With Some Grace

Everyday Experiences, Lifelong Learnings

FYBF Featured Flogger – Shari from Your Family Survival Coach

By: mamagrace7167 Comments

Introducing you to our fifth Featured Flogger!

Shari from Your Family Survival Coach is a mum of 3 and it was her radiant positivity that captured me most about her blog. I got to live vicariously through her life as she took off on a fabulous cruise sans children.  (Lucky duck!) But I particularly loved this post she wrote just last week about the sweet side of raising a blended family.

Besides her blog, you can also catch Shari on Facebook and Twitter.

For now, sit back and enjoy her post today.  And don’t forget to leave lots of comment love, ‘k?


5 Undeniable Points of Parenthood Initiation

Before parenting, I can confidently say that I truly had minimal understanding of what raising children took … ignorant could be a good descriptor. My now three-time experience has proven to me that parenting really IS a roller coaster ride, pardon that tired old cliché, and the good times are grand whereas the lows, well …. not so much.

My philosophy on all this parenting shizz is pretty simple and my baseline is survival. Some days, just getting through makes Mum a champion and managing to scrape by is A-Ok. Of course there are better days that are sunny, happy, joyful and fulfilling and aha, how very cool would it be if the whole gig could be like that?

If you can learn from the misfortunes experiences of others who have walked the Mum or Dad trail before you, all the better I reckon and so if I were to disclose to you 5 things I’ve learnt –  often the hard way – since becoming a parent, it’d possibly be these …

  • There are times when it is certainly ok to cover your ears and eyes purposefully so as not to fuel your child’s efforts at attention seeking. Think along the lines of major supermarket meltdown. Of course, a backup strategy is to pretend that your kids actually belong to someone else. The more embarrassing the behavior, the bigger the chance that you could one day find yourself proclaiming loudly, “just wait until I get you home to your Mother, heaven knows what she’ll say!!”
  • The scale of normal is a very long one indeed and what may be normal(ish) for me and mine may not be for you and yours. Truly, the concept of mainstream is all relative and provided the professionals aren’t knocking at your door, it’s probably all good.
  • Some of the friends that you had PK (pre-kids) will be casualties of parenthood. It just happens that way. The friends you used to nightclub with may not want to spend as much time with you after little’uns arrive and you’ll find that’s ok. You’ll also discover that the new friends you make via the connections with your kids will often be genuine and keepers.
  • Starting from the delivery itself shame and dignity are no longer in your vocabulary and it will be a loooong time before they swing by to visit, that’s if they ever come back!
  • Laughing solves almost anything and your children will provide you with a lifetime of funnier comic moments than a stand-up festival and best of all admission is free ….. oh, wait that’s not taking into account expenses in clothing, food and education etc etc.

Your Family Survival Coach is where I throw together ideas, resources and stories about all things family and of importantly surviving the journey. Would love to have you join in!

 
 1. Follow With Some Grace.

2. Sign up to the awesome Digital Parents community ( if you haven’t already done so). DP was created by Brenda Gaddi who happens to be the creator of FYBF. She’s also created 4 gorgeous kidlets. In case you’d like to know. Or maybe not. But we’ll share that info just the same.

3. Add your post URL to the linky. Please only link up one post.

4. Grab the funky FYBF button and post it on your sidebar. Help spread the blogfloggin love.

5. Visit the blogs of your fellow FYBF’ers and share the comment love.

6. Share some more comment love. It’s proven to make your wrinkles disappear…overnight. #truth



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Comments

  1. Catherine Rodie Blagg @CoTaaB says

    Congratulations Shari! Your post really made me smile, but the bit about shame and dignity made me spit my tea. That’s totally how I feel. Laughter is what get me through the tough days, and I think my little ones know it too, just when I think I’m going to lose it with them they make me laugh. And they really are very funny!
    Catherine Rodie Blagg @CoTaaB recently posted..Just keep swimmingMy Profile

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    • mamagrace71 says

      Thanks, Kirri! Shari’s a real find, isn’t she?
      As for nothing nada about kids before kids, I was totally in that boat. Then to top it off, I was the cocky one thinking, “Really, how hard can it BE???” That’s come back to bite me time and time again 🙂

      Reply

    • Shari says

      Thanks heaps Kirri and many of us could probably write a novella on all the things we “thought” we knew beforehand but go oh-so-wrong!!
      x

      Reply

  12. Kylez @ A Study in Contradictions says

    Great post Shari! I am yet to experience the major public meltdown yet but I am dreading it. I was a terror as a child and my mother often had to leave a trolley full of groceries and drag me out and home because I had a tantrum so I just know karma is going to be a bitch!
    Congrats on the feature!
    Kylez @ A Study in Contradictions recently posted..Eleven MonthsMy Profile

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  15. Twitchy says

    Loved this post, and your tips Shari. Co-incidentally I am running along similar lines today. Rollercoastering between the joys and fears. But always moving.

    Reply

  16. Bachelormum says

    Oh yes, truer words could never be spoken. What a rollercoaster ride it is. Each day is a new opportunity to get up, dust the dirt off and start again. Some days I don’t feel like getting back up, i get soooo tired, but a kiss and a cuddle from the poppet always seems to make it right. Her cuddles are my salve and my sanity. Nice post.
    Bachelormum recently posted..Songlines of a woman’s bodyMy Profile

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  17. Annie says

    The friends you had in your life pre and post children do vary greatly, that I agree. It can be very hard to maintain friendships when your lives are moving on such different paths and with different priorities. And some that I have lost, I wonder, if they were really my friends at all? Luckily, new people do come into your life through your children….but it can be a slow process.
    Annie recently posted..Camping Etiquette Part 2My Profile

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  19. Cathy says

    I love your featured blogger posts Grace – always finding gems!
    Hi Shari – have just joined your FB page and look forward to more great posts.
    I’ll be back later to read some more posts – always a great collection I find on FYBF (and I’ve missed it over the past few weeks! Tonight I’m spending some “me time” reading if all goes to plan!)
    Cathy recently posted..Day for DanielMy Profile

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  29. Kelly HTandT says

    I love the one about covering your eyes and ears! Sometimes it is the HARDEST thing to do in public when you feel like every pair of eyes is judging you but not so hard in private. At home I can quite happily step over a screaming child but in the supermarket I just can’t. Mind you, my kids are pretty good, we rarely do have a supermarket meltdown, and if it does happen I can normally issue a threatening whisper and that’ll do it. Clearly my whisper is quite scary. 😉
    Kelly HTandT recently posted..How to Shop at AldiMy Profile

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