It never happened the first time I gave birth. Which is why, I guess, I was so unprepared when the shaking happened moments after I had had a pretty normal and straightforward vaginal birth with my second baby, my little boy. Moments after he was born, and the placenta was out, my husband let me […]

6 years ago

Everyone with children in Montessori or school have at some point inevitably asked the question: “How was your day?” at pick-up time. And chances are you were met with the non-explanatory and terribly frustrating: “Fine.” Ah, kids! How about offering up some more information, no?! The trick, I have come to know, is to ask […]

6 years ago

This is amazing. A very creative – and kind – grandad just created the coolest under-the-stairs playhouse for his two young grandsons – and managed to do so for just £50 – in other words; less than €60. Sharing the images on Facebook group DIY On A Budget Official, the man’s daughter showed what the […]

6 years ago

Confession: I am a notorious list-maker. It really is the only way I can feel on top of things and in control of my life, to be honest. And I suspect a lot of us are in the same boat. Lists just make it easier to keep tabs on things I need to do/order/sort out/pay […]

6 years ago

Calling budding oceanographers! Cool Planet’s concoction-packed Magical Oceans Lab will captivate kids who love to explore and experiment. What to expect? Dive into the scientific method, experiment with the pH scale, make a splash using colour changing experiments and experiments and fizzing potions. And much more. Sounds like a ton of fun for your little ones? […]

6 years ago

Breastfeeding is amazing. I feel so grateful to have been able to feed both my babies for a year each, but saying that, much as I loved it, it certainly did not come entirely easy for me. With my first baby, I developed mastitis not once, but twice, and needed an antibiotic to clear it. […]

6 years ago

Because mama needs her coffee. It is 2020, but still – incredibly enough – some people still have issues with a mum feeding her baby THE WAY NATURE INTENDED in public. We know. It’s actually insane. Especially when we live in a world that sees nothing wrong with using naked bodies – and boobs in […]

6 years ago

When I was in school, school holidays meant great stretches of time to fill with whatever took out fancy that day. We played out a lot, just literally went outside in the morning and would return when it got dark or we got hungry. If we were bored, we just had to think up a […]

6 years ago

Baby names, or more specific, picking a GOOD one, has become somewhat of a sport.  Everyone is at it – and the stakes get upped the whole time. Gone are the days when you waited until you were in fact with child to find a name. Now we pick our baby names years in advance, […]

6 years ago

Fancy taking a family break to London this spring? We don’t blame you – it’s a city literally crawling with things to see and do that the whole family will enjoy. As for accommodation when you are there – we think the kids (and you too) will feel right at home at these five seriously […]

6 years ago

I have very ambivalent feeling about homework in primary school. On one hand, I do see the value in learning to sit down to study and apply yourself to something. On the other hand; I strongly feel that children today do enough sitting as it is, and that outside of school, especially when they are […]

6 years ago

Currently trying for a baby? Then you might want to make sure the room you go to bed in is as dark as possible. Which means – no night ligths, no light-up radio or alarm clock and – most importantly – no screens in the bedroom. Why? Because a new study published in Fertility and […]

6 years ago

“They are life’s dessert” is how my father always describes his five grandchildren. To him, to both my parents, becoming grandparents, five times over, was really just that. It was the icing on the cake. The most amazing gift. The best thing about their life. And the feeling is very much reciprocated by all their […]

6 years ago

Not that they’ll listen when you tell them that.

6 years ago

It happens. As in, I don’t know about your children, but mine, when left to their own devices and at the ages they are now, they fight. Over the silliest of things, like Barbie horses and Pokemon cards and who got slightly more apple juice in the cup than the other and whose turn it […]

6 years ago

Admit it, mamas!

