Parenting Archives

Mind the gap: What’s it like to have three kids over 13 years?

May 11, 2020May 7, 2020 by Sarah Zeqiri

If you’ve have children close together, you’ll be all-too familiar with the goggle-eye look you get when people spot you with bump and a toddler. “Two under two!” they’ll exclaim, the goggle-eye factor increasing if there are multiples involved. So how about doing things the other way, having longer gaps between babies? bubble’s teaching advisor Sarah Zeqiri has three children; Ella, 16, Dexter, 10 and two-year-old Mabel, and we asked her what life is like with an age-gap family. It seems to be that people, on the whole, have their children fairly close together – one, two or three years …

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The lockdown habits that will be hard to break

April 21, 2020 by Lizzie Catt

Even in the first week of lockdown, pre-coronavirus norms already felt like they belonged to a different lifetime. “This advert hasn’t aged well,” my husband said, shaking his head as the TV displayed images of people clearly not from the same household congregated less than two meters apart in an office building, with one woman – eek – eating cereal directly from a co-worker’s bowl WITH HER FINGERS. She didn’t leave the cereal 72 hours to decontaminate; she didn’t even wash her hands. Lockdown life is already ingrained. Instead of hugging and trading nits, kids shout a cheery, ‘STAY AWAY …

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How to ace Easter Sunday during lockdown

April 15, 2020April 9, 2020 by Lizzie Catt

When some Police forces and local councils declared chocolate Easter eggs were a ‘non-essential’ item last week, many parents experienced a moment of minor panic. While chocolate may not be an essential grocery item, to those little people who look forward to the Easter bunny’s visit as much as Father Christmas’s, a no-show from the bunny was going to be tricky to explain. Fortunately, the official warnings were deemed heavy-handed and restrictions on the number of Easter eggs shoppers can buy have been lifted. Still, pickings are slim and not everyone’s been able to get the usual things – foil …

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Healthy and happy at home

April 24, 2020April 9, 2020 by Sarah Zeqiri

It’s been a confusing few weeks for our little people. While kids are adaptable and mostly happy to enjoy some extra family time, the sudden change of routine, the new rules around handwashing and social distancing and even the fact that they’re not allowed into a locked playground while out for a walk can throw them. bubble’s teaching advisor Sarah Zeqiri is at home with her three children, Ella, 16, Dexter, 10, and two-year-old Mabel. Here she offers these brilliant tips for keeping children happy during lockdown, helping them process their emotions… and staving off the dreaded cry of, “I’m …

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Home school nation: tips from one educator who’s rising to the challenge

April 15, 2020March 23, 2020 by Sarah Zeqiri

Sarah Zeqiri is a secondary English and Drama teacher and a teaching advisor for bubble. She has three children: 16 year old Ella, who’s been working hard for her GCSEs only to find out they’ve been cancelled, 10 year old Dexter, a Lego enthusiast who is autistic and has ADHD, and two-year-old Mabel, who is made of noise, Frozen songs and questions. Her husband Jamie is also trying to work from home. We’ve all heard that the devil makes work for idle hands, but that’s especially true if they belong to a bored toddler or a kid with …

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How to make the most of Mother’s Day when you’re social distancing

April 15, 2020March 18, 2020 by Lizzie Catt

Mother’s Day, along with pretty much everything else, is shaping up to be very different this year. Pub lunches are out and even spring strolls might not be possible. Sadly, trips to see older relatives with the kids are almost certainly off the cards. Here are a few ideas to make sure Mother’s Day 2020 is still a winner. Adjust expectations You may not be able to spend the day galloping around a National Trust property before sitting down for a pub meal (translation: repeatedly yelping, ‘Don’t touch that!’ while dragging whinging kids around a historic house then speed-eating a …

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Keeping fit… once the kids arrive!

January 6, 2020January 2, 2020 by Ari Last

New Year’s fitness resolutions come around as surely as the chocs and cheeseboards at Christmas, even though most of us know that our good intentions will probably splutter out before the end of January. After a few false starts, Binky Felstead finally caught the fitness bug in her mid-20s, shortly before finding out she was pregnant with daughter India, now two. But with an adaptable routine, some banging tunes and help from bubble, she’s in the best shape of her life since becoming a mum. Here, she shares with us her tips for finding a love of fitness that …

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Show me the mummy! Q&A with Lucy Tobin…

June 24, 2019June 24, 2019 by Ari Last

At bubble we love supporting and showcasing our community’s hard-working mums and dads – especially when they’re on a mission to make parenting that little bit easier! We had the chance to sit down with Lucy Tobin, Evening Standard journalist, author and mum-of-two about her new website ‘showmethemummy’… Hey Lucy, tell us a bit about you… I’m Lucy Tobin, an Evening Standard journalist, author and a mum of two – my kids are aged two and four. Most of the time, I work from home, and mainly write during nap times, late into the night, and when I have a …

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11 reasons why Mums are superheroes

February 28, 2018 by Ari Last

We all know our Mums are bonafide heroes, but which superhero would your Mum be? Probably all of your favourites wrapped into one, because when it comes to super-powers – they’ve got the lot. 1. They can appear in 3 places at once. School pick-up, work meeting and your sister’s dentist appointment all at once? Sure. No problem. 2. They can crush you with a silent stare. Normally reserved for those times when you did something really bad and rather than scream at you, they just stared in disappointment, saying absolutely nothing at all. The shame! 3. They’re saving us …

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How to deal with a 1 year old heckler!

March 20, 2018May 13, 2017 by Adrian Murdock

Hatty Ashdown – a comic and mum from South East London and MC of Screaming With Laughter, the original London lunchtime comedy club for parents and babies – describes the perils of mixing comedy and kids. “Everyone knows dealing with a heckler is one of the biggest challenges for a stand-up comic – well, how about when that heckler is 1 year old! I took over running Screaming With Laughter from comic Lucy Porter (the one off the telly) earlier this year, and MC’ing these shows is different to any other gigs I’ve done. It’s an amazing, unique challenge as …

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