The BritMums Blog

It’s school uniform time again... sigh

 For most of our children, the new school year starts next week. They’re another year older, taller, wider and in need of a full new uniform to replace the too-small, too-stained, too-ragged clothes of last term. 

And so, with heavy hearts, BritMums launch into the rigmarole of the new uniform. At least you know you’re not alone... 

For The Balancing Act Mum, it really isn’t just a case of replacing the old and patching up the salvage-able, her school has decided to dispense with the classic navy and blue theme, and opted for a brand new, clashing ensemble that's incredibly hard to find. 

BritMums Good Reads

This week, as Karin is on holiday (we’re not in any way jealous! not at all! sob!) the good reads are brought to you by Holly. 

It’s great to get my sticky fingers on this post for one week, as it’s really made me rummage around the new BritMums site and sink into a serious reading session.

So, without further ado, here are this week's BritMums Good Reads:

Guest post: Tiger mothers ... and my opinion

At the beginning of this year, Amy Chua hit the headlines across the world for her super-strict approach to parenting. Dubbed the ‘tiger mum’ concept, Chua published her extended advice and beliefs in the book ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’. 

Chua spoke proudly of banning sleepovers, refusing her children parts in the school play and demanding nothing less than A grades across the board. The uproar reverberated across the blogosphere and now, after the dust has settled, our very own White Lily Mummy discusses the similarities – and huge differences - between her own situation and Chua’s approach. 

I overheard some people talk about the concept of 'tiger mums', and I thought I would Google it - about 56,100,000 results (0.11 seconds).The tiger mum in question here is Amy Chua, the daughter of Chinese immigrants and now a professor and author. 

I am also a daughter of two Chinese immigrants. My parents were both born and raised in mainland China and immigrated to the UK some 20-odd years ago. I had a very happy childhood, but my parents worked long hours and as a result were not around very often to do the everyday parenting things. I had to do my own homework, get myself ready for school and look after my little sister but my parents did the very best they could in a country where they could not speak the language.

BritMums on football hits frontpage of Huff Post

After our first column was picked up by none other than the world-famous Washington Post, our follow-up discussing football for girls has been promoted on the front page of the Huffington Post. 
 
Written by Susanna Scott, ‘Football is cool, and it’s for girls too’ details a chance encounter between Susanna and Brandi Chastain, the female footballer who gained celebrity status overnight when she ripped off her top upon kicking the winning goal against China in the 1999 World Cup.

What's in your handbag?

What's in your handbag at any given moment can give great insight into your personality ... or it just can be random stuff!

We want to know about you! Take a pic of the contents on your handbag, arranged in a square, and list the items from left to right. Tell us your name, blog URL, number of children and the date the photo was take. Publish this on your blog, tweet #yourhandbag and we'll help you promote your post.

BritMums Blogger of the Week

The end of another week is here. The pleasure of a 3-day weekend (albeit the LAST Bank Holiday for SOME TIME) should have us all smiling into our tea cups despite the rain which is pitter-pattering down on our roofs.

When I peruse the blogosphere each week, I tend to seek out bloggers who make me smile, in particular. I love thought provoking posts and posts that make you go "Hmmmm" as well but I do enjoy visiting the blogs of bloggers who really love writing and don't get stuck in the muck that sometimes goes along with the parent blogging world.

This week's BritMums Blogger of the Week is one of those such bloggers. She is an exceptionally positive person who obviously loves being a Mum, writes with wit and creativity and takes some rather lovely photos as well. She's an avid participant in The Gallery and Silent Sunday and can often be found on Twitter brightening people's days.

BritMums Good Reads

It's been a very big week in the BritMums blogosphere! The launch of the NEW (and many say improved) BritMums has gone swimmingly! Everyone is diving in (is there a theme here) and getting involved in groups, discussions, Blog Buzz and more. We're so thrilled with the excitement and energy and assure you that there are many more BIG things to come from BritMums in the very near future. Hold onto your hats!

As ever, at BritMums HQ, we're always keen to draw your attention to outstanding posts which will have you smiling, laughing, crying and/or thinking. We've got quite a few this week that are really tripping our trigger so have a look at this week's BritMums Good Reads.

Houston we have lift off! Introducing the new @BritMums site!

It’s here! We’ve been working on a new, updated BritMums site for the past six months and today we’re unveiling it at last!

We can’t wait to hear what you think. It’s a huge leap forward with the social networking tools that allow you to get involved with your fellow parent bloggers, and it also helps you promote yourself and your blog easily and more effectively. (DON'T USE THE OLD SITE ON NING - nothing will get transferred over and we'll be turning it off soon.)

First things first:

• Go to BritMums.com and choose your new password (so everything’s nice and secure)
• Then sign in with your email and your new password

 You’re in!

Next, go to your Profile page – the link is in the top right-hand corner of the site – and input your blog description, your Twitter and Klout information. Now you’re ready to start using the site.

Why you love @BritMums!

Our new site is about to launch any minute now (drums fingers).

It's a work in progress, but there are some cool new features to check out, we can't wait to show you.

Meanwhile, here's a little reminder about why you love BritMums so much  (thanks to everyone who contributed quotes).

 

-Susanna and Jen

An introduction to video blogging with @geekmummy

So you want to be a video blogger? Ruth from GeekMummy gives us some tips on how to start off...

 

Join the @BritMums back to school bloghop

Shhhh, it's nearly time. Yes, that time...time to go back to school! Don't tell the kids or the last week of summer will be filled with moaning and groaning! But tell us, how excited are you about waving them off at the school gate? How thrilled are you to be resuming a ROUTINE that helps you to get through the week without losing your mind? Will you be getting your "ME" time back in a couple of weeks time? How on earth will you fill the hours between 9am and 3:30pm? We have an idea you'll come up with something to do.

