Bro, I've been there & done that!

Apote production.

Welcome back to another episode of Am I a Bad Mum Podcast? Where we are on the downhead. I was going to say slide, I was going to say sledge. I was like, lay off, we go.

You're trying to like bring it into Christmas, so we use the sleigh. Speaking of Christmas, Christmas tree ran up over the weekend.

Yours is gone early. Yeah, what's wrong with me? I don't know.

I've got it in my mind that it has to be first of December.

I know, But then I have thought about it and I was like, I'm going to put it up. When you start to stack your weekends up prior to Christmas, which is what I was doing, I was sort of having a moment of going, oh my gosh, we've got lots on coming up, and it seems to be something on every day of the weekend.

Do you know what I mean? Might not be the whole day.

I'm sure there'll be hours where we're at home, but there was just big things coming up, and I was like, ah, just put it up.

Yeah.

See, I do like putting up the Christmas tree, and I like it being like maybe a Sunday afternoon when you can have a little drink on the go, put

I actually enjoyed the process this year. Remember back in the days where you literally feel like you put the tree up and then a bomb here.

It's because it just goes. It's got shit everywhere.

There's no organization, there's no color scheme. It's just a free for all, and then everyone fights.

You get to put the star on, we're not there anymore.

And then they go to bed and you read the CHRISTI.

I never readid it.

I'd look at it and go what an I saw for like four weeks and then literally Boxing day would come and I'd be like.

Trees coming down. But some day, yeah, I'm a quicker.

You have to wait too.

After New Year's I just can't. I can't look at it anymore after the presents are gone.

My memory as a kid was always New Year's Eve and you'd do the old lang sine.

Does anyone still do that? You know that song? No, you don't know about the No, never heard it. Oh, go and sing it.

For the sake of old lang signe for I don't know the words. It's twelve o'clock, Happy New Year. Everyone kisses each other and then you do the old langne. I think from memory you link alms. Yeah, you're in a circle. This is obviously an English English thing, and you sing the old link sign. And so my memory as a kid was that song. But the Christmas tree was always up.

Yeah right, my kids don't have that memory because I haven't allowed that because boxing dog, I can't.

Wait to get it down this year. It's so much neater.

Yeah. And the girls helped me put it up, and it was still organized chaos with kids, but at the same time just had a little bit more structure to it.

We put our Christmas tree down on the first of January, so first day of the New year, and it's almost a bit of a sad day because you know, when you hear people and they're like, I got up on Newuesday and I went for a run and I started the year. How I want the Yeah fresh? And how I want the Mine's like a hungover, tired mess, sad, feeling unwell taking down Christmas.

Mine usually starts on the second.

I don't need the first to be my day that I'm going to be fresh, because I usually know that by the end of the night, you've had a late night, there's been a few shandies shared, and we'll start.

On the second.

Yeah, start on the second, and it's my beth down and the third, so.

We start again.

Am I a bad mum for not knowing how to fire them up?

It's that time of year where we've got a lot of competitions for Elsie coming up.

You know you enjoy this because you know how like non competitive I am as a parent. But yeah, that's a lie, a blatant lie.

But no, so el just go.

Heaps of athletics going on at the moment, and a few weekends ago I had to share the load and actually ask Sam to parent as well and take her to It was like a full state relay athletic state.

Like it was a big day and she was competing.

Now, Elsie's very strong, she's very competitive, you know, she likes to win.

But it's weird. Yeah, so weird.

I wonder who she gets that from.

It's weird because when she goes into competition mode, it's almost like she shies away, all backs off from wanting to be better than others.

It's just a new thing.

She was always the kid that was like, I'm going to win. I'm going to get first in cross country.

Yeah.

And did I now have this thing where I've got Sam on the phone getting angry at me for not knowing how he can fire up Elsie because he had to do athletics because I was at dance rehearsal for the concert, which is like eight till five, And I assume that he didn't want to do that part of the day because he's not hair and makeup qualified.

