Passionate Blog

The kids are back to school - so who fancies a treat then?

OK, so it's the first day back at school and I don't know about you, but after six (nearly seven) weeks of the little darlings being at home, I think I deserve a break! I thought you might feel the same so let me tell you about an exciting competition being run by Walsall's Village Hotel.

Fancy putting your feet up and having a slap-up three-course meal cooked for you and up to five others? Of course you do!

Simply find a family member or friend to nominate you as to why you deserve a night off (hell, you can even nominate yourself!) and you could be sitting in your own home, with somebody else (yes, really!) not only cooking and serving up the dinner, but also washing up afterwards! Sounds like a dream come true...

Read on to find out more...

A Passionate encounter for kids' TV star

IT'S a tough job but someone has to do it!

Here's Katie getting up close (but not quite personal, thank you!) with the lovely Mark Rhodes.

Mark was at a very special event last Saturday. He spoke movingly of what a wonderful woman his mum was when he attended a remembrance service organised by Compton Hospice.

Women's business group co-founded by Passionate Media soars

I'M delighted to report that a recent visitors' day organised by the Cannock and Stone Wings groups proved a huge hit.

More than 40 people turned up to find out more about what we get up to.

The idea of the joint event was to bring together Wings' longest-serving and most recent members, to help give visitors a real idea of what the group is about.

"Virtual" success with The Independent

THANKS to education and careers writer Hazel Davis and her interest in Carmen's training for virtual assistants, there was a great piece in the Independent earlier this week.

The story is now being followed up by another national paper. What's particularly interesting for me on this is that Linda didn't send Hazel a press release, but trusted her instincts as to what she may be interested in pitching to one of her regular outlets.

A story we worked on with Carmen for Red magazine resulted in hundreds of enquiries. I wonder what this latest coverage will bring. [Carol]

'You've got your hands full' in The Telegraph

LINDA'S blog all about multiple birth children, You've got your hands full is featured in an in-depth piece in The Telegraph today, by Diane Shipley.

As she can bore for England on the subject of blogging, (that's Linda of course, not Diane) it's great to see some recognition. She was also interviewed about twins on Radio Stoke earlier this week, in the wake of the sisters on Big Brother.

It's a shame more depressing and predictable news has taken over where that show is concerned. Suddenly Samanda don't seem so bad. [Carol]

Passionate highlighted in UK flexible working survey

We were delighted to welcome employee relations adviser Mike Emmott from the CIPD recently to help him in his mission to compile a report on how small businesses can embrace flexible working.

An artist in the family

Here's a picture of my sister in law Sue, she lives in Malta with her husband David and she's a ceramic artist. You can read more about her here and see some of the lovely pieces she's made.  They live in the most beautiful place, it's called Buskett Forest and is just outside the town of Rabat.  The pictures don't do it justice but they do bring back memories. It's been four years since we last visited, far too long (as Sue keeps reminding me).  Let's hope we'll be back there next year.  [Carol]

Carole's one step ahead

We always like to report on what our clients are getting up to, especially when they're raising money for charity.Here's a couple of pictures of Carole Doyle from Acutec when she took part in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer 60km walk in Birmingham. You can read more about it here.  Hey Carole, I wonder if you'll be signing up for this next? [Carol]

And then there were five

Here's a picture of the newest member of the Passionate team.  Emma joined us last month (how time flies).  She's working four mornings a week and doing brilliantly, once she has negotiated past Linda's atrocious parking. This snap of Emma, looking very glam, with husband Mark and their children, six-year-old Amber and Harvey, two, was taken on holiday in Greece earlier this year. I wonder how long it will be before Amber and Harvey are joining our bunch on a Saturday morning for pottery lessons! [Carol]

Latest twins feature and a new blog

This month's edition of the NSPCC's Your Family magazine contains our three-page spread on having twins or triplets. The families interviewed were a joy to deal with. Each had faced their own dramas and the sorts of challenges that are so often par for the course when you have a multiple birth family. There isn't a link available online to the current issue but it's available in all Early Learning Centres! What shone through, despite the inevitable difficulties, especially with babies born so early, was how blessed we all are.

'What my heart wants to say'

Just to add to Linda's post about what we've been up to this week, I wanted to let you know that we have a starring role in Chat today. That's issue no. 38 dated 28 September. Its entitled 'Walking tall'. Needless to say we've all had a little tear after reading it this morning.

I rushed to the newsagents on the way to work and bought five copies. How about that for measured anticipation? The woman looked at me strangely as she ran them through the till. 'I'm in the magazine' I said, 'so I'm buying copies for my family'.  She obviously thought I was mad.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures that got away - Pontins Easter bonnet parade 1978 and Christmas 1984. Bill and Ben eat your heart out.[Carol]

Related posts: Women's weeklies? We love 'em, Our Carol's a winner

We’re all going on a summer holiday...multiples on the move

It's a memory that never fails to bring a smile to my face...
When I close my eyes I can picture the idyllic scene as if it was yesterday...me strolling along a sunkissed Indian beach in a leopard-print bikini on my 30th birthday.
Booked just a couple of weeks before over Teletext, it was a holiday of a lifetime. Little did I know it was the last time I’d be seeing such exotic climes for a long, long time.
Just a fortnight later I was reeling from the revelation I was expecting twins. And along with my bikini, my expectations of travelling to the other side of the world on a whim were consigned to the scrap heap.

