Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

to actually want to read about your 'Mother Superior - post-kids ACHIEVEMENTS'?

47 replies

Adair · 17/01/2011 07:30

Clicked on the Discussions of the Day expecting to be cheered by tales of Phds and winning Nobel Prizes etc etc... and hoping to be inspired

instead it's not that kind of thread at all rather things that have changed since being a mum (flabby bellies and changing nappies). Now, much as I absolutely rate motherhood as a skill that I am learning (am a SAHM and value what I do immensely), I'd quite like to hear about the amazing things people have done whilst also being a mother.
To prove we can.
Iykwim.

Anyone want to contribute?

OP posts:

Punkatheart · 17/01/2011 08:06

I started writing when my daughter was a baby - in those little hours when she was sleeping. I started with letters to magazines - found I had a knack and often got Letter of the Week - lovely prizes such as weekends away, a Kitchenaid, digital radio etc. So onwards to a bit of journalism - no training, just ringing/writing to editors with ideas. Lots of bluff at first - but then I had to write the articles. It wasn't too hard - I got paid! I even won an eco-tourism comp and went the the Half Moon in Jamaica.

Short stories followed and also a few prizes. I used any place I visited as material - setting a story in Jamaica for example. Some published and some wonderful writer friends gathered along the way. Best thing is, it fits in with motherhood. I also cannot do anything else!

What about you, Adair?

Lizzylou · 17/01/2011 08:12

Wow Punka, that is fab and very inspiring.

I started exercising and running, I have never been a natural sporty type, I just to used to get an urge to run sometimes (away? ). I did a 5km run, then a 10km one. I also did a 2.5km swimathon, again something I really had to work hard to do.

Nothing great in the grand scheme of things, but definitely things I'd never have contemplated doing pre-Dc.

Oh and I set up a business, but the jurys out on that one at the moment!

Punkatheart · 17/01/2011 08:15

I couldn't run that far...or swim that far...

That is a fab set of achievements.

Always brave to start a business - good luck with it!

Original poster

Adair · 17/01/2011 09:40

Wow, well done both of you! V inspiring. Good luck with your business, Lizzylou.

I am a big procrastinator and find motherhood a handy excuse to Not Write that Novel or Be Creative. But I know it IS an excuse... and have v creative friends who make beautiful things... I did do a jewellery course and learnt how to make wire jewellery - that was fun.

OP posts:

The3Bears · 17/01/2011 09:50

Well done to you all very inspiring, I really enjoy writing and would love to get into this somehow but it all seems impossible nice to know it can happen :)

lostinwales · 17/01/2011 09:51

I have joined our local Community council, and was the lead in making a new playground for the village. Between our group we have changed the course of a footpath, raised £70,000 and the new playground was opened in December. It is beautiful and very popular with all the local children, and the proudest thing I have done so far (baring my children, which frankly was quicker to organise and not nearly as much work!). I have also set up a village website which has spurred me on into starting an OU degree in computing and psychology. I would never have had the courage to do it in the past.

poissonrouge · 17/01/2011 09:53

I have moved to a new country.

I have learned to patchwork and quilt.

I have taken up running (10k)

SylvanianFamily · 17/01/2011 09:56

I part qualified as an accountant across 3 mat leaves. My company sponsored me to get those bpp home study courses, so I could bf and study simultaneously!

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 17/01/2011 09:57

I've done an OU degree and got a place on a PGCE, which I'll be starting in September. I've also learned to sail and got my Day Skipper qualification.

Onetoomanycornettos · 17/01/2011 10:06

I am impressed by all the runners, it's on my 'to do' list. Since having children, I got my PhD (although I wouldn't actually recommend having two children at the end of it, it did take quite a long time to recover) and now have some semblance of a career, so for me, motherhood was the point everything took off, not the end as I had feared. I don't find all the juggling easy, and don't have a freezer full of batch cooked meals and the house is just short of chaotic, but I like to have a purpose and a goal (next one, write book).

