To win, it’s super simple, watch this video and answer the question either by commenting here, on the blog post or on the Youtube page itself. Super simple or what!?

I really love this chart, though Princess has out grown the one she used to have and uses it to boss us around instead, which isn’t quite what we had in mind!

The post Win a Reward/ Chore Chart appeared first on Circus Mums.

Name Vicki Psarias-Broadbent

Blog Name Honest Mum

Blog URL http://www.honestmum.com

http://www.mummysgotstyle.com

Kids?   Two children, Oliver 3 and Alexander, 8 months.

What’s your day job?

I’m a freelance writer/screenwriter and director although currently I’m mostly freelance writing/ blogging alongside developing a TV project and le babies!

Hobbies?

I so wish I had time for hobbies. I used to love to paint but never seem to have the time or the energy to clear up afterwards! I love running, walking in the countryside with the kids and erm…does shopping count!

Wine/Water/Green Smoothie? 

Wine on the weekend, water everyday, green smoothie too infrequently!

Heels or flats?

Small heels in the day (biker boots)or flats, then high as I can walk in for an evening/night out.

What do you consider to be your biggest achievements outside of giving birth and raising cool kids?

I love that. My kids are my biggest success and they are totally cool. Honoured to have become a finalist this year in the BritMums’ Brilliance in Blogging Awards in the Video category too! I’m also pretty chuffed about these accolades below- acknowledgement of my hard work in film-

Listed in the Observer’s Courvoisier The Future 500 for outstanding individuals * * Winner of the Entertainment, Media and the Arts Category for the 2011 World Spread’s Square Mile 30 under 30 London Talent Awards in association with CNN * * Winner Channel 4 4Talent Award * * Finalist Red Hot Women Magazine Awards *

What is your benchmark for success and balance?

I wish I knew…sometimes I feel I’m getting it right, other days I feel like I’m failing spectacularly! I think realising that compromises are made, that guilt is no good for the soul and it’s OK to want to juggle a career I’m passionate about with my amazing children and not only OK but I’m very lucky to have the most supportive family and husband that make that all possible.

…My mother is my inspiration-she learnt English in a year when she emigrated to the UK aged 12, passed all her GCSE’s that year, then A’levels-went to Uni, got a BA, MA, PGCE and became a lecturer before opening award winning restaurants with my father when I was 2, my brother 6 weeks old!

Tell us one random fact about you!

I can bark like a little dog-I discovered this accidentally (like you do) and somehow I can communicate with dogs when I get barking-Although they are mostly just scared of me. I’m a total cat person though! *face palm.

You can follow me @honestmummy

Facebook Page facebook.com/honestmum

Film website www.vpsarias.co.uk

The post Circus Mum All Star – Vicki Psarias-Broadbent appeared first on Circus Mums.

I remember learning to drive an having this amazingly cool driving instructor who told me off for my bad driving habits, obviously picked up from watching my dad and also boyfriend drive. Things like steering with one hand rather than doing the whole push-pull, ten to two technique and also being a little aggressive in my manouvres. Seriously, for a learner driver it was like I was auditioning for a part in a Fast and Furious film. The driving instructor was able to get rid of my bad habits and also taught me some invaluable skills such as learning how to drive in icy conditions so as to avoid road traffic accidents.

We had a lesson booked and it had snowed really heavily the night before. The road was covered in black ice but he offered to take me out on a lesson anyway, reasoning that I’d have to deal with it in the big bad world anyway, so it was probably safer to learn how to handle icy roads with him first. My driving instructor taught me how to steer into a skid to stop yourself from losing control of the vehicle, something that served me very well in later life when I hyrdoplaned on the M25 coming home from uni one day. The car in front had stopped sharply, I’d braked to hard and locked my brakes, but from steering into skid rather than away from it, my car corrected itself and stopped me from smashing into the cars in front. Unfortunately I did have a car smash into the back of me some years later in similarly icy conditions. Annoyingly on a road next to a primary school, at a traffic light, urgh. Anyway, some savvy solicitor advice and a good insurance policy sorted it all out and nobody was left with permanant injuries.

I would really like to start driving again, I haven’t had a car in a few years now. Living in London you can kind of get away with not using one, but in the winter it’s definately a plus! I am thankful for my driving lessons and the Pass Plus course I did for preparing me and touch wood, there will be no more driving mishaps, only happy smiley cars!

*sponsored post* but that really is a smiley car and this is a true story

The post Ice Ice Baby appeared first on Circus Mums.

