Are you still doing that blogging thing?

Eight years ago to the day, I sat on the sofa with my laptop and decided to start a blog. After spending many hours reading blogs over the course of my maternity leave with Tigger. Many of which were stay at home mums, who shared what life was like at home with a baby/toddler. As I was about to return to work following maternity, I thought it might be a good time to share what life as a working mum was like.

I wasn’t entirely sure about what I was doing but managed to stumble my way into setting up a Blogger blog. Selecting my nickname Boo (from Monsters Inc. – as I used to like wearing my short hair in pigtails), along with those of my then two children Roo (as we bought lots of Roo items whilst we were pregnant with her and it just stuck) and Tigger (as he bounced around so much whilst I was pregnant).

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Coming to the end…

Just like that Boo Roo and Tigger Too was started, with my very first blog post ‘coming to the end‘ giving a little glimpse into how I was feeling about returning to work. Something I didn’t want to do, however, financially I wasn’t able to stay at home. So it was back to work I was destined to go, albeit part-time hours around Roo being at school.

For the first year or so, I think most of my posts were me complaining about juggling work with childcare – or the lack of it as the case usually was. With children being ill and having to leave work early, only to return again once What The Dad Said got home from work so that I could make up my hours. The heartbreaking childcare juggles in the work car park between colleagues who had agreed to look after the children so you could work when the school/nursery was closed over Christmas. With little family support, it was difficult to find the balance. It is still is.

During my lunch break, I would type up blog posts and email them to myself at home so that I could copy and paste them over. Ensuring that I was able to post semi-regularly as well as be there for the children at home. However, up until I was made redundant, none of my work colleagues knew about my blog. I’m not entirely sure why I never spoke to them about it. If I’m honest, I didn’t really get a great reaction from family members who I told about my blog, so figured that they would feel the same.

A living room filled with furniture and a large window

Life has moved on

Eight years down the line, my family life has changed somewhat. We have welcomed Piglet into our family and I am now a work from home mum. Redundancy gave me the push to work harder to ensure that I’m able to make blogging a full-time role and work around the needs and 101 after school commitments that they have.

Three years ago saw us finally relocate to the city, so that What The Dad Said could be closer to his then day job (although this has all changed this year with a new work/life balance). Whilst it was a bit of a change for us all, I do believe that it is something that we should have done years ago. Possibly even when we first found out that we were expecting Roo. As we were in the middle of selling out first flat and buying a house. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Why blogging?

Blogging started as an outlet for me, a chance to share my thoughts and feelings about being a working mum. To give an insight into all those who believe that working mums have it easy. That dropping our children into childcare and heading off for a few hours or a whole day without having to look after them is the easier option. I’ve had the comments about why have children if you’re not going to look after them. At the time I’m able to laugh it off, change the subject etc. However, it is hurtful and by no means is going out to work the easy option for a parent.

Nowadays, my blog is my job, it is my source of income. Something which I will be eternally grateful for. I’m able to work around the needs of the family (just about). I get to attend the story and reading cafes, I get to volunteer to go on school trips, to help out and listen to children read etc. This comes at a price, which will see me tapping away on my laptop until late in the evening so catch up on those hours lost during the day. Thankfully blogging and social media never sleeps so it doesn’t matter if I’m publishing a post late in the evening or first thing in the morning.