ANCHORED IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, Have you ever felt yourself brace, realising your child has woken up in one of “those” moods and it’s going to be another morning of them needling their sibling — as if the rush to school wasn’t stressful enough. Or they’ve come home from nursery completely overstimulated and you can just sense the meltdown coming. You feel dread because once it does, you know the whole evening will be one long, exhausting battle. What’s particularly hard...
29 days ago • 3 min read
ANCHORED IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, I always tell people that it was around 18 months that my children became too cute to handle. The cheeky grins, the playing the fool... I loved it! But it was also around that time that my least favourite feeling to have in motherhood began to show up more and more often: confusion. My now-toddler had begun to push back, to ignore my requests, and to do things that were (for lack of a better word) pretty "naughty" - so parenting took on a...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
ANCHORED IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, The bags are packed, the kids are at school, and the house is quiet again. I met the first few days of peace last week with a built-up sense of exhaustion that crashed over me like a wave: the summer holidays were special and fun, but intense, too, with little space to consider myself. But as September moves forward, and I'm on the other side of the scramble to sort school uniforms, I've begun to pay a little more attention to me again....
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
ANCHORED IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, I have certain “guidelines” I set for myself in motherhood that protect my own happiness alongside my children's. One is that my kid’s enjoyment shouldn’t cost my own happiness. I’ll agree to do things my kids adore that I sort of enjoy, but I won’t agree to do something that I actively have to tolerate or will feel drained by. (And of course I won’t expect that of any other member of the family.) There are all sorts of ways I’ll work this...
3 months ago • 2 min read
RESILIENT IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, Being in community with other mums is often said to be a way that we can feel less alone in the trenches of motherhood, and that can certainly be true. But what about those of us who sometimes feel more alone after spending time around other parents? Joining a baby-and-me postnatal yoga class and noticing how all the other babies chill out next to their mums — while yours screams unless you hold them the entire time. Having your child be...
4 months ago • 2 min read
RESILIENT IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, We hear a lot about how we should allow our children's feelings. The logic behind this is that they'll build a tolerance to difficult feelings over time, so that they’re actually less affected by them in adulthood. In other words, they'll be more emotionally resilient. But allowing our children’s feelings can be really hard to do in practice, not least because their emotional outbursts can trigger similar feelings in yourself (especially...
4 months ago • 2 min read
RESILIENT IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, When you imagine the extended time together that a holiday brings, there’s a certain image in your mind: Bare feet, ice creams in hand, and the sort of connection that comes from laughing yourselves silly together in the warm summer sun. You plan time away together for these precious moments, but when the week actually arrives, you’re reminded that life with kids comes with some ever-present challenges: There comes a morning full of...
5 months ago • 3 min read
RESILIENT IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, 71% of mums in the UK feel overloaded (Make Mothers Matter, 2026). I relate, and probably you do, too. Last February, when I faced the fact that I was well and truly burnt out, even I could see that it made sense. I'd been carrying too much for too long... I was still postpartum with my second child, back and forth from the hospital with her once we'd discovered she had a kidney condition. I was carrying the load of the home and parenting...
5 months ago • 3 min read
RESILIENT IN MOTHERHOOD with KIRSTI GWYNN Hey lovely, You're no stranger to personal development. You're a reflective person by nature, and the fact that you feel things so deeply means you naturally gravitate towards thinking about your feelings and thoughts. Certain things have helped with the emotional intensity of life: walks in nature, a yoga or mindfulness practice. Maybe you’ve even faced your demons in therapy. You’ve tried a lot. And yet… life still feels harder than it should,...
6 months ago • 3 min read
