Cussons Mum & Me

Coping with the clock change with Cussons Mum & Me #SilentSocial

Spring Forward, Fall Back is a term that has stuck with me since childhood and is a great way of remembering which way the clocks will turn in spring and autumn.

My kids, with the exception of the teens are early risers by nature and I don’t think I every really got them back into a routine since the clocks changed by in October, although 5am did eventually progress to 6am wake ups.

I am almost looking forward to losing an hour in bed on Sundays, as a 7am wake-up somehow feels much better than a 6am one.

The team at Cussons Mum & Me understand that sleepless nights with babies and young children can often feel lonely, so for the first time Mum’s all over the country can look forward to some virtual company on Saturday night as they host their first ever all night Silent Social.

The Silent Social will involve the Cussons Mum & Me team staying up throughout the night to engage with Mum’s on twitter, offering advice and motivation from real mums who have done it all themselves.  Twitter feeds of mums following Cussons Mum & Me will come to life during the early hours of the morning, making a change from this notoriously quiet period for twitter interactions.

Silent Social

To ensure that mum can take part without disturbing their baby, the activity is designed to be completely silent and videos will be accompanied by subtitles.

Cussons Mum & Me are also running a competition on its twitter account to encourage experienced mums to submit their advice and motivational messages for a chance to win a selection of products, and a selection of these will be used during the Silent Social.

A spokesman for Cussons Mum & Me, the mother and baby toiletries brand behind the initiative, said “The night-time feeds can be both tiring and lonely for mums and it’s easy to feel a little isolated as family and friends are sleeping”

“With the Silent Social, we are hoping to bring together mums who are in the same situation and encourage real-time, positive conversations.  We’ll be providing advice from mums that are now past the sleepless night stage and sharing their tips for this difficult, early period of motherhood.”

Mums who are awake during the night can get involved by following @MumandMe_UK and using the hashtag #SilentSocial to join the conversation.

The Silent Social initiative follows the popular #VoiceofMums campaign which was launched last year and also involved real mums sharing their experiences.  A new take on a much-loved children’s rhyme was created, talking about the realities of bath time with a baby.

We even made our own version:

The Cussons Mum & Me range of products are designed to help with the amazing realities of being a Mum.  In particular, the range includes several Sleep Tight products, recognising the importance of a good nights sleep for both Mum and Baby.  Formulated with natural ingredients known to encourage relaxation such as lavender and camomile, the Sleep Tight range is a must for bedtime routines.

The Mum & Me range is available from Boots, Asda, Tesco, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Wilkinsons.

 

Marvel Curtains

Decorating the Boys Room

I last decorated the boy’s room when Abbey moved out 4 years ago and what was once a white room was looking tired and grubby.

Having two, sometimes three, boys sharing a room caused its own problems too.  We had new windows with trickle vents put in 3 years ago to try to combat mould problems we had which worked in all rooms bar the boy’s room.  We could only put the continuing mould problems down to the fact that the room was packed full of furniture, mixed with three sweaty boys.

We were supposed to get the room done over Christmas when we were away but never planned it properly, so when hubby announced he had one week of holiday left to take before April this was our chance.

Hubby is the first to admit that he won’t decorate – that is my job.  He is the muscle that moves the furniture and then hides downstairs to look after the small people bringing me up the odd cup of tea.

We had two 14-year-old IKEA wardrobes that have been moved so many times there were literally being propped up in the corners of the room, so these were the first things to go.  Once these were out the way I saw just how bad the mould was and scrubbed the walls with mould spray to kill off any spores before applying a specialist mould paint to try to prevent it from coming back.

Decorating

The wall required two coats of the mould paint and it took 4 hours between coats to dry, so that was my first day of decorating complete.

Day 2 was when I really got started and I had a new toy – a Dulux Paintpod that hubby had bought at work.  After the initial challenge of putting it together I was disappointed to read that for the best results I needed to do the edges and corners first, so I pumped some paint into an old roller tray and got cracking.

Decorating

It was then time to get rolling!

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but using the paint pod made it so much quicker and easier, plus there was NO mess at all – no paint splatters, nothing.  It is slightly heavier than using a traditional roller and quite noisy, but I soon got used to it and found that draping the paint tube over my shoulder really helped.  It was surprisingly easy to clean too, although I may have not tightened the attachment on the tap securely enough the first time I tried it and got a little wet!

We did three walls a cream colour and a feature wall in blue – I had wanted a darker blue but Hubby picked up this one and I actually think he made the right choice, just don’t tell him!

My end of the bargain done, it was hubby’s turn to do some manual labour.  Because of the problems with the mould behind the old wardrobes we decided not to replace them and put shelves and poles in the alcove for their clothes instead.  My DIY avoiding Hubby actually cut the shelves down to size from the old side panels of the wardrobes and put the poles underneath.  He did a brilliant job and we hope to finish it off with some doors when funds allow.

It was then time to add the finishing touches.  We had some Marvel Bunting already which was made by my friend Zoe so I gave it a wash to freshen it up and put it back up and bought some fabulous black and white Marvel curtains from eBay.

I had wanted a “POW” wallsticker but when the ream at Red Candy got in touch offering me a wallsticker to review I let the boys choose what they wanted.

As well as Marvel, the boys adore Star Wars and they both decided that they wanted this fabulous Banksy “I am your Father” wallsticker, featuring an ATAT and ATST which recreates the father, son talk from The Empire Strikes Back.  We had to wait a couple of weeks after painting to put it up, but it is worth it.

Decorating

To put it on the wall you simply peel away the top layer and smooth onto the wall using a credit card or wallsticker applicator to ensure there are no air bubbles.  It took about 10 minutes to do.

There are still a couple of little jobs to do – the coving needs replacing and some wires need tacking around the side of the room, but I am really happy with the results.  Let’s hope that what we have done keeps the dreaded mould at bay!

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