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Kate Peers is the blogger behind the brilliant 'Mad About The Boys' blog, which shares the ups & downs of family life when you have 3 young boys, as well as loads of great advice and ideas for keeping kids entertained.
We caught up with Kate to find out about her transition into becoming a mum, juggling a career and keeping her 3 energetic boys on their toes.
Did you have a career before you had a family?
I worked for an ad agency in London before I had kids and I also worked as an interiors stylist for Next Home.
Has becoming a mum come naturally to you?
Not really. I have six godchildren and worked as a nanny in Notting Hill in my twenties for a while looking after a bohemian family of four kids. I thought that becoming a mum would be easy for me and it wasn’t for a long time.
You have 3 boys, tell us about that!
It is never dull in our house. I never hid the fact that I desperately wanted a girl but I wouldn’t swap one of the boys for anything. Together they are full on most of the time, they have incredible imaginations and spend most of their play acting out very loud dinosaur games, or making up plays that involve monsters and plenty of jumping around and action.
What do you all do for fun?
Skateboarding is their favourite activity and Dan takes them a few times a week to the skate-park. He also built a mini ramp in the garden for them. We live 200metres from the beach and when it’s sunny we are in the sea as much as possible.
How has family life affected your social life?
It’s different and takes lots of planning but from a few months in we started to go out and used registered nannies to babysit as we have no family to help. The boys understand that we need our ‘play dates” as much as they do. Dan and I both take time out separately, he goes on surfing weekends and I go away with my girlfriends, it works really well.
What are you top tips for a fun summer holiday?
Keep things simple. Write a bucket list with the kids at the beginning. The boys are at an age where they pick things like heading to a park we haven’t been to for ages or going to the swimming pool with water slides and then we do one bigger thing. This year I booked tickets for the older two to see Gangsta Granny in London and we are having a sleepover at my wonderful aunt’s house - that will be our big treat. Day to day we pack a picnic and just head out with no plans. I can’t handle crowded places with them as one is a runner (he likes hiding), so we head to Petworth Park or down to our beach where it’s normally really quiet.
Have you any advice for any new mums?
Try not to read too many books, there’s too much information out there and it can be overwhelming. Trust yourself and look back to positive parts of your childhood to guide how you want to bring up the kids.
What items did you find invaluable as your boys were babies and growing up?
Gro sleeping bags and giant muslin squares!
How can new mums achieve a work/life balance?
I am lucky enough to have retrained with Digital Mums and up skilled from my business management degree to include social media management. Not only can I work from home for my clients but I also now work as a social media guide for Digital Mums and love helping other mums with the journey that I have been on. I am at the school gates 99% of the time and work in the evenings of need be to stay on top of things.
What do you enjoy doing for ME time?
Swimming, reading and hanging out with my girlfriends. It is precious time and I savour every second.
With thanks to Kate Peers.
You can check out Kate's blog, Mad About The Boys' here.
Keep a look out for Kate's coverage of Camp Bestival in the next post...