6 years ago

It is intense. I am talking about postpartum life. Those first few days after delivery when you not only have a newborn baby to try to keep alive, but are also trying to heal yourself – physically, mentally and emotionally after the life-altering experience that is childbirth. I remember coming home from the hospital having […]

6 years ago

It’s what Sunday evenings were made for. Us mamas are always so busy looking after other people, especially our little ones, that we often end up with little or no time for ourselves. However, I have made a pact with myself this year that Sunday evenings, they are for me – for some much needed […]

6 years ago

Valentine’s Day is all well and good, but ladies, we think it’s also the perfect occasion to celebrate all the fabulous girls in your life. So gather your best gal-pals, pop open the bubbly and embrace the fastest-growing trend – Galentine’s – a celebration so feminine and fabulous it might forevermore bypass Valentine’s Day. Or, […]

6 years ago

There is often a lot of moaning about how hectic our lives are, and how much everything costs and how much easier things were back in the day. Admit it, we are all guilty. But let’s all take a moment to appreciate all the little reasons being a mum nowadays is pretty AH-MAZING. (Bet our […]

6 years ago

Find yourself dreaming that Marie Kondo is just knock on your door some day, and come in to help sort out all your mess? Yep, me too. However, I realise that is probably not going to happen anytime soon, and that my best bet, is to just tackle it myself. Now that my children are […]

6 years ago

They don’t call it man’s best friend for nothing. If you have been on the fence for a while about whether or not to add a dog to your family, this study might be what tip the scales for you. According to a study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, children living in homes […]

6 years ago

When I had my first baby, I very soon realized that the place where she felt the absolute best, most safe and most happy, was next to me. As close as possible. So I literally carried her around in a sling or carrier at all times. Why? Because it meant she was content. And that […]

6 years ago

No FOMO here. Nope. We are ALL about staying in these days, and the Dine In offers at M&S are making our lives that much easier – and tastier. And Valentine’s Day is no exception, with the food retailer bringing back their ultimate luxury Valentine’s Day Dine-In menu – bigger and better than ever before, […]

6 years ago

So much advice. Just think about it – how many times since you first announced you were pregnant have you been bombarded with advice on how to do just about anything in regards to motherhood and life with a baby/toddler/child. The famous one being the aul’ ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ advice, which, honestly, in […]

6 years ago

Being in your 30s is great on so many levels. I love the confidence and calmness and sense of being who I was meant to be all along that comes with being a fully-fledged grown-up. However, let’s be honest, it is also when the majority of us start noticing certain changes to our bodies and […]

6 years ago

My children love each other so much that at times, watching my 5-year-old crawl into his big sister’s bed at night when he can’t sleep,  I will literally cry at how amazing and beautiful and sweet their close bond is. That feeling lasts a few hours until they are awake again and literally screaming at […]

6 years ago

Two things kids – and parents – definitively don’t need more of: Sweets and plastic. As a mum of two children slap bang in the middle of primary school and that crazy birthday party era, let me tell you this: I HATE party bags. I hate my children getting them – just more plastic junk […]

6 years ago

Just wow. Look, we can all agree that when it comes to babies, fed is best. But there is also no denying that breast milk is the absolute most amazing thing you can feed them. Why? Because it is tailor-made for human infants, and designed to give them the very best and safest start in […]

6 years ago

We’ll have what she’s having. Holly Willoughby always looks glowingly beautiful, and so to take her advice on anything beauty related just seems like a good idea, no? Being on camera every morning, the 38-year-old mum-of-three somehow manages to never look tired or like she didn’t get enough sleep before. And it seems like the […]

6 years ago

Love is in the air. And even if it’s not really – or, you know, has been, it isn’t feeling all that hot lately, fear not: Sometimes it just takes that one perfect gift to make things right again. And right now, we know that if anyone was trying to get on our good side, […]

6 years ago

They provide one of the very most important and valuable jobs there is. Yet when it comes to those working as early years educators in creches and sessional services across Ireland today, they are facing a situation that would tell you that the very opposite is true. Underpaid, undervalued and, right now, under an enormous […]

6 years ago

In a tech-obsessed world, playgrounds have never been more important.

6 years ago

No time for a curler?

