wish I’d Known the ultimate go-to resource for all things parenting – and I hope helps make your everyday a little easier.” – Emily Norris

Things I Wish I’d Known is separated into five sections. The first four – Home Sweet Home, Food, Glorious Food, Travel & Holidays, School Rules – are split into two parts: one for hacks (a quick, clever, and often fun solution to a parenting problem and something you can implement right away) and another for habits (a longer term, behavioural and routine-based remedy focussed on running your household as efficiently as possible).

·       Rainy day remedies including boredom beating activities such as mess-free painting, the painters’ tape assault course and learning ping-pong

·       Nifty ways to tackle that housework to-do list, from the ‘one touch method’ to the essential cleaning products you can make at home

·       Timesaving culinary tricks you’ll wish you’d known sooner including tips to make mealtimes easy, delicious easy-to-follow recipes for all the family and yummy snack ideas your kids will love

·       The must-read guide to managing the school holidays, from how to survive long journeys, beach hacks and the unexpected essentials you’ve got to take with you

·       Top hacks for the school routine, including time-saving tips for navigating the dash to the school gates, hassle-free homework and co-ordinating those extra-curricular activities 

In the fifth and final section, Emily looks at some of the ‘bigger picture’ issues around parenting, often discussed on her channel, such as sleep, boundary pushing and post-baby relationships with partners.

And sprinkled throughout the pages are Emily’s ‘Moment For You’ ideas to encourage busy mum’s to press pause on everything else and prioritise yourself for a little while.

Emily Norris, mum of 3 and YouTuber, has been creating positive, upbeat and sanity-saving content for mothers with young families around the world since 2014. She has created a space on the internet to support others in navigating the highs and lows of motherhood through sharing her infamous hacks and habits, all designed to create a more harmonious life for any family.

With over a decade of experience Emily has built a community of over a million followers cementing her reputation as a trusted voice within the industry. Emily is an ambassador for industry giants P&G and has partnered with household brands including, Disney, Microsoft, Sky,Dyson, Google, Tesco, EGO, KiwiCo and HelloFresh to name a few. Emily shares her raw and honest take on motherhood and is an advocate for ‘doing your best’ and is regularly praised by the mainstream media for her ‘mind-blowing’ and ‘genius’ hacks.

Emily’s community spirit was the inspiration behind her YouTube series ‘Hack your Home’. Putting her hacks and habits into practice, the series see’s Emily clean and re-organise the homes of those in need of a helping hand. Emily and her husband Matt have recently completed their dream home renovation which they documented across their home account @emilynorrishome.

Things I Wish I’d Known: My hacks for a tidy home, happy kids and a calmer you by Emily Norris will be published on 7 March 2024 (Ebury, Hardback, £16.99)

Mother: An Unconventional History By Sarah Knott

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mother an unconventional history by sark knott, book, book reviews, mothering, being a mother

Mother: An Unconventional History By Sarah Knott is a unique and fascinating book. An intoxicating blend of history, autobiography and anthropology. I loved it and read through it as quickly as possible. It brings women from every social class and time together. Essential reading for all mothers.

What was mothering like in the past?

When acclaimed historian Sarah Knott became pregnant, she asked herself this question. But accounts of motherhood are hard to find. For centuries, historians have concerned themselves with wars, politics and revolutions, not the everyday details of carrying and caring for a baby. Much to do with becoming a mother, past or present, is lost or forgotten.

Using the arc of her own experience, from miscarriage to the birth and early babyhood of her two children, Sarah Knott explores the ever-changing habits and experiences of motherhood across the ages. Drawing on a disparate collection of fascinating material – interrupted letters, hastily written diary entries, a line from a court record or a figure in a painting – Mother vividly brings to life the lost stories of ordinary women.

From the labour pains felt by a South Carolina field slave to the triumphant smile of a royal mistress pregnant with a king’s first son; from a 1950s suburban housewife to a working-class East Ender taking her baby to the factory; from a pioneer with eight children to a 1970s feminist debating whether to have any; these remarkable tales of mothering create a moving depiction of an endlessly various human experience.

Available here.

On Becoming a Mother When Your Own Mother Lives Far Away

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pregnancyWhile becoming a mother brings on a tsunami of new emotions, becoming a mother when your own mother lives in another country (or kingdom in my case, I live in London, my mother lives in Scotland), adds a tornado to the mix. I remember walking around The Baby Show while heavily pregnant, trying to bury down the melancholy because it seemed that every other woman was there with her mother.

My mother was there for the birth of my son. Not in the room, but she came down for the week. Unfortunately I was in labour for five of those days and she barely got to see her grandson before she had to head back up to Scotland. He was born in April and she didn’t get to see him again until January and is only seeing him again now, in October. It is slim pickings indeed. It hurts as she misses the milestones. It hurts that she doesn’t see him on a regular basis, get to cuddle him and breathe him in. We FaceTime and that makes a difference, but as the months go by it just isn’t enough.

It has been hard being without my family a lot in my life, but it is so much worse after you have a child. My brother has childcare whenever he needs it, day or night. My mother saw my nephew grow and become the 5-year-old he is today. I missed seeing my nephew grow up. When I saw him after a 6-months or 12-months gap I would not recognise him at first. Such was the incredulousness of this little boy being the baby that was my nephew. My mother even missed my son’t birthday weekend. We both felt that.