Onetoomanycornettos · 17/01/2011 10:08

My mum's career only took off in her thirties, when we were just pre-teens, and the same happened to my auntie, so I am convinced that you can 'restart' your life more than once, although with a lot of hard work. If you don't fancy career success, then there are lots of other great projects out there- I really liked lostinwales playpark, because every single time she walks in there and sees children hanging upside down on the bars, she can have a big grin on her face and think 'I did that!'

TattyDevine · 17/01/2011 10:10

I did a couple of qualifications at college, nothing major and just in a subject that interested me but I ended up getting distinctions and it was really just something to get me out the house one night a week so that was quite good.

Career wise nothing because I have done all that and am treating my very extended (possibly eternal) maternity leave as a sabattical and career break anyway.

My friend is in an NCT group that is majorly high achieving and dynamic. One girl has set up 2 separate companies, another girl did all the legals for her, and they have set up their own mother and baby group too where they bought a special coffee machine etc etc. Makes my group look like a bunch of losers (which we are but I think we like it that way!)

KnittedBreast · 17/01/2011 10:11

im starting a distance leanring access course to midwifery.

I run a breastfeeding support group

lostinwales · 17/01/2011 10:15

I do Onetoomany, I do!

I would love career success too BTW, but as an NHS worker I have had to concede defeat for the time being hence the degree!

PortBlacksandEventually · 17/01/2011 10:18

I'm an illustrator / artist and pre DSs i was very much an illustrator - working on maps, book covers and pet portraits....all very nice and not bad money but not what i would call particularly 'creative'.

I decided to use my 'maternity leave' to explore more creative stuff. I started painting what i wanted to and took up glass, sculpture, pottery, soldering etc.

what amazed me is that this work has sold as well as the more traditional work i was doing before - i would never have had the guts to just go for it before having children. I'm going to do a course in blacksmithing this year to see how i get on (and my work is getting bigger and bigger) - wonder if that means anything ?

PortBlacksandEventually · 17/01/2011 10:23

Fantastic achievement LostInWales!

Perhaps now you could give some tips to LegoLand

maighdlin · 17/01/2011 10:37

i got into university! So proud of it. Was doing OU when preg and with a new born and c/s. Because i was made redundant i decided to grab the bull by the bollocks and go to uni full time like i had always wanted to do. i did a few more OU course to get the points and started my law degree in september.

thanksamillion · 17/01/2011 11:33

I moved to a new country, learnt a new language and now run community development projects (with DH). We fundraised and built a park too, and are now working on a youth and community centre. When we came here we had DD1 and DS and now have DD2 as well.

maledetta · 17/01/2011 16:22

I converted a van into a camper when DS was 3 months old...in the light evenings, when he was in bed. I'm, ahem, trying to start a business- maybe I shouldn't spend so much time on Mumsnet eh.....And I'm a single mother.

AtYourCervix · 17/01/2011 16:25

Started university to do a degree when DD2 started school. Have since gone back again for degree number 2.

2 is plenty though - never ever again. (until I get bored again anyway)

KatieScarlett2833 · 17/01/2011 16:28

I get up, go to work, manage not to throttle my colleagues, come home, feed, clean and launder then go to bed without killing myself/DH/DC's. I consider every day to be an achievement.

Oh, and I got my masters last year while doing all of the above at the same time.

Litchick · 17/01/2011 16:36

This a fabulous thread. So positive.

I have to say, I have achieved loads more since the birth of my children.

Before I had a reasonably good job, but spent too much time partying.

Since I have had my children I have written several books and radio plays. All published/optioned.

I have also set up a number of successful businessess including blogs/forums/websites etc

AtYourCervix · 17/01/2011 16:38

My alcohol tolerance is also greater.

ComeAlongPond · 17/01/2011 16:38

I don't have any kids. But my mother did a part-time Masters degree when my sister was a newborn - she grossly underestimated how much effort a newborn would be and thought, "Oh, I'm going to be stuck in the house while the baby just sleeps and sometimes have to feed her so I'll do my Masters for something to do." Think she got a bit of a shock when DSis was born!

Then again, perhaps not enough of a shock, because when I came along a couple of years later she took up a phd, which she finished while my sister and I were toddlers and my little brother was a newborn.

Flisspaps · 17/01/2011 16:40

I too finished my OU degree. And have now set up my own Childminding business.

Flip

1 2