To remember, Jay, my husband had to get the girls ready for the dance concept once and he googled how to do their hair and ended up finding something on Google that said use the vacuum cleaner, you know, the like vacuum cleaner when you've got the small.

Yeah, you've got the real thin attachment.

Yeah, the thin one, so suck up the hair with the vacuum cleaner and have the hairband on the end and then just push it.

He did that, He didn't do that? Yeah? Did it work? Yes?

No, I would never let someone go to my hair with a vacuum cleaner.

I mean, how hard is it to a ponytail? Anyway, It's like he had to do like a French.

Bloody no disrespect. But he is a dad brain, That's all I'm saying.

So, yeah, I've got Sam on the phone who's messaging me, getting angry at me because Elsie's not winning like she should be and.

He doesn't know how to fire her up.

Do you think that that is like a fair call for one parent to message the other and go, I don't know how to fire this kid up?

Why are you looking at me?

Sometimes I feel like it's okay to not reply because I sometimes I got a Texas morning saying Amelia is driving me crazy, and I was at the gym and I was like, what do you want me to reply in that?

Work it out?

Work it out, like I know, we need to have each other's back.

And we do. We do.

Yeah, I don't know what you want me to say, and I thought to myself, I can either stress myself out here and start replying, or I could enjoy what I was doing at the gym.

Yep, So I tried that oestion too and continued enjoying myself at the gym. You know what I did, which you've just highlighted, is I went into the dive and I was stressed because I was at dance rehearsals and.

We're in quick change, so lots is going on.

And Grace's always high of emotions if it's anything to do with dance in general, so usually her and I are trying to kill each other. But I went for the dive and I was like, what do you want from me right now? How do you suggest I help you right now? When you're at athletics. I was like, also, sorry, did you not have sixteen years of elite football, all skills that.

You could somehow use to fire your child?

What did your coach say to you?

So did you play for the Brisbane Broncos or Australia? How did you fire yourself up? Like? Try and use that well, make it more child friendly and use that to help her teach her show us some skills like, that's what she wants to do.

She wants to learn from you. No text mom. I'll text mom and tell her you're not what do you want from me?

I think it's also okay to do. And I actually think this is a really good line and this works with kids husbands. It might be to go, how can I help you in this situation? Yea, what do you want me to do? What do you want from me? My kids will say, you know, this has happened, or my finger is hurting or whatever it might be, and I go, Okay, what would you like me to do about it? And often they'll go nothing, I just.

Needed to tell you. Yeah, I know.

I've actually just of recent started that with the girls because I get these big stories and they're like they're long, and we know, as mums you got lots to do, so you're trying to stay engaged and you're trying to stay there with them, and then we get right to the end, and then I've missed the point of the whole story. So then I get to the end and go, okay,

Otherwise you get frustrated. We can get frustrated so often with like if someone's you know, let's use to hurt my finger thing, it's like like, come on, like really that's a problem fing a big deal, like you know, you know, And that's that's why I end up saying, like there's this big drama about what would you like me to do in that in this situation, because the alternative and what I've done in the past is gone.

Okay, we'll do this and try this and yeah, this will.

Happen, and then you get all worked up in stress, and what you really want to say is it's fucking her finger.

Come on, suck it up.

You know. One thing just to wrat this up is my nephew is three or three and a half nearly, you.

Know, like it's three and a half.

He's just hit that horrible, horrible three and a half age which we've all been through or are going through, and just on that, like, how can I help you?

I was a little bit hungover on the weekend, just.

To tad, and my brother came over with my nephew and he had shit his pants and he decided to then continue to try and jump all over me.

And I turned to my brother and was like.

There's no way that I can help you with this, and just handed his son back and was like, this is your responsibility.

Here you go. And he's like, what do you want me to do about it? I said, Ah, that is not mine. I'm not even going to offer to help. That's not mine. I've been there, I've done that. Oh, it's your nephew too, take it away.