HausFrauBlog.com

Succesfully appealing for a primary school place

I recently wrote about the great news that I won the appeal for Harrison’s school place. Ridiculously, we moved in 500m away from the school and we didn’t get in. The headteacher at the school we appealed for said that he’s never seen anybody win an infant class size appeal in the 14 years he’s been at the school so he was impressed!

I obviously thought we had a strong case, and so did the…

Visiting Berlin with children

While I visited Berlin without children, I can’t ever quite get out of ‘mum mode’ so I’m always thinking about what I’d do with my children.

At the airport, buy yourself a Berlin Welcome Card – The ABC pass covers you and up to 3 children on all forms of public transport while you’re there AND you can get discounts on some great things to do with the kids.

Ritter Sport ChocoWorld – see how…

An apology to my second child…

Dear Elodie/Ellie/Elle/Belle

You’re so lucky to have an older brother. He absolutely adores you. You’re his best friend, he loves you with all his heart and would do anything for you.

But sometimes being the younger sibling isn’t so great.

I’m sorry you get kicked and mauled and dragged around on a regular basis. (By your brother!!) He means no harm but he’s only 4. He really does love you.

I’m…

My top 10 things to do and see in Berlin

So we recently went to Berlin and I just wanted to write a quick post on what to do and see in Berlin, with a bit of advice now I’ve been there!

Buy your Berlin Welcome Card in the airport – it covers your travel on any form of public transport as well as giving you a guidebook with discounts of loads of restaurants, theatres, tours and museums.

Know the difference between S-Bahn with…

Our child-free trip to Berlin

Apparently turning 30 is quite a big deal so Mark wanted to do something special this year to celebrate his birthday. We decided to take a city break so set about looking for cheap flights. Then we decided, hey let’s push the boat out a bit further and go to Berlin.

As if you couldn’t tell by the name of the blog, I love Germany, Germans, anything German but can you believe I’d never been to…

My advice to a CHD family

Being told your child has a heart defect and needs surgery is probably one of the worst thing you will ever hear. Nothing can prepare you for it, especially when all the doctors and nurses have been saying, “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”

It’s been over 3 years since we found out about Bo’s defect and coming up 2 years since his operation so I thought I would share some things I’ve learnt.

Trying to feel like ‘me’ again after having kids

So I haven’t blogged in absolutely ages. I feel like I haven’t got the time but in reality I’m a stay at home mum with a baby who sleeps all the time so I probably could find the time if I tried not particularly hard.

But really I’ve just been having a weird time recently, personally. I don’t really know why but I think I’ve been having some sort of quarter life crisis and still trying to figure…

Annoying things to hear when you’re rejected for a job

I think there’s a theme here the moment with my latest posts. Job hunting is on my mind.

I’ve had some pretty bad luck with jobs and interviews and some of the feedback I get is just the worst!!

“If we had two jobs, then I’d definitely employ you.” 

Well, that’s great buddy. But you don’t have two jobs, do you? So what use is that platitude really? Man up.

“We decided to go with someone who was a…

My bad luck with jobs

I wrote about my most recent interview, trying to get back to work after having Elodie.

It was unsuccessful, but there were some definite positives from it and it gave me quite a confidence boost after being out of work for so long.

But I have had some real bad luck with trying to find a teaching job.

My first rejection wasn’t so bad. During the interview process, I was plonked in front of a…

My (futile) post-baby job search

So I recently decided that I want to go back to work and last week I had my first proper job interview in almost 2 years.

It was at a really good school, not too far from where I live, specialising in German, part-time. In short: perfect.

In the week leading up the interview, I wasn’t really that bothered. I spent quite a bit of time preparing my lesson, I felt pretty confident that it was good…

Thinking about going back to work

I feel like a terrible mum for saying this but recently my kids have been doing my head in.

I don’t think my 4 year old knows what the phrase ‘sit still’ means. He bounces out of bed at 6am and jumps in with me, grabs my phone and puts Cbeebies on full blast then demands breakfast.

He runs around all day. “Mummy, time me. See how fast I can go. One more time. One more time.” That goes on at least…

Recently, I was in town with a friend and we decided to go out for lunch. We popped into a nearby restaurant/pub type place, it looked like a nice place to go.

But we were told we weren’t welcome to eat there.

Why?

Because we had children.

Recently, my brother and his wife were looking for a new flat to rent in London. They found a place they liked, paid the fees and passed the checks.

But…

DILFs – my top 10 hot celebrity dads

Bo started a new pre-school in September and I was nicely surprised by the amount of dad’s that do the school run. Purely from a feminist point of view, obviously.

But I must say, some of the dad’s have got the mums talking.

I met up for a play date with a friend and said, “Bo wanted me to invite Gary* too, but that would have meant actually talking to his parents and I couldn’t be bothered with…

Well… today is the day! National offers day and I found out which school little Bo will be going to in September. Earlier this year I was checking Ofsted reports, speaking to other parents and visiting schools trying to decide which one was the one I wanted to send him to.

First choice: A small, C of E primary school with only 20 places. Rated outstanding by Ofsted. 10 minute walk from our…

The start of my post baby weight loss journey

I’ve always thought that breastfeeding to lose weight was a massive con. Maybe it burns calories but let’s be honest, I don’t just eat LIKE a horse when I’m breastfeeding, I could probably eat a whole horse. We went to a world buffet restaurant for our anniversary while I was breastfeeding … well I definitely got my money’s worth! I can just eat and eat and eat, so I really wasn’t ever going to…

Baby-led weaning according to me

As a first time mum I was always so excited for the next stage of development and eagerly awaited every ‘first’. So to be honest I think I started weaning a bit soon because I was so excited for him to eat ‘proper food’ that I couldn’t wait.

I’d kind of heard of baby-led weaning but I thought, “who the heck waits until 6 months to start weaning?” so I didn’t really think it was an option. This…