Here she goes again

Carol is in the Evening Mail tonight. Read all about her (again) here. Hopefully she'll find time to grace this blog with her presence in the morning and post the lovely picture the paper has used. It's a smasher. Good job we haven't both got a face for radio.[Linda]

Related posts: Women in business? We must be comedians, Thanks Adrian! Gargoyles, us?

School daze

Well, that's that.  My baby is no longer a baby.  I couldn't stop my eyes filling up as I helped Ben put on his uniform this morning and walked him to the school gate for his first day.

But I was so proud of him.  As I stood watching other parents trying to prise their sobbing child from their side, there was Ben jumping up and down on the spot, beaming, asking when the door was going to open.

To all those who say children should be attached to their mother's apron strings 24/7 until they go to school, I say turn up at the gates on the first day and see which children are the most sociable and well adjusted.  Ben couldn't wait to start making new friends and he knows that I'll always be waiting for him at the end of the day. [Katie]

Related posts: Exterminate, exterminate

Mums without the luxury of choice

Here's a picture of Melissa and Emily from about three years ago with their grandma and nan. While everyone looks delighted, this was a rare moment of being all together on Mother's Day. Asking grandparents to look after baby or toddler twins so that you can return to work, however, may prove an unrealistic option.

Having started to add some previous articles from Russia to this blog, it has also occured to me that it's also a place to post previous pieces about twins and more. Features are sitting in my document files on my home computer and I have previously discussed putting them online as a resource for families with Helen Forbes, the director of Tamba as many of them were written for the charity's magazine, Twins, Triplets & More.

Anyway, here goes with the first, it's a round-up of options for mums of multiple birth children contemplating going back to work - although for financial reasons, that's not always possible. It's important to note that the prices quoted for various services are now out of date.

Returning to work for mums of multiples

Worried sick about going back to work? Don't know where to start when finding childcare for your babies? Overwhelmed by rules and regulations or the potential cost? LINDA JONES has carried out an exclusive survey for Tamba so other mums can share their experiences with you.

IF and when to return to work is arguably the biggest issue facing mothers today.

For many there is no choice if the bills are to be paid. Juggling family and work commitments and agonising over childcare options become a way of life.

Scarcely a day goes by without another study about the effect mum working has on her baby, seemingly designed to heap more guilt and stress on an already hectic day, whatever the individual's choice. Go back to work and the baby suffers, says one camp. Stay at home and your career does, says another.

But while these mixed messages are of primary concern to mothers of single babies, for mums of multiples they may be irrelevant. They may not have the luxury of debating whether they have made the right choice because there is no choice.

Often they cannot afford to go back or do not have the energy.

And while it may be okay to ask Grandma to look after one baby while you're at work five days a week, it's out of the question for twins, triplets and more.

For single parents, the pressures are even greater.

Then of course there's the ignorance of supposed professionals to contend with. There's the childminder who insists that looking after two babies is the same as looking after one, the well-meaning lady in social services, who hasn't got a clue and the nursery that insists on always lumping your children together.

So what are the realistic choices? Here, women in varying circumstances explain their decisions.

Got any stories for Christmas?

We've been contacted by a magazine looking for heartwarming stories for Christmas. There will be a payment for anyone interviewed.  They are specifically looking for stories about babies born around Christmas time, beating the odds – perhaps they were poorly and battled back or arrived much earlier than they should. They also want to hear about any stories from people who became the victims of a crime last Christmas or the Christmas before. As well as this, they are interested in any more ‘general’ Christmas stories – preferably (well as far as I am concerned anyway) connected with family life, romance or pets! Please do get in touch if anything springs to mind. Yes it is still only August and no I'm not going to broadcast which mag it is - it's a good fun one though. [Linda]

It's a girl!

Well, we're delighted to announce yet another new arrival at the Passionate Media office.  Our photographer Jim is the proud dad of a bouncing baby girl.

Baby Ruby arrived this morning weighing 7lb 8oz (not quite as heavy as Rhona!).

Congratulations to Jim, Vicky and Fin on their new arrival.  We can't wait to have a peek.

Carol

If at first you don't succeed, part two

I posted here about not giving up when an idea isn't immediately accepted by an editor. Today I am delighted to report the piece described as 'one that got away' has seen its way into print. The first I knew was when my Corrie Blog editor Flamin' Nora emailed me to say it had made her smile. Thanks Nora that means a lot, you know. [Linda]

Diary of a working mum

In the week when this lady rightly caused a storm by proclaiming her kids were boring (Cue pretty nifty backtracking..'but I never said my children were boring' - no of course not, that's why it said it in the headline.) We have written for the Guardian on a how can we put it? More down to earth view of going out to work when you have children. Ian Wylie, the editor of the Work supplement explained the piece should focus on a particular incident or anecdote to illustrate an issue - and we chose Morgan's sports day (or perhaps Stitchgate as it should be known!) It's great to see the piece in the paper and funny to note that the only little change made was that a reference to Linda using words that would make Chubby Brown blush was removed. Perhaps that would have been more fitting of the Daily Star! [Carol]

Thanks Adrian!

