Mummascribbles – Mummascribbles meets…Life With Boys – Mummascribbles

This week we meet the lovely Kirsty from Life With Boys. Thanks so much for taking part Kirsty 🙂

Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family
I’m Kirsty, partner to Jordan and mother to Harrison, a 2 month old little angel (with the exception of during the night, at which point he’s less than angelic). We live in Glasgow, Scotland, and are still getting to grips with this parenting malarkey. If anyone could let us know when it gets easier, that would be great.

What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
What I like doing, and what I do are to very different things. I love the gym, and weight training, but motherhood seems to zap any energy I have left right out of me, so when I’m not parenting or blogging, I’m generally thinking about parenting or blogging, or sleeping… Although the latter doesn’t happen all that often.

What is your biggest achievement to date?
2016. The entire year. From start to finish: Gained a job in the police, finished my honours degree, fell pregnant, completed 3 months of residential police training (while pregnant), graduated with honours, passed out from the police as the fittest recruit, had a baby – a cute one at that – and I didn’t even cry that many times.

From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
For hardest, it’s managing to still feel like a normal person, as well as a mum. I don’t suffer from PND, but after Harrisons birth, I found it so easy to get myself down. Before I fell pregnant, I spent 2-3 hours in the gym everyday, I worked in a fast paced environment as a police officer, and I was still in the honeymoon stage of my relationship, and I was making very good money at the time. After I had my son, I was no longer active, I wasn’t working, I was suddenly in a very different type of relationship, and I had little money having received no help from the government. It’s taken a lot, but I’m in a place now where I’ve regained a little part of me back, and it’s making motherhood so much more rewarding. 

The reward is the changes in Harrison, that morning when he smiles that little bit more, or giggles, or rolls over for the first time – seeing him make progress is a feeling I cannot even explain.

Parenting in itself is no mean feat; how do you juggle everything you need to in order to get everything done on a daily basis?
I don’t… But in order to get as much done as I can, I rely on others. Asking for help has never been my strong point, but using Jordan to give me 5 minutes to get a shower, or put on mascara, to edit a picture or to do a poo, unfortunately it’s necessary with a child, and getting off my high horse and asking for help when I need it means it’s at least a little bit more possible to get a 200 item long to-do-list slightly closer to finished.

Why did you decide to start blogging?
Honestly – I was a bit lost, actually, more than a bit. I was travelling Europe when I was 20, and decided becoming a travel blogger was the next step. I bought a domain name, mapped out my success in my head, and never published a post. Roll on a few years later, I fell pregnant unexpectedly, and was suddenly faced with the prospect of a lot of free time, with a lot of complaining to be done, and so I came out of retirement from my previously very successful/non existent blogging career.

Tell me a bit about your blog?
I think I pretty much summed it up when I said I complained a lot…. It really is just me moaning about my son being sick on me and my partner snoring whilst I do the nightfeeds. On the off chance I decide not to moan in a post, I’ll normally just relay newborn life, adjusting to life as a mum, and everything in between. It’s an online diary with some reviews thrown in, but I’m hoping one day it can be something I look back on with Harrison, and he’ll get to cringe at all of the embarrassing things I made him do/wear. What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows? I could sit here and say I just want to continue writing what I want and enjoying having little pressure on it – but that would be a lie. I’d like to eventually (EVENTUALLY as in 5 years time, I’m a very new blogger) be able to earn a living, or even just supplement our income. Blogging is a hell of a lot of work, and anyone who says they wouldn’t like to be rewarded for that, even a little, is lying. Whether that be monetising my blog, or being able to work with bigger brands, I want to see it grow consistently, and continue to push myself with it. I’d also love to get the hang of a bloody schedule so I’m not trying to take pictures in pitch black Scotland at 5pm for a post going live at 6pm.

What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
Just start writing, and make it public. When I made my blog public, I was a lot less restricted in what I could do. I didn’t have to sneakily try and take pictures of Harrison with good light whilst out with friends and pretend I was just trying to get an Instagram snap. I could double my following over night just by making it public on facebook, and I felt a lot more professional with people knowing about my blog, than having it a secret under the table venture.

If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
Jordan, Harrison, my Mum if I was in a good mood. I’ve never understood this idea of wanting to meet celebrities – I can imagine nothing worse than being forced to sit down with someone I don’t know, and make awkward conversation. I don’t care if it’s Harry Styles, it’ll still be an awkward conversation in the most part, and I have absolutely no desire to do that. This may well have been the worst answer you’ve ever received for this question, but come on, your telling me if you sat down with Ghandi you’d manage to keep a conversation going for 3 courses? No chance, let them rest in peace and spare me an awkward silence or four. 

Tell me three random facts about you

1. I was a national gymnast for 18 years and therefore the splits will always be my party trick.

2. I won the fitness award for having the fastest mile and a half time at the training college for the Police Force whilst 6 months pregnant.

3. I have an irrational (but very serious) fear of potato – baked, mashed, chips, you name it, I’ll gag at the mention.

Along with her blog www.lifewithboys.co.uk, you can also find Kirsty over on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.