Nutshell #9
Elizabeth Christmas-Hutton, One Direction, when hot drinks used to be hot, and blackout blinds
Next week’s guest is…
Elizabeth Christmas-Hutton, CEO of the incredible charity, Kicks Count. She is a cancer survivor, Mummy to Emily and Joshua, and to little Toby, who was born sleeping.
I’ll be honest - I’ve spent a lot of time this week in some sort of tears editing this incredible powerful and important episode.
Sad tears. But happy tears too <3
Make sure you don’t miss it.
But what can I listen to now??
Try Lou Teasdale from Series 1.
She has a WHOPPING nearly 5m followers on instagram and tells an absolutely bonkers story…
(note… I was still suuuuper new to podcasting so my sound is a bit raw :/ . But content = worth it)
She was One Direction’s and Olly Murs’s hair stylist, very close friends to the late Caroline Flack, and took her 4 month old on 1D’s tourbus.
As you do.
In a Nutshell, we discuss entrepreneurship, co-parenting, how and when to let your kids grow up, and making your own luck.
Episodes are for everyone… but who would LOVE this episode —>
Split-up / divorced parents
Mums who are self-employed
One Direction fans
Resource of the week
The book The Mother of All Jobs by Christine Armstrong.
Have you ever looked at the lengthy school holiday dates and silently screamed in desperation / gone part time yet are still doing a full-time workload / been too afraid to ask about maternity benefits or flexible working / constantly feel guilty about missing school events and secretly envious of other mums at the school gates who seem to be doing it all better than you?
This book brings together the wisdom of women who opened up about their experiences into a manifesto to help working parents thrive. It’s a perfect combo of being light and funny but also incredibly informative and thoughtful.
Oh and I interviewed her back in Series 2, too, and she is pretty awesome.
Quote of the week
You know you’re a mum when you understand exactly why the MummyBear porridge was cold.
Product / Tip of the week
Now that it’s getting lighter outside you may find your toddler is letting you know that “it’s still daytime mummy” at bedtime, or even better your baby is now deciding “I’m awake I’m awake” at 05.00 instead of 07.00.
No thank you.
If you’re going on holiday / to a parents or in-laws / friends and you don’t know their curtains situation, there is nothing more annoying than both of these situations too - and you need it to be dark.
Fitted blackout blinds are an absolute godsend, but we can’t always afford them / can’t take them everywhere with us.
… so the Gro Anywhere portable blackout blind I would really, really recommend.
We can’t afford a Velux blind in my baby’s room at the moment and this is saving our bacon.
This has super handy suction pads and is huge but you can also change its size, so you can stick it anywhere but also change it to fit pretty much any window.
Instamum of the week
@raisinglittletalkers Melissa Minney is a speech and language therapist specialising in Baby + Toddler speech.
She has the LOVELIEST energy and attitude (honestly she is like sunshine in a person) with some really innovative ways of encouraging great speech development.
I had a late / interesting talker with Toddler B who didn’t start until he was probably 22 months +. He just pointed at everything and said “gah” as a way of us naming everything for him, and his first word was… moon. Lol. He didn’t say mummy or daddy until he was 2 and even then it was limited. His speech then exploded at about 26 months.
When I googled it I hugely panicked (don’t google it) but having looked at more of this lady she really made me feel reassured.
Of course, if you are really worried, speak to your healthcare provider.