It’s that month again! Is it me or has this year flown by?

So much has happened this year it’s felt hard to keep my feet on the ground! It’s felt a bit like that scene from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy gets sucked up into the tornedo that dumps her at the start of the yellow brick road. You open your eyes and wonder both what happened and where am I?

This can absolutely be related to parenthood too!

Each day can feel like a relentless walk-through treacle, up mountains that never get to a summit, a desperate tumble to the bottom whilst attempting not to spill any wine from the glass, the worlds worst hangover coupled with endless lists that never get completed!

Then you get to the emerald city and realise that the Wizard is a bloody fake! WTH!

There are of course those moments that make all the above worth it, and I wouldn’t change it for the world! In fact, I’d go back and do it again, I’d take more notice, I’d do less housework and make more dens whilst making super monsters out of playdoh, cause at the end of the day, that’s what really matters!

All the BS that we place around parenting, all the crap we buy only to realise that the cardboard box is what they really wanted, along with our time, and our ability to get into their world with them! That’s what’s important.

So chop through all the BS, who gives a shit what some ‘specialist’ says on insta or fb! What you want is real world stuff not fake rubbish! All this gentle parenting that I read about seems to leave parents thinking they have to be perfect! BS! It doesn’t exist!! If it does, then I failed miserably!!

Anyway, I digress!

Here’s the thing, all children will struggle with their emotions, as will we as adults – it’s part of being human. You’ll all have an idea of the terrible twos and the complete meltdowns that occur, and really all it is, is your child attempting to manage their emotions. It can be really tough to manage and when they are teenagers it can be harder as we have an expectation that they won’t have tantrums anymore! WRONG!! The teenage brain functions kind of like a toddlers in that it is rewiring and figuring out how to manage emotions all over again…and it can be exhausting!

That Christmas present that you spent a fortune on ends up in a cupboard because it’s not what they really wanted! The Christmas day that ‘should’ (I hate that word for so many reasons) becomes less than picture perfect! And that is okay! We place so much expectation on what things ‘should’ look like, feel like, ‘be’! that we end up missing what is! A moment in time that adds to memories, sometimes difficult ones, but shape us nevertheless.

So here’s 3 tips to get you through December as calmly as possible!