I only saw my mother once when I was pregnant and by that time I was six months gone. I had an awful pregnancy and missed having my family around me. I wish I could take my mother to the park with my son, have lunch with her, see him cuddle her and take her by the hand. It has been almost ten years since I moved to London. I always knew the move was permanent, but I was so young getting married and having children didn’t enter my head. Raising your own family so far away from your own can feel like a stake to the heart. I miss my family everyday, but more than that; I miss them seeing my son grow up. I guess the upside is that when we are with them we make the most of it. It is all the sweeter for being rare. It is a small consolation.

Why Mothers Stop Breastfeeding

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GentleIt’s not your imagination– all babies go through a difficult period around the same age. Research by Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D., authors of The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical, has shown that babies make 10 major, predictable, age-linked changes – or leaps – during their first 20 months of their lives taking place around weeks 5, 8, 12, 19, 26, 37, 46, 55, 64 and 75. During this time, they will learn more than in any other time. With each leap comes a drastic change in your baby’s mental development, which not only affects his mood, his health, sleeping patterns and the “three C’s” (crying, clinging and crankiness) but also… babies drinking and comfort seeking habits. Unfortunately these Wonder Weeks are often a reason for moms who do not know about these wonder weeks, to stop breast-feeding their child.

With every new wonder week a baby gets a totally new perception of the world. Every Wonder Week is like waking up on a strange planet. A baby did not ask for this, did not see it coming, but suddenly this whole new world was there. What would you do? You would retreat to a well-known and safe place. For a baby that is mom. How would you do that? By literally clinging to your mom. Being one with her, holding on tight and the best way to do that would be via literally sucking yourself to your mom. This is where breast-feeding and Wonder Weeks meet. Whilst on the one hand Wonder weeks are in fact something good and signal progress in development, on the other hand, when the Wonder Weeks are misunderstood, they are often the reason moms give up breastfeeding.

“My daughter was crying so much that I was afraid something was terribly wrong. She wanted to breastfeed constantly. I took her to see the pediatrician, but he couldn’t find anything wrong with her. He said he just needed to get used to my milk and that many infants went through a similar crying phase at 5 weeks. I thought that is was a strange thing to say, because she hadn’t had any problems with my milk until then. Her cousin, who was the same age, kept crying, too, but he was being bottle-fed. When I told the doctor that, he pretended he hadn’t heard, I didn’t push the subject though. I found out about wonder weeks later on, but I keep on wondering why nobody told me about these wonder weeks earlier.” – Julitte’s mom, 5th week

Wonder Weeks and the milk doubting moms:

Wonder Weeks: One of the reasons mothers stop breastfeeding? As the baby gets more Clingy, Cries more and is more Cranky during a wonder week, many mothers start doubting themselves. Are they doing something wrong? If a baby wants to drink so often, does this mean they do not have enough milk? Or is their milk not good enough? Moms who know their baby is in a wonder week, don’t doubt themselves or their milk.

“Around the third wonder week my daughter suddenly started nursing less. After 5 minutes, she would start playing around with my nipple. After that had gone on for two weeks, I decided to start supplementing my milk with formula, but she wouldn’t have any of that either. This phase lasted 4 weeks. During that time I worried she would suffer from some kind of nutrition deficiency, especially when I saw my milk supply starting to diminish. But now she is drinking like she used to again, and my milk supply is as plentiful as ever. Now I know this is normal behavior during a wonder week. I never doubted my milk again since I know when these wonder weeks are.”
– Hannah’s mom, 19 th week.

Wonder Weeks and the exhausted moms:
Even the moms not doubting their milk sometimes give up breastfeeding. Simply because the impact of the leap on the behavior of their child is wearing them out. The moms that know about Wonder Weeks tend to be less exhausted as they know what is happening and that Wonder Weeks are actually a good thing.

Wonder Weeks and the mom of a six month old:
One of the most difficult leaps is the one of relationships, around six months after due date. The exact same time breast milk alone is not enough anymore and most parents start to give solid food as well. Mom is exhausted from the leap, doesn’t sleep or sleeps very poorly, while at the same time her child needs food. Just days after giving the first ‘meals’, the baby is in a much better mood. Often moms explain this whole sequence of events wrongly and seem to think their child was in need of other milk than theirs. While in fact the child just went through another leap and finished the leap when he turned six months.

Wonder Weeks and nipple cracks or abrasions:
Pain is, logically, one of the reasons moms want to stop feeding their child. When a child is in a Wonder Week he wants to drink many times more often than is normally the case. As this is one of the only times a baby is quiet, a mom doesn’t really pay as much attention to the feeding process as she normally would. Often resulting in wrong feeding positions, resulting in i.e. cracked nipples.

Making parents aware of Wonder weeks will enable parents to understand their baby’s behavior much better and will help many moms to continue feeding their child and to make sure these Wonder Weeks are not a reason to give up.

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. and Dr. Hetty van de Rijt Ph.D. discovered the leap phenomenon while studying chimpanzee mother infant relationships in the Gombe National Park, Tanzania, East-Africa together with Jane Goodall. They are the authors of the book The Wonder Weeks: How to Stimulate Your Baby’s Mental Development and Help Him Turn His 10 Predictable, Great, Fussy Phases Into Magical

Dr. Frans Plooij Ph.D. is always willing to educate professionals about these Wonder weeks, or answer questions via Skype or email. He regularly has Skype sessions with moms around the world.