Helping Children Express Emotion

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Before having children and taking a career break I worked with children struggling with complex mental health conditions.

I have a degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Child and Adolescent mental health as well as being a qualified children’s nurse. 

For 13 years I worked in inpatient CAMHS and the components I learnt for providing a therapeutic environment in my work, I also feel are important components for providing a therapeutic home, conducive to raising happy and healthy minded children. 

In this post I am going to discuss the basic underpinning principles used in my previous work, which I find to be useful foundations to utilise in my daily parenting. In my experience they promote and foster an environment that nurtures and encourages a healthy narrative around the expression of emotion.

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Parental Anxiety: The Ghost that haunts play

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As a child, the constant mantra to all activities was to “be careful”.The simple activities of childhood, prefixed with fear of harm.

In this post I reflect upon the anxiety projected to me as a child, its manifestation in my own parental anxiety, the effect this has on my children, and the work I’m doing to try and end this cycle.

Like a ghost of anxieties past, haunting first our childhoods and then that of our children, the fear must be faced and challenged, to be overcome and finally laid to rest. 

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Parenthood and Friendships: what happens to your mates when you have kids?

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When you become a parent it has an impact on your friendships. Some friends are supportive and others struggle to integrate your changing needs and lifestyle into their world. In this post I discuss parenthood and friendship, the gains and the losses and how to try to be both a good friend on both sides.

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A day in the life of lockdown 2021 Mum

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Oh lockdown 1 what a difference a year makes.
You were so novel and new and with you came the joy and wonder of renewed time together as a family. There was no pressure to work, it was a never ending day of opportunity, filled with baking and Joe Wicks.
Now it’s all online lessons, demands for snacks and mum guilt.
We are struggling and it’s time the balance needs to shift.

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Everyone is an amazing parent when they don’t have kids

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I was the best parent before I had kids. I had such high expectations and unrealistic views about the reality of parenting. I passed judgements on others and thought I knew it all. Once you have children of your own you soon realise the harsh reality of life with littles.
In this post I discuss the fantasy vs the reality of parenting, the views of the ‘experts’ without kids and how I was a much better parent in my head before actually becoming one.

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Easy, Free & Fun Activities to do indoors with kids

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Out of ideas for what to do with the kids? Need some quick inspiration for ideas that are free and can be done with stuff around the house?
I’ve popped some ideas together in one place for easy reference for those days when you need something quick.
For more ideas and inspo visit my instagram page and give me a follow www.instagram.com/mummageddon 

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Miscarriage: The loss behind closed doors

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Like most things connected to women and women’s bodies, society has served to keep us uninformed and feeling unable to talk about it openly.
Miscarriage is not a secret burden to carry.
In silence we only serve to perpetuate the expectation that the grief of miscarriage should occur behind closed doors.
In this post I discuss the experience of miscarriage, the NHS services journey and what we need to do in society to support people in their grief.

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Boys with long hair

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Why is it still such a big deal for boys to have long hair? Any parent with a son with long hair will have experienced the constant mistaking of their child’s gender, comments from others or pressure to cut their hair. And when your child goes off to school they face rejection by peers purely because their hair is different and “for girls.”
We must move towards a space where both boys and girls are not held into nonsensical constraints and norms.

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