6 years ago

I have this thing about skincare. To be fair – it kind of comes with the job when you write about beauty for a living, but seriously; I am obsessed with skincare like others are obsessed with makeup. Or Game of Thrones. Or whatever else people are in to. It might sound terribly vain to […]

6 years ago

It saves lives. It really is that simple, and so if you have a child who is approaching the age where they will be offered the HPV vaccine, know this: The latest figures from the UK shows that the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination, which is given to 12-13-year-old girls (and since September 2019 also 12-13-year-old […]

6 years ago

Sunshine, come and find us. If you too are dreaming of warmer days and springtime, you are not alone. Right now, we are all about making our homes feel ready for the new season. We want to throw open the windows, fill the house with fresh air and all the spring vibes. H&M Home just […]

6 years ago

It can be seriously harmful – in worst cases, fatal.  I think most mums at times with they had an extra set of arms – just to be able to keep up and get anything done. We all develop some super-human multi-tasking skills as time goes by, while also relying on a whole host of […]

6 years ago

Although it can be worrying for new mums and dads when their baby is a little under the weather, know that colds are common in young children as their immune system is still developing. In fact, because of this, babies and children will get colds more frequently than we do as adults, and symptoms include […]

6 years ago

I grew up with a #girldad. My own dad, being the father of me and my sister, was, of course, on a technical level, a dad of two daughters. But that is just the basic description. He was so much more than that. He was – still is – a complete and total girl-dad. He […]

6 years ago

Those little monsters sure are distracting, no? Look, parents, if you have ever thought to yourself that breaking up fights over Pokemon cards or trying to keep one child from breathing on or even looking at their screaming sibling while also trying to navigate rush-hour traffic is probably not the safest of driving conditions – […]

6 years ago

She is our go-to woman for all things cleaning and organising. So really, it should come as a surprise to no-one that it took Sophie Hinchliffe (AKA Mrs Hinch) to teach us how to properly clean our beauty blenders too. And it is actually so beautifully simple (and probably way more effective than all the […]

6 years ago

Just WOW. Think about the purpose of playrooms for a moment – and let’s all agree that the objective is to get kids to play in there as much as possible, no? And if you need some inspiration in order to make this happen – look no further. Recently, US mum Renee Doby-Becht took to […]

6 years ago

2019 was no doubt a heartbreaking year for Hilaria and Alec Baldwin. The couple, who are already parents to 6-year-old Carmen, 4-year-old Rafael, 3-year-old Leonardo and 1-year-old Romeo (as well as Alec’s grown-up daughter, Ireland, from his previous marriage to Kim Basinger), suffered not one, but two miscarriages, all in the space of a few months. […]

6 years ago

Itching to get away somewhere this spring and summer? Same. Nothing boosts our happiness and feel-good vibes as seeing new places and having chilled out time with loved ones. However, travel can be both stressful and expensive, especially if things don’t go to plan (missed flights, lost luggage etc.) Lucky for us, travel company Skyscanner […]

6 years ago

According to new research by Dublin City University, a quarter of Irish primary school pupils can’t run properly and half don’t know how to kick a ball. The alarming results, which were presented earlier this week by health and fitness expert Professor Niall Moyna of the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City […]

6 years ago

Juggling motherhood, a growing family and a career isn’t as easy as it looks — just ask Blake Lively. The 32-year-old, who welcomed her third child last summer (rumoured to also be a girl, like Lively’s two eldest children) stopped by Good Morning America earlier this week as part of a promotion tour for her […]

6 years ago

Motherhood is amazing. It is hands down the most fun-filled and exciting and just lovely thing I have ever done – and I am sure every mam feels the same way. However, I know we will also all agree on this next one: Motherhood, actually being someone’s mum – it is also hard work. It […]

6 years ago

Sometimes when I look back at life when I had just come home from hospital with my first baby, I can’t help but want to give new-mum me a big hug and assure her she’s got this. Because, trust me, I did not feel like I ‘got it.’ back then. Walking out of the hospital […]

6 years ago

Overdone it on ice creams this summer?

6 years ago