“What has happened to my life?!”
I seem to ask myself this a lot these days.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my life, my little (bonkers) family and I wouldn’t change it for the world, but some days, when you’re at the end of your tether, you really do just yearn for the simpler, quieter days of old. You know, the days when you could decide, “Oh, it’s a nice day, I’m going to pop to the local garden centre to have a browse about”, or, “Oh, it’s a nice day, I’m going to sit in a pub garden and watch the world go by”, and you would just grab your bag, your keys, your wallet and your phone and go. You know, those kinds of days.
Nowadays, if I want to ‘pop out’ somewhere, it is literally a military operation.
Not only do I have to sort myself out, but it is often my 3 boys…and my husband too! 😉
My husband doesn’t understand it. Even if we pop up the road, I feel the need to throw half the larder into my bag and at least 30 nappies, a change of outfit for each child, rain coats, suncream, sun hats, umbrellas, you name it, it goes in the bag. You have to prepare for all eventualities, don’t you?!
Mary Poppins and her magic bag have nothing on me, I can tell you…
I had to swap my bag over the other day because I went out. As in, out without the children, out. Out like a grown up, out. You get the idea. I was me for the night rather than just, ‘mum’. It was lovely, but I had to condense my rather large bag into a much smaller one and I was, quite frankly, astonished at the stuff I consider ‘essential’. I think I have lost the plot somewhere between babies number 2 and 3, though I’m sure my husband would disagree and would say I have always been like it. Why I lug this stuff with me on 2 school runs per day, as well as on walks and days out is beyond me, but I am sure you can all relate to it.
Here is what I (shamefully) emptied out of my ‘daily essentials’ bag, otherwise known as my ‘Sac de Magique’…
My enormous, Mummy rucksack. My ‘sac de magique’ if you will…
Everything I need to do a school run…apparently.
An Ella’s Kitchen Fruit Pouch (not in a cocktail this time!)
Some (insanely overpriced) toddler snacks
Some Tic-tacs
Some Mints
Some Fruity Polos
My house keys
My car key
Some headphones*
(*you know, for all those occasions I walk on my own somewhere and I can actually listen to some music or a podcast of The Archers)
Some Suncream
Some Lipgloss
Some Lipbalm
Some Lipstick**
(**why I have all 3 of these in my bag at the same time is beyond me. I rarely wear any of them!)
A notepad and pen (because clearly I can’t fathom how to use notepad on my iPhone)
A Sugar laden Capri-Sun Juice Pouch
Nappies
Baby Wipes
Some old concert tickets
Some old cinema tickets
A mini torch
My Purse
…oh, and a Norman Price toy from Fireman Sam. An ‘everyday bag’ essential that one.
Why the hell do I have so much stuff?! At what point in my life am I going to be able to ditch half of it and just go out with the essentials again?
Just my keys, my phone and my wallet.
It’ll happen one day and then rather than having to lug about an enormous Mum Rucksack (which is actually not the most hideous looking practical bag, thank the lord for Accessorize!) I will be able to have a nice, neat, little satchel or something. One day…
That or I’ll just completely have given up and I’ll cart all my belongings about in a supermarket bag for life or something glam like that 😉
What do you carry about in your ‘Mum bag’?
Are you worse than me?!
Gems.x
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, however all words and views are my own. Lifeisknutts.com
Oh I am worse and I’ve only got one kid. I think I’m probably going to have to write about it to show you all the crap I take to baby yoga which is just down the road
When I looked after grandchildren, for a journey of any distance my daughter gave me a Fireman Sam backpack with one year olds bottle and snacks, a large pushchair bag with spare nappies and clothes for both boys, a second Fireman Sam backpack with enough food and drink to sustain a small colony in East Africa, just for the three year old. I also had to carry a Spiderman toy, a Batman cape, a Lego Darth Vader and Norman Price…..
GeorgieMoon recently posted…Share Your World…..
I would have had to pick off the fluff and squashed raisins, before I could have laid out my bits and bobs!
Amy Le Pelley recently posted…Zesty Lemon Sunshine Play Dough
Hmm, I definitely have a lot – nappies, wipes, nappy bags, clothes for two of them, umbrella (not that I can use it when with them on my own), rice cakes, milk, water, credit card holder, train ticket holder, purse, keys, tissues, changing mat, 10 crayons (2 of 5 colours so they have the same), paper to draw on and a small cosmetic purse with lady products, antihistamine cream, a tiny sudocrem and hand cream (which despite having cracked hands in the winter, I still forget/don’t have the time to use). Oh, plus headphones, for occasional handsfree conversation, if they’re not shouting, hand gel, pen, diary, reins, a few old receipts and a few shopping bags. Amazingly all fits in the one bag. At the moment with the addition of two sunhats and a bottle of suncream.
I used to have a lot in a handbag, like a book, but now if I do need a grown up one, is pretty empty with purse, keys, train ticket holder, tissue and maybe a lippy, if I actually remember.
There is no way though, once I don’t have a pushchair, that I’ll be carting this stuff around!
do it!!! I’m now intrigued by people’s mum bags xx
Oh Georgie!! I feel your pain. Truly I do.
I totally did that. And I also got super excited because I found £5 in the bottom of my bag too!!! I NEVER find money…. Too exciting xx
Crikey Adele!!!!! You must have guns of steel carrying that lot about!!! X