Feminism - Women for Women #blogfest

I'm writing this today as a woman with a first degree, a masters degree too and a number of professional qualifications. I've earned lots of money in my professional life and now I stay home. I look after my children, I enjoy time with my husband, I volunteer, I blog and I love it.

Do you know what that is called?

Choice.

Free choice. I'm allowed to do what suits me.

I was so frigging mad at the woman on stage today at #Blogfest (I cant even be arsed to grace her with a link) who told us that she had to return to Uni after having her baby or she would never be a good mother.

What a load of bollocks. How absolutely demeaning. OK that worked for her and it was her choice. That is OK, we can all make our own choices and I'm fine with that (well unless you are beating your kids or such).

Mums without any formal education can be brilliant parents and they can be not-so-great ones too. That's how it goes in life.

Great mothers teach their children good morals, strong values, to be kind, to be inquisitive and entrepreneurial and not to judge. Important lessons and ones that need to be taken on board by the women on stage today.

I have no idea where Mumsnet were going with the session 'can you be a mummy blogger & a feminist'?. The answer is obvious, of course you can.

I'm a mum, I'm a blogger, I make a difference, I influence people and today I learned I'm a feminist - who knew it?

Being a feminist for me is being a woman for other women, I expect equal opportunity and respect for all.

Simple really!

What's your take? Are you a feminist and a mum who happens to blog?

I'm linking this post up with Mumsnet as my entry to the Mark Warner holiday competition. They have asked for us to share one tip about having a successful family holiday.  Mine is to change your expectations - holiday's with children are wonderful when you realise that they will be different to those holidays of old. Plan your days around the needs of your children - meal and nap times and you can still have a whole ton of fun in between, especially as they get older.

Reasons to be Cheerful - time for a change?

How can you stay down for long, when you live here?
This is the view from my front door a couple of nights ago.

Hello all,

How are things going with you? I'm in a bit of a flux at the moment, I don't know whether I am coming or going much of the time. The worlds most organised person seems to have lost some of her skills. I keep having moments of feeling sad, unsettled and turbulent. If you saw my post from yesterday you'll know that I'm in a state of discontent.

Nothing is wrong really, just the realities of living in a new place and having to make new friends, establish where my purpose is right now and come to terms with not being in paid work any more. Lots has changed in the last three months and I think I have stayed strong whilst I made sure the kids and my husband got settled and now I've remembered I've got to take care of myself too.

My instant response is that I need to take the pressure off and have a break from blogging, I know this is always a good thing for me, I've done it many times before.  I'm not imposing any rules on myself, I'm just going to go with the flow and blog if I want to but free myself to not have to be pressured to post for anything. Therefore I won't be running Reasons to be Cheerful for the foreseeable future. If any of you reading this want to host it then leave me a comment below and we can chat but I'm wondering if it is just time for a change. Maybe no more #R2BC.

So this is supposed to be Reasons to be Cheerful and I don't want it just to be me moaning, so my main reason to be grateful this week is the supportive blogging community.  I shared with some blogging friends a couple of days ago how I was feeling and I had such an amazing and overwhelming response. People said really encouraging things and I felt so built-up and good about myself and my blog. Thank you ladies for being awesome, you know who you are.

Then talking of blogging mates, I am also super grateful that I get to see Seasider Clare this weekend for Mumsnet Blogfest. We plan to have a fab time with loads of bloggy friends and some catch up time alone too, it is too long since we last got together in June.

You never know Blogfest might even recapture my love for blogging and I might feel enthused to get straight back on the horse - we will see.....

Wishing you all a fabulous week. Do link up with me for a last time with your Reasons to be Cheerful and I'll be over to visit you (probably after the weekend).

Bless you, Mich x

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