Hello,
A little while ago, I went away for our yearly family trip to Centre Parcs. Part of the group was my lovely sister in law who always puts a positive spin on life and see's the funny side of things. Katie has just started her journey in motherhood with my little gorgeous nephew Parker. She never takes life too seriously, however is a fantastic mum. On the last day of the trip, AFTER being with me and my husband for five days with five kids, she said to me... "you need to write a blog, #LIFEWITHFIVE." I laughed and said I wouldn't know what to write.
Since then I have pondering the thought about it, so many people ask me how do you do it? how do you cope? how do you work, How do you run a house, successful businesses and have 5 children. I normally laugh it off, saying I have to try very hard, it's not always easy, things go wrong, I feel like a crap mum, things go right, I feel smug - I have all the emotions like everyone else. Each day I say “I will try better tomorrow, do things differently”... but that's because I try and achieve perfect but this is not always realistic....
But would anyone really want to read about me and my life?
Months have passed by and I haven't written a thing, then suddenly this weekend, I failed, I did something wrong, I felt like crying, beat myself up about it - and then - you know what, this weekend I REALLY FELT that I had five children. I felt the stretch, the balance and the fact that I could do not organise and fulfil everything, perfect, 100 percent of the time. So here I am, to share my highs, lows, left and rights, dramas and my top tips of how to get through a busy life to balance, organise, juggle and most importantly be there for your children (not forgetting a cup of tea for you), with as little error as possible, so here's my tale of #LIFEWITHFIVE
Im me, Sebrina. I also have five children and work ALOT!! I run businesses with large teams. It's my passions, I love to work I only feel like me when im working, planning, orgnainsing and dreaming up visions. I also love love love to be a mum. My fear is one of the kids missing something, not being in the right place and the right time and not having the correct equipment. I think this has built up over time by the enormous pressure created by myself, to not let any of them down because I have so many. I have created weekly calendars , monthly schedules, bespoke calendars for each of the children to maximise organisation and efficiency. But sometimes we need remind ourselves, we are only human and IT IS OK not to always get it right.
I don't take failure very well. This weekend I got the times wrong of a party for my daughter.
Saturday morning, I thought I had been so efficient. I had all the kids timetables, Netball, party, drop to babysitting duties, hosting an event in the evening all organised, Egg boxes and money for the eggs for a friend from their garden. Kids presents sorted, husband time allocated for triathlon training.
Forwarded details to my husband for the party drop.... gave him all items, two times change of clothes, gifts and off he goes, whilst I sort the others. On my journey back - I called to check in, TO MY HORROR - the party was at 10-12 not 12-2 as I had told them! MY HEART.... the pain I felt - I felt so sad and god knows how she would feel......
I sat on my bottom step as she ran back in the door, she ran and put her arms around my neck and she sobbed. I had no words, that was the first party I had got wrong for her and she is 6. The guilt, that feeling of me letting her down even though I tried really hard. I had written the wrong time on the calendar. Human error.
No matter how much my friends tell me it happens to us all, don't feel bad, I cant stop feeing horrendous - I have now printed every single digital invite next to the calendar to ensure that I don't get it wrong again.
Luckily the party was one of those lovely mummies, who when Ophelia arrived five minutes towards the end of the party and they all realised what had happened, a few others stayed on extra, to play so she still had an hour with some of her friends which softened the blow! (Truly thankful to all my mummy friends)
Anyways, tomorrow is a new day! A fresh day again. We can try really hard and still get it wrong. We are only human, but I guess for those of us that try really hard and still sometimes get it wrong…….You know what that means though don’t you - YOU ARE A GREAT PARENT, BECAUSE YOU TRIED!
Love Sebrina xxx
(For Katie, my SIL)