Maintaining Your Own Identity in Motherhood

Motherhood and Identity

Women are often considered guilty of “losing their identity” once they become a mother.

Friends lightheartedly complain that their once-lively social media feeds are now purely full of baby photos, or that conversation seems to only swing in the direction of sleep routines and exploding nappy anecdotes. 

Exercise buddies or other hobby partners (correctly) quip “haven’t seen you in a while” and “miss you!”. 

Talk of girls nights on the town are promised but never gotten around to. 

And let’s not forget there are still many women who are considered to be less qualified for their previous career, simply because they now have a child.

It’s true, for many women it seems like once they have a baby that their whole life becomes about their child. 

That’s because it does. 

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5 Things To Do During Coronavirus Isolation

Lockdown Isolation

Coronavirus Self Isolation, Lockdown, Quarantine – Whatever level of official measures your country is at in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, the message is fairly clear: Stay at home.

But staying at home can be a problem for many. Not physically, that’s easy – just stay at home! No, it’s the mental side of things that can get a bit hard. We humans are social creatures, and we’re not used to staying cooped up in the one place for too long these days.

Here in the UK, we’re on lockdown, only allowed to leave our house for a short time each day for exercise, and to get groceries approximately once a week. Apart from that (in our household, anyway), we’re at home, as I am on maternity leave currently and my fiancé is working from home.

The urge to stay in pyjamas all day and watch one mindless Netflix show after the next, day in and day out, grows stronger and stronger for us all in isolation. However that can just feed into a negative mental health cycle that’s then hard to break free from. So let’s discuss some of the ways you can try to avoid a complete swan dive into depression during COVID-19 isolation.

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Fears and feelings on COVID-19 pandemic

Tracksuit pants, endless cups of tea, Netflix binges, and napping with my baby – Life in isolation from Coronavirus, or COVID-19, on a day-to-day basis isn’t all that different from my life as a mum on maternity leave, but with a crushing weight of anxiety and a whole heap of life disruption sprinkled (or, rather – poured heavily) on top.

We’ve all been affected one way or another by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Either you’re self-isolating to help flatten the curve of the outbreak and keep others safe (Or you’re refusing to do so, complaining that your football has been cancelled, protesting that this has all gone “too far” and think it’s all a bunch of bullshit – in which case: You, my friend, are bullshit).

You or someone you love may be in actual quarantine with symptoms or following exposure to the virus. You may be working from home or unable to work at all. Your children may not be able to attend school or nursery.

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My Vegan Journey / Why I Turned Vegan

I started transitioning to a vegan diet and lifestyle around August-September last year.

I originally first flirted with the idea of veganism when I was 16, and I knew a few people who had made the switch, for various reasons. I started to go through periods where I would be vegetarian for a while, the longest I think was like 10 months, but I always ended up giving into cravings.  Continue reading “My Vegan Journey / Why I Turned Vegan”