Credit
Is it really possible to look after the kids, maintain the job, keep the house in (some sort of) order and have salon fresh hair? It most certainly is. What’s the secret? I’ll be damned if I know. But we’ve all seen them, haven’t we? The young mums, juggling job, kids and chiselled husband, wearing outfits and accessories that seem to have been co-ordinated. I mean seriously, who has time to coordinate an outfit? They look like they spent actual time planning what they are going to wear. These days I allow the dried spaghetti hoops and crayon marks to do the planning for me. I think I spotted one with highlights; I’ve been trying to get a shampoo to repair damaged hair for about a month. Some of these women even look like they’ve been to sleep- possibly for hours. Where am I going wrong? I decided to see if I could find out.
First off the bat I wondered if the problem might be my kids- no reason for self reflection just yet. Are they incredibly badly behaved? They don’t appear to be. Jake and Pip, seven and five, could in no way shape or from be described as problem kids. Pip is actually already more useful around the house than her dad (although that’s not a great claim to fame). Of course we do have the occasional earth shattering tantrum but who doesn’t? And they are often much more justified than my own. All-in-all I don’t think I could ask for two better behaved kids. A pat on the back for me I guess.
Perhaps their husbands are more helpful than mine? Well, Drew does have his faults but he puts in as good as shift as any dad I know. Whether it’s helping Jake cover the laundry, the kitchen, the hallway, the stairs and finally the bathroom with dirt after a football practice that appears, unfathomably, to get muddier by the week; or attempting to drop Pip off at a complete stranger’s house (rather than to my cousin who lives next door- although in fairness, as he pointed out, her neighbor did wear “similar baggy clothes”). No, he’s a good’un, not too much blame for him I’m afraid. He even bought me a dry hair treatment for my birthday (it’s damaged Hun- not dry). Oh, the romance!
So I guess that leaves me. But the truth is nothing is wrong. How those women do it I’ll never know- I suspect they may just borrow the kids for the afternoon. Being a Mum is hard work, being a working Mum is even tougher. Finding time to pamper yourself is not easy; sometimes it feels like there isn’t a spare minute in the day. But you have to make time- and your partner, your kids, your family and friends understand that (at least they’d better do if they know what’s good for them). Every woman likes to look and feel good and whilst it may not be possible to have salon fresh hair every day of the week, once in a while it’s good to remind yourself that you’ve still got it (it just happens to be hidden under a Ribena stained sweatshirt)!
