Is it me?

One of the reasons that I started blogging was because I couldn't find much that felt relevent to me. A lot of parenting blogs are written by/for new, young mothers of young children, or single mothers; of which I am neither. Many of the others seem to focus on make up, skincare and clothes. Now I will admit a passing interest in such matters, but not much more than that. Mr Hairy works for a cosmetics company and so I get much of my products through him at heavily discounted prices and as far as clothes are concerned, I look at my diary each morning and decide on which level of jeans to wear that day. Cheap Primark or lovely Levis.

So what does occupy my waking thoughts? Well as already noted, the kids and the whole 'Am I doing the right thing? Being a good parent?' question. I spend a lot of time thinking about that. I went with Mr Hairy and a couple of friends to a parenting workshop last week called 'Communicating with your young person.' It was reassuring to know that even with her professional experience and knowhow, that she experienced the same issues with her teenage sons as the rest of us do. We covered things like understanding that they can't think like adults and there is no point in trying to achieve that. The frontal brain (the reasoning bit) doesn't actually fully develop until they are in their 20s. She suggests things like acknowledging what they are saying, so they know you are listening, but sticking to your guns. She also said that they only listen to the first 10 words your say, so anything after that is wasted. Good to know....saves energy.

I think about work quite a lot. I am VERY much of perfectionist and worry that a job isn 't quite how I want it. My clients are always as happy as Larry (whoever Larry is...), but I probably spend a disporportionate amount of time stressing about details that wouldn't even register on most people's scale. I have been really busy of late and so feel quite pressured, I hate not getting back to people in a timely way so end up working late when I am tired to meet those self imposed deadlines...sound familiar?

Trying to work out when I can exercise is always a challenge, in fact, trying to work out when I do anything for me is quite testing. Balancing work and family with what I want to do seems to be a constantly moving beast and I sometimes wish that I could find a long term solution. But I guess there isn't really one, as things are always going to be on the move with two kids and a husband. I am going off on a 50th Birthday trip on my own at the end of February, I don't do that very often so that will be an eye-opener for all parties. Mr Hairy used to spend lots of time away, (not so much recently), I will report back on how that goes.

On Sunday, the teen has an audition with a casting agency. She wants to be an actress and has been wanting an agent for some time. I am not convinced she has chosen the right song to sing, it is quite high and her voice isn't. She can't find a backing track in a key that will work for her so she is thinking she will sing unaccompanied. I think this is a HUGE risk, but she won't listen to me. Part of me wants to try and make her sing something else, but I know deep down that I need to let her make her own mistakes, otherwise she will never learn from them. I find this one of the hardest things about being a parent.

OK, well that will do for now, it occured to me that you still don't know too much about me, so I thought I would try to some myself up by the ultimate girlie medium of shoes. This the last 3 pairs of shoes I have purchased, and sum me up pretty well...

Til next time.
Sarah x