I've got news. Big news. The kind I've been sitting on for weeks and honestly I'm surprised I didn't crack sooner.

I'm launching a brand new podcast. She's called Real Mummy Reads. She's the sister podcast to Real Mummy. And I keep calling her my new baby because that's basically what she is.

Real Mummy Reads is a book review podcast. But not a fancy one. Not a literary one. Just me on the couch in my pyjamas telling you about the book I just finished like you're my best mate. No spoilers. No snobbery. No pretending I know what I'm talking about. Just honest chats about books I loved, books I didn't, and books I stayed up way too late reading.

In this episode I'm telling you all about it. What it is. Why I made it. And how you can listen.

Real Mummy Reads drops in 2 weeks with 3 episodes on launch day, a 4th episode 48 hours later, then weekly episodes after that.

Go search Real Mummy Reads wherever you're listening and hit follow right now so you don't miss it.

**Episode Description:**

Episode 50.

I can't believe we're here. This one's for you. Every mum who's listened at 3am with a baby on your chest. Every mum who's cried in the car and then pressed play. Every mum who sent me a message saying "me too." You changed my life. I started this podcast so you'd feel less alone. Turns out, you made me feel less alone too. This episode is my big, messy, teary thank you. Being a mum is the hardest and best thing I've ever done. And I'm so glad we're doing it together. 💛

I took a photo at a birthday party. Didn't think twice. Then I got a message from another mum and my stomach dropped. Every family now has different photo rules. Every school event has a reminder about what you can and can't share. Every friend has a different line. And you don't always know where that line is until you've crossed it. I crossed it. In this episode I'm talking about what happened, what I do differently now, and the one question I started asking my seven-year-old that changed everything. No judgement. No right answers. Just the stuff most mums are thinking but not saying out loud. If you've ever hesitated before hitting post — this one's for you.

I added it up. I wish I hadn't. $400 on ashwagandha, mushroom coffee that tasted like a wet log, magnesium spray, seed cycling kits I didn't understand, and a greens powder that's been sitting in my cupboard so long it might be alive. All because a glowing woman on TikTok told me it would fix my tired. Spoiler — I'm still tired. And now I'm also broke. This one's for every mum who's ever bought something at 11pm because an influencer with calm kids said it changed her life.

I survived the newborn stage twice and thought I was tough. Then my toddlers turned 18 months and chose violence.

This episode is about the banana meltdowns. The refusing to wear pants. The climbing the bookshelf like a tiny rock climber. The weeing behind the TV. The bolting through car parks like they've been released into the wild.

I made three dinners once. She ate a yogurt pouch and half a cracker.

My youngest ate a leaf. Drank bath water. Tried to take a fork in the bath. And once sat in a bag of flour on the kitchen floor like a little ghost.

I don't give advice. I don't have answers. I'm just a mum who once tried to un-peel a banana while crying.

If your toddler is feral right now and you're hiding in the laundry listening to this — this one's for you.

My eldest was reading novels at six but couldn't do the climbing wall. My youngest could climb before she could walk but stuggled with her words. Same parents. Same house. Totally different kids. I got so caught up in the comments and the comparisons that I nearly missed how brilliant they both are. Just in their own way. In their own time. This one's about why I stopped measuring my kids against everyone else's and started just letting them be them.

Remember when you thought your kid just had a cold and then three days later the whole house was dropping like flies? Yeah. This episode is about that. The back-to-back sickness years. The gastro. The hand foot and mouth. The time my toddler sneezed directly into my open mouth. I'm a nurse and I still couldn't keep my kids healthy. If your house currently smells like Vicks and Dettol, this one's for you. It does get better. But first, let me tell you about the time we all had gastro at the same time and nobody could help anyone. Good times. 🤢

My girls sleep through the night now. They dress themselves. They eat on their own. So why am I more stressed than ever?

Because the worry didn't go away. It just changed shape.

I went from checking if they were breathing to checking if they're okay. Like really okay. The kind of okay you can't measure with a thermometer.

My girls are 5 and 6 and I'm already losing sleep over friendships, mean girls, and the fact that I can't follow them into the playground and fix everything anymore.

This one's honest. Maybe too honest. But if you're a mum lying awake at 2am worrying about stuff that hasn't even happened yet — this one