Four kids on the top deck of a double decker London bus, in the late afternoon. Two older looking secondary school aged girls and two youngish looking secondary school aged boys.

Swearing. Threatening each other. Coaxing each other.

Two boys. One now looking terrified and trying to face the front and block the confrontational situation out. His slightly older brother standing up in a protective stance defending his actions whilst the girls make phone calls to friends to meet them when they get off the bus in order to beat the two boys up. Laughing at them and saying how they are going to wish they were dead. Three children, still swearing. One top deck filled with adults all looking the other way. All the time we are nearing the last stop, where these children are promising to come to blows. Girls promising to have their local hard boys kill them where they stood. Because.

Now wait for it.

Because the boys had laughed and the girl didn’t like people laughing at her.

I don’t know what came over me but I couldn’t ignore it any more. Just as we get to the last stop, I stood up and walked calmly to the group, now all standing, except for the youngest little boy. I tell them that normally I wouldn’t get involved in other people’s affairs but this just has to stop.

I told them that I couldn’t believe the way I had heard them talk for the last five/ ten minutes. That if they thought that swearing and threatening in front of a bus load of actual adults made them seem cool or hard they were wrong. I told these teens that the way they were groomed showed they were well looked after and they probably had parents who cared for them very much and would die of shock if they heard the way their children were behaving, just as I would if this was my own child.

Here the mouthier of the girls points out that the boys had started it by laughing at her. Which made me laugh and point out that if their biggest concern was that a stranger laughed at them that they were blessed and leading a very good life. You should worry about cancer, about paying that next rental payment, about getting a job, not about laughter. That starting a fight and threatening people over something as trivial as a laugh meant they needed to grow up, go home and read a book. Yup my speach was long. The bus pulled into the bus garage whilst I stood there talking to these four. Everyone else on the bus had got off without a word.

Yes I understand it doesn’t seem to be the ‘done’ thing for adults to stand up to kids, at least not in my side of London but sometimes we really must. Note I said we. Not I. The bus driver spoke to me after the incident, he was really lovely and had started to make his way up the stairs by the time we were coming down. He said the only way to stay sane is to ignore the anti-social behaviour and to block them out. People who stand up to aggresive teens are in the minority and being in the minority makes us an easy target. So, I guess I’m saying I don’t want to be in the minority. Anyone willing to stand up too? Let’s reclaim our community one kid at a time.

The post Speaking Out – Good Or Plain Stupid? appeared first on Circus Mums.

Name                          Bose Onaboye aka Abi Onas

Blog Name                 ONIN London

Blog URL                   www.oninonline.com

Kids?                     1 super cute princess who is 6 months and counting

What’s your day job? 

Day job is as a Data Analyst and Publisher of ONIN London.

Hobbies?       

Running and keeping fit.

Wine/Water/Green Smoothie? 

Water is best! Although I’m known for a sip of red wine. Wouldn’t drink a green smoothie if you paid me loool.

Heels or flats?    

Heels for work and being wifey! Flats for mummy time.

What do you consider to be your biggest achievements outside of giving birth and raising cool kids? 

I would say becoming a Christian! It was a game changer for me. Completely transformed my life, allowed me to start a ministry, find my husband, build my business! You name it I account it to Jesus.

What is your benchmark for success and balance?     

Being able to bless others and live a life of love.

Money doesn’t account for success, there are many miserable rich people.

Tell us one random fact about you!     

I like to cook meals at 1am! Yes I eat them too (the shame) hehehehehe

The post Circus Mum All Star- Abi appeared first on Circus Mums.

I don’t know of a single uni student without some great space saving or super trendy IKEA furniture or textiles in their student digs. I literally furnished my entire first flat with IKEA goods. They were reasonably priced, easy to assemble and really pleasing to the eye. 10 years later and I am still an avid IKEA fan, going back to them time and time again to solve the issue of finding non-cumbersome, nicely designed furniture to fit into the less than generously proportioned London homes we’ve been fortunate enough to live in, even if it would have been nice for them to be oh..double the size!

Anyone who knows me well can attest to me being anything but naturally tidy. I’d always assumed that when I was an ‘adult’ I’d have a cleaner, nanny and perhaps a driver so naturally, I’d have more time to be organised and they would also help keep things looking spotless. As fate would have it, I don’t have any of those people to help me yet, maybe this means I’m not quite an adult and I have this still to come? Anyway, for now, I rely on the joys of IKEA storage solutions and their practical furniture ranges to keep my house looking less like a pig sty and more like a well maintained home!

The post Why IKEA are Kings of Storage! appeared first on Circus Mums.