Keeping the balls up in the air!

Most mum's use their maternity leave to settle into the newly acquired motherhood role, becoming accustomed to baby's feeding times and the needs of their new baby, all the while battling sleep deprivation!

Not me!!...and do you know what? This is my third baby and I have only just realised I have never had the "traditional" maternity leave. Whilst my "mummy" friends are all discussing their return to their workplace over the past few weeks, I realised I never left mine :-)

All my babies have been breastfed at the laptop whilst I've planned weddings or discussed various business opportunities with my fellow wedding planners across the globe! I have to say I don't think my kids have suffered for it either.

Newborn babies tend to nap a lot so I find myself sneaking to another room to tap away at the keyboard, and whisper down the phone. I can often be found deep in conversation on my mobile phone, Filofax balanced on top of the pushchair, to take notes, whilst strolling along the seafront.....any woman reading this will identify this as multitasking and us female species are experts at it. Only recently have I decided to "embrace the chaos" of motherhood, rather than fighting against it!

Ok, so my new found laid back state is still hard to get to grips with, but hey as I have no cleaner at present I find this the perfect excuse for an untidy dwelling! My eldest two children think it's great the "one in one out" rule on the toy box seems to have gone astray. My Orangery resembles a multi coloured assault course of plastic and wood, but I just take a deep breath and look past the mess out to the garden, which is so much tidier than the toy room :-)

My mantra is I am passionate about everything, and I mean everything! I strive to be the best at whatever I do and sometimes I should cut myself a little slack. However my "Mummy Mantra" this week shall be - "In order to succeed, my children and I sometimes have to accept failure"

The glamorisation of mums feels empowering to some, yet others feel the yummy mummy title is totally unrealistic for today's women anxious to appear to have it all. As much as I would love to be the yummy mummy, I struggle to find the balance between the single sexpot (I think!) I used to be, the woman I've become, the professional I work hard to be, the wife I aspire to be, and the mother I have to be. Basically, today's wannabe yummy mummy's, like me are confused and exhausted!

I like to think all yummy mummy's are a myth - my friends and I all tried to think of one, just one mum we know that we would call a true yummy mummy and between us we couldn't think of any! Yes we all know plenty of mums who we think have it all, but none like the celebrity-led trend of mums with matching designer clad babies and bags.

Yet perhaps that not so suprising as deep down all of us aspiring yummy mummy's know in reality that the celebrity "yummy mummy" has a whole host of support that we don't see, yet still we dream, and so we should!