Parenting Pep Talk #14 – Emily and Indiana

Parenting Pep Talk is a weekly series of guest posts all about encouraging other parents by sharing some of our happy moments, the advice that has worked for us and some positive words of encouragement.

 

Today’s post is from Emily, who blogs at Emily and Indiana.

 

Hi I’m Emily and I blog over at www.emilyandindiana.com. I was one of the rare ones who started out vlogging before starting my blog. But now love doing both! My blog started as a way to document my life as a first-time young mummy, and has since grown to be so much more! I’m now a married, mummy of two. Blogging all about life as a young parent – the ups, downs and everything in-between.

 

1) Tell us a little bit about you and your family

I was only 19 when my then boyfriend and I discovered we were expecting our first baby. We took it all in our stride though and now that little baby is our almost 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Indiana. Her baby brother came along in August 2015 – just a few months before we got married in October 2015! My husband Jack is the best daddy to our little ones; definitely helped I think by his job in childcare.

2) How would you describe your parenting style?

I’d say I’m a firm, but fair mummy. We love routine but have never been ‘strict’ with it – they work around us, we don’t plan our days around nap times! Jack is definitely the ‘fun’ parent though and I seem to do most of the discipline. I suppose that’s probably just because I’m at home more to do the telling off.

 

3) What’s your favourite thing about being a parent?

Definitely watching my children grow and learn. Knowing that we have been the ones that have taught them all they know, is such an amazing feeling. I’m so proud of both of them, and will never get bored of teaching them new things.

 

4) What piece of advice have you been given that you found especially helpful?

Trust your mummy instinct! It sounds so cheesy, and before I had children I thought it was a load of rubbish. But honestly, once you have a child you just know what to do, what’s their normal and when something is up with them. A health visitor who sees your child for 2 seconds, is not going to know more than a mummy who spends every second with their baby.

 

5) What one piece of encouraging advice would you give to a new parent?

You can get through anything! Both of my little ones suffered with colic, at the time it seemed to last forever, but looking back I can’t even remember what it was like. Parker is almost 8 months old and has only just started sleeping through. For months we were getting up with him 2/3 times a night. But we managed (even if we said we couldn’t do it anymore haha). As a parent you just seem to be able to do anything – we really are super!

 

6) Can you share one of your favourite parenting moments?

I have so so many, so this is a really hard question! One of my most recent though is seeing Indiana doing so well with her potty training. The first time she did a wee on the potty she turned to me, with the biggest grin and shouted “I did it mummy!” – just thinking back on it makes me a little bit emotional!

 

7) Anything else that you would like to share to encourage other parents?

I didn’t really read any books when expecting. The best thing I ever did was join a Facebook group of mums expecting the same month I was. We still chat everyday over a year later, and there’s never a question that goes unanswered – so if you can, definitely find one and join! I promise you won’t regret it.

Thank you Emily for sharing your positive parenting moments and the advice you have found helpful.

 

You can connect with Emily on the following social networks:

 

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Pinterest
Google+

 

If you’d like to share some of your positive parenting moments on the Parenting Pep Talk, then let me know in the comments below and I’ll email you with more details.