Don’t you just love it when you turn up in the school playground for pick up and your child’s teacher makes a bee-line for you? “Uh oh – in trouble again” is usually the first thing that crosses my mind – me in trouble that is, not my daughter. But it’s not 1979 anymore and the chances of being called in to see the head are greatly reduced, thank goodness. And so what is the problem? the usual suspects are a bumped head, a bloody nose, scraped knees/hand or simply all of the above. This time Sarah’s injury is self-explanatory – scrapes all over her face, one bit fat split lip with blood pouring out of both mouth and nose as she cries – a heavy disagreement with the playground tarmac. She looked like she’d done several rounds with Mr Tyson.

But that’s just all part of being 4 right? Was I cruel to say “you’re fine, just give it a rub” (makes split lips worse by the way). But 2 weeks later and she is all back to her normal mischievous self – but yesterday I noticed the tell tale signs of a dead tooth – oh NO! she’s going to be one of those kids with the yucky brown tooth that looks like her parents feed her nothing but toffee, sweets and cake all the time. well..errrr .ok…. but poor thing. she’s so looking forward to dressing up in her pretty bridesmaid dress later this year, and she’s going to look like Nanny McPhee.

One other thing about Sarah while I’m talking about her:- I asked her what she had learnt about that day, to which she replied “Jesus”. Not in an eye-roll-with-a-heavy-sigh sort of way – just that she had actually been learning about Jesus. So I asked her what exactly she’d learnt. “He’s dead” she announced. Of course. And how did he die? I asked, thinking about 3 days held on a cross by some nasty nails was not a nice thought for a 4 year old…. “He was killed in a road accident” she announced – “he was squashed by a caravan”.

Now, there’s a novel way of bringing the bible up to date I thought…. and living in the west country might account for imagination with a higher than average number of caravans she sees, but I have never seen anyone looking like Jesus run out in front of one…. or maybe there was that one time in Glastonbury..

so now you know.

Last weekend saw 17,000 women (and quite a lot of men I have to say!) take part in the 9th Moonwalk in London to raise money for, and awareness of, breast cancer. Breast Cancer will almost certainly effect someone you know in your life and therefore effects us all. Last weekend the Cuddledry founders, Helen and I, and a team of very special friends who have all known each other for 20 years, finished that marathon and raised over £5000 towards fighting breast cancer – well done us! One of those friends of ours is a mum living with breast cancer and is an inspiration to us all. She is one of the several thousand amazing mums, sisters and daughters living with breast cancer who completed that walk. Other amazing mums on that walk included another friend of ours who is currently living a single mums life while her hubby earns a living on the other side of the world – she looked after 3 children all day, then put on her trainers and walked 26.2 miles throughout the entire night, then came home – stiff, tired and in pain – and looked after her 3 young demanding children all day again. So let’s hear it for all the other mums who regularly work all day and all night to achieve great things for their family and friends, relentlessly putting other people first and dealing with their own needs last, if ever. There are so many wonderful women out there who achieve such great things against all odds, I wanted to highlight them and also to highlight the Moonwalk itself. Comic Relief, with it’s massive PR machine and weeks of build up – raises £30million – which is brilliant. The Moonwalk is something not everyone has even heard of – and yet in one night without anything like the same promotion, it raised over £9million last year. Fingers crossed it raises over £10million this year. And if anyone fancies a last minute sponsorship – here’s the link!

http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/Helen_Wooldridge

Irresponsibility is a MUST HAVE for anyone wanting to keep their sanity,and their sense of humour, during these years of having a young family, school runs and after school activities/taxi service, businesses to run, meetings to attend, houses to clean, dinners to cook and chores to complete.

For years beforehand we were told to “grow up”, “behave” and “you must learn to be responsible”. But it’s all a bit of a stressful, boring weight to carry around all the time, and all work and no play makes mummy a dull girl.

So I say that a weekend away from all those responsibilities is essential for any upstanding mummy. I have just reached the almighty milestone that is 40 years old. And I’m happy with that. No issues there whatsoever. BUT, to celebrate, my husband (and the husband of a dear friend who also shared the same celebration – and obviously the same friends!!!) organised for our very best friends (26 of us) to join us for a weekend away staying at a fabulous house. There was only one stipulation – NO CHILDREN.

Now I realise that it’s not easy for anyone to escape for an evening away, let alone a whole weekend, but the effort that is required to organise such childcare is a snip in comparison to the rewards your soul will reap, and ultimately your children will benefit from a happy parent, and anyone else too who comes into contact with you. Right now, I am on top of the world – I don’t think I’ll come down for another week at least. I can’t stop laughing. Outloud. To myself. I know I’m a nicer person than the grumpy stressed person I was before taking time out to be me again.

We paid for our childcare, but even the additional financial dent would not put me off doing it again, and again and again. So if you’ve got a mum, dad, aunt, neighbour, friend - anyone you trust – to help out and allow you to take some time for yourself, you will discover that underneath the outer responsible “mummy” layer, there lurks someone 20 years younger, someone who still thinks they can sing in tune down a hairbrush with great gusto, someone who can still breakdance (well – still trying to breakdance), and someone who has NO RESPONSIBILITY, and does not care whether it’s midnight, 3am or even 5am, because who needs to get up? Apart from to fix you and your hubby a life-giving cup of tea and bacon sandwich at 11.30am (nah – they still don’t get up before you).

The last weekend has given me a rush of youth, energy, joie de vie, call it what you will, and I know I’m a better person for my children to be around, my husband and people I see on a daily basis. I’m happy to play jigsaw puzzles when there is a mountiain of laundry to do, happy to cuddle on the sofa and watch a movie when there is a pile of plates to wash, and happy to walk the dog when there are 60 emails waiting my attention at work , and THAT should be how life is more of the time. Next time I won’t leave it nine months before allowing myself a night out and a lie in.

So what are you doing next weekend?