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When to talk to your child about career
I don’t know if you guys are aware, but your cute little poppets are going to morph into hairy, sweaty, opinionated teenagers eventually. And, besides for all the hair and body odour, the opinionated part will probably be the thing that irks you the most. For me and my hairy teen, the biggest debate has been around career. I mean, if the kid could make a living off of playing XBox games, he would gladly do so. But alas, this option (even though its a real career nogals) is not available to him right now. We’ve toyed around with a bunch of different career options and we honestly still have…
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4 Ways To “Slow Down” Our Happy Memories With Our Children
We’ve all had that feeling that childhood passes by too quickly. We parents wake up one day and our kids no longer want to play with us, and we feel like our recollection of this golden time of endearing neediness has slipped away. Well, what if there were a way to work against this feeling? To make the memory of our children’s childhood feel slower, broader, deeper, richer? A quick dip into the history of memory, of mnemonic techniques, can offer a guide as to how. 1. Keep Track of Firsts. The key to expanding the sense of richness and breadth of our interactions with our kids is by quantifying…
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Childhood story: The boy who smiled
My childhood years were pretty boring and uneventful. I grew up in a two bedroomed home, in (what some would call) the “hood” of Port Elizabeth. My neighbors, and childhood friends, were Afrikaans speaking and my sister and I (both very much of the English speaking variant of brown people) kinda fumbled our way through communicating with them but, somehow, we all made it work, unperturbed. Our summer holidays were the best. We woke up extra early to a quick breakfast of jam sandwiches and hot tea, and hastily dressed ourselves in arb short and t-shirt combos, running our fingers through our long hair until we were presentable enough to…
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My teenage crush didn’t know that we were in a relationship
Come on friends, I’m sure we were all guilty of crushing on a Hollywood heartthrob at some point in our young lives. You know what I’m talking about… that ‘lay in bed, poster on the ceiling, write his name all over our school books’ kinda infatuation that could only be cured by seeing what your first name would look like with his last name next to it. (Tip: Vin Diesel’s surname isn’t really Diesel.) The Tom Cruise’s and Leonardo diCaprio’s of our time could certainly rival today’s celebrity dreamboat’s and they’d probably win by a mile. (Or is that the ‘old aunty’ in me talking?) I mean, what do these…
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#Covid19 – Why I haven’t been posting about it
So our darling Presi’s official announcement (about a nationwide shutdown) was absolutely well-received last night, right? I mean, for the most part. Some peeps are still outchere, trying to cheat the system by breaking government rules. Lest your social life be affected by a virus that kills people. I mean, the audacity. But, for the most part, we’re all very relieved that very stringent measures have been put in place to help #flattenthecurve. Social media has been quite an interesting place to visit the past few days. I mean, I go there for the Social Justice Unicorns who single-handedly save the world one post at a time, while reprimanding everyone…
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Do you have a favorite child?
Okay, be honest (and you’re allowed to be… no judgies over here): do you have a favorite child? Don’t look at me like that, Susan. I’m not asking you to pick which one you’d save in a fire. (But okay, while we’re on it, which one? Kidding!) I know the immediate response to this question would be shock, horror, outrage, guilt. But having a favorite child is not as uncommon as you think. I mean, if you had to take a quick scroll through my Instagram feed you would see that I talk about some of my kids a heck of a lot more than I do the others. I’m…
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‘Breastfeeding 101’ points out the myths and truths of breastfeeding {Giveaway!}
My introduction to breastfeeding was an unwanted one. I was only 18 years old and I remember being so thankful that the challenging pregnancy and pain of childbirth was over. Finally my life (and body) will return to some sort of normal, right? But no… this was not the case. The nurse (probably shocked at my age) sternly instructed me to feed my baby. I felt a range of emotions. My body was still not my own. I had already given up 9 months of my youth to house another life. Do you mean to tell me, I now have to give up my flesh yet again, to feed the…
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Christmas gift idea: CUM Books daily planners for the whole family! {Giveaway!}
If you’re looking for that perfect gift idea for someone who, like me, gets a little thrill at the mere thought of having to plan something, well look no further friend! Us Polly Planners love stationery… and we go gaga for really pretty and clever bullet journals, wall calendars and daily planners. I mean, you could call it an obsession, but not to my face. Anyways, I recently received a bunch of fabulous daily planners and devotionals from our friends over at CUM Books and I pretty much went mental! Everything is so gorgeous! And there is something for everyone! For her I’ve always been so impressed with CUM Books…
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The pros and cons of having a big family
Now I know that having a big family may appear to be very, you know, Kardashian-esque. All fun and games and bickering while eating toast in the kitchen at midnight. And yes, I’m aware that you all know the exorbitant costs of caring for many (many) children. But I sometimes wonder if I give off a false sense of “okayness”. I mean, I’m not sure that I accurately portray the fact that it’s flippen challenging to parent a lot of kids, while maintaining your sanity, career and marriage all at the same time. Having a large-ish family is not all TV sitcom moments and learning life lessons the quirky way.…
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Get sun smart with Oh-Lief’s organic sunscreen {Win!}
Guys, we love Summer! We are water babies and would do anything to be in the pool for, like, the whole month of December. I’m hoping that this love of swimming and sun-soaked pool days will rub off on my kids. To kick start this communal – uh – love affair with Summer, I made sure to get my smallies some funky swimming gear and sun hats. I also knew that I had to stock up on sunscreen because sunburn is no joke. So I was quite keen to try out Oh-Lief’s new range of organic sunscreen. I mean, this local family business has been around for more than 9…