Transcript of BBC Radio WM interview with Adrian Goldberg: 

Adrian:

A local mum has been named as the most exceptional working mum in the country by a national support group for working mums called Mother at Work.

Her name is Carol Garrington from Cheslyn Hay, she has overcome a disability to run a public relations firm as well as being a mother to two young boys.

The 34-year-old was born with a number of medical conditions that made doctors warn her that she would never walk and never have children.  She made the decision to have her left leg amputated below the knee at the age of 12 and faced years of on-going treatment.

Let’s get a word with Carol now. Hi Carol. Blimey that sounds a list of stuff that you had to go through. Were you born with some kind of condition then?

Carol:

No I had a deformity on my left side when I was born that the doctors couldn’t put down to anything in particular, they didn’t have scans in those days so they couldn’t have picked it up any sooner.  It was just a process of elimination really and I had a number of operations to try and find out the cause, but there was no explanation in the end, just one of those things.

Adrian:  And you made the big decision at the age of 12 to have your left leg amputated?

Carol:  That’s right yes

Adrian:

What was that like? Did someone sit down and go through options with you and you came to the idea that that was the best thing?

Carol:

No, it was something that my parents thought would be better for me from an early age but they couldn’t make that decision for me it had to be my decision and by the age of 12 I was off to high school and wanted to be like everyone else and wear the nice skirts and shoes.  It was a cosmetic thing for me at that age more than anything else.  I was being bullied at school as well so for me it was just something I had to do and I didn’t even give it a second thought.

Adrian:  And do you give it a second thought now?

Carol:  I do yes.

Adrian:  I mean do you regret it?

Carol:

I don’t regret it at all no, but I do think back and think what a big decision it was to make at that age but I don’t regret it, I’ve absolutely never looked back.

Adrian:  And you were told that you might not be able to have kids?

Carol: 

That’s right yes, I’ve got a complication with my womb that meant that I wouldn’t be

able to carry children and was told all through my first pregnancy that I could lose it at any stage, so that was quite stressful really but against the odds we got through and now I’ve got two lovely boys that I’m really proud of.

Adrian:

Well they can be proud of their mum as well because so much for your disabilities. It’s more about your abilities that has brought you to national attention. You set up your own PR firm, your own business, not an easy thing for anyone to do at any time.

Carol:

No not at all but I think that the determination that I’ve got and from people telling me from an early age ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that’ its given me a real fighting spirit to think well if someone tells me I can’t do something I’m absolutely going to prove that I can, so I think its that really that’s got me through so many things.

Adrian:  And having children at the same time, being a working mum, never easy?

Carol:

No it's not. It's very demanding being a mother and there’s lots of challenges to face and the same with running a business as well so the two combined can sometimes be quite stressful but at the same time it is so rewarding.

Adrian:  What does it mean to get this recognition?

Carol: 

Oh it's fantastic and I think it’s a great message to other mothers to prove to everybody really that mothers have a lot of skills that can be transferred into the workplace.  Mothers make fantastic business women they really do because they have so many skills like time management and being able to organise and delegate and cope with stressful situations, they are all things that in the workplace are absolutely essential skills, so I hope it gives a message to other mothers that they can do it, they really can.

Adrian:  When did you actually set up your business?

It was in 2003 and it was with a lady called Linda Jones who is a very close friend.  It was Linda who set the business up and I joined her very shortly afterwards.  She’s got twin girls and the idea behind it was that we wanted a career and something for the long term but we also wanted to spend quality time with our children and this gave us the opportunity to do that, so that’s why we did it.

Adrian:

So you actually created your own job share by creating your own job in your own

company?

Carol:

That’s right yes, and the people that we’ve got working with us now are also mothers and we work as a team.  We look after each others’ children in the holidays, we take it in turns and there’s no pressure on anybody if they want to go to a school assembly or the sports day.  We all understand that that’s a pressure you don’t need, you don’t need to be worrying ‘can I have the time off work?’ and we are all absolutely committed to doing the work when we’re in the office so it works really well.

Adrian:

That’s fantastic Carol and well done, its great that you’ve done what you’ve done and now that you’ve got this recognition for it as well. It's just an inspiration for everybody listening thinking blimey she’s Wonder Woman.  Good luck to you.

That’s Carol Garrington from Cheslyn Hay the most exceptional working mum in the UK according to the national support group Mothers at Work.  I’m sure you’ll know a mum who’s just as exceptional but she’s pretty good isn’t she? [Carol]

Ichild article goes live

Many congratulations to Melissa Murphy and the team at ichild.tv. The first issue of this new interactive parenting magazine is now online. Melissa asked us to contribute an article on what it's like to set up a business when you are a mum. And there we are. Carol says: "I wouldn't ever say it has been plain sailing but I'm glad I made the jump." How about that for an understatement? [Linda]