In the meantime, as the summer is ending and thoughts of school uniforms and lunchbox meals fill your head, we'd like to give you the chance to jump back into blogging with both feet. We know that the summer is a good time to step back from blogging. Sometimes we need a bit of motivation or incentive to get back into a blogging routine (much like our children). BritMums is here for you!

Guest post: Eight of the best student cookery courses

As the nation’s teenagers scrabble to get on to the university courses of their dreams, parents everywhere are pondering quite how their progeny will cope with looking after themselves, properly, come September.

While the cleaning skills may take a little while to master, there are options to get their cooking up to scratch so if little else, you know there will be some nutritional value sloshing around alongside the union bar beer. Here are Looking to Cook's top selections of student cooking schools...   

BritMums Blogger of the Week

Can you believe that we only have about 2-3 weeks left of our summer holidays? School is just around the corner, uniforms are being purchased, schedules are being planned, after-school activities are being signed up for! Before the summer's out, put down the laptop, turn off Twitter and spend some quality time with your kids before it's time to join the rat-race again!

But before you do, have a look at this week's BritMums Blogger of the Week. I'll give you a few hints of who our BOW is this week. She's a mum (go figure) who is rather 'knackered', she's an expert in adult beverages and how to drink them and she's rather particular about the shapes of her chicken goujons. That's right, our BritMums Blogger of the Week is...

Introducing: Become a Mum Blogger Video Series with @erica

We've joined up with Erica and Antonia from BAM: Become a Mumpreneur to bring you a fabulous video series on how to become a mum blogger. The first video is posted below, check it out. It's all about how to start a blog.

Erica and Antonia are founding BritMums members and have contributed content to the site since the get-go. We are excited to work with them on this project. Enjoy the video!

 

Guest post: To 3D or not to 3D?

Guest-blogger, Jo Berry, is a film critic and mum of one who runs the website movies4kids.co.uk. Here she answers a question on many cinema goers’ lips: are 3D movies really worth it? 

Today, my local cinema is showing nine movies aimed at kids and families, and five of them (The Smurfs, Horrid Henry, Harry Potter, Cars 2 and Captain America) are showing in both 3D and 2D while one (Glee: The 3D Concert Movie – otherwise known as 100 minutes of karaoke hell) is only showing in 3D.

Tickets for the movies in 3D are a storming £2 more than for a regular 2D movie, and that's not including the £1.50 you need to pay for a pair of 3D glasses. Hardly surprising then, that when mums I know are deciding to take their kids to the cinema, the first question they ask me is: "Is it worth paying the extra money to see it in 3D?"

BritMums Good Reads

 

This week I thought I would take you on a journey. A journey of the "top blogs" of the Wikio Parent Blog ranking. I know, ranking, schmanking, right? In the grand scheme of life, rankings rank very low, truly. But it is one way to find some rather delightful bloggers who have figured "it" out. IT being how to write to move people, how to engage with their readers, how to tick the right boxes.

Many of these bloggers have been around for a while so maybe are not on your usual reading rota. So have a read of some of the wonderful posts from these top bloggers. Next week, we'll be starting from the other end of the stick because there are some mighty brilliant bloggers out there who haven't quite made their way up the rankings yet. Enjoy this week's BritMums Good Reads:

What's in your handbag?

What's in your handbag and any given moment can be very revealing ... or it can just be random stuff.

We're playing around with Tumblr, and have created a new site called: What's in Your Handbag? Check it out.

Take a pic of the contents of your handbag, arranged in a square, and list the contents from left to right. Tell us your name, how many children you have, blog URL and the date of the photo. Post it on your blog, and then tweet us #yourhandbag and we'll promote your site.

You can also submit your content here.

 So what are you waiting for, what's in your handbag?

Guest post: Does your family read your blog?

Mammasauras blogs for those of us whose children are not of the angelic, perfectly well-mannered variety. She blogs for those of us whose children are creative, imaginative, mischief-making monsters. But what she didn’t know up until very recently, was that she was also blogging for her mother.... 

Ah blogging – the gift that keeps on giving … First you have that *ching* moment when you have an idea for a post, then you have the pleasure of writing it. Now those two stages are why I blog personally – I just enjoy it.

Bonus happiness comes in the form of comments – to know that someone, somewhere feels the same and came relate to you.

Finally subscriptions, the hardcore few who want to receive your posts by email or in their RSS reader always brings a smile, even to the most seasoned blogger.

Imagine then my surprise when I awoke to find an email informing me that I have a new subscriber – my MOTHER! 

Is it ever okay to use pictures of kids without consent?

A BritMums blogger found herself at the centre of a hotly-debated topic over the last couple of days, and has documented the discussion on her blog, scottishmum.com. After seeing a fellow Twitter user sharing images of a stranger’s overweight children in a supermarket, Scottish Mum asked if this was really acceptable, and stirred a range of conflicting and often emotive arguments... 

“It’s simple for me, but not for all,” she says.

Guest post: Best practice for bloggers working with PRs

So you've established yourself in the blogging community and those fabulous PR offers are starting to trickle in to your inbox. It's very exciting to be offered products to review even if you start small. But how do you make sure you don't dent the great reputation that you have built up, and what is best practice when it comes to working with PRs? Nickie @ Typecast has a six-step approach that could work for you too...

I never set out to write reviews or accept sponsored posts but I have learnt what can work for my blog by asking six questions each time I receive an offer:

Who? How? When? Where? What? Why?

• Who is the offer for?
• How will this fit in with the theme of my blog?
• When does the review have to be done for?
• Where has the PR got my email address from?
• What will the campaign bring to me and/or my blog?
• Why have I been chosen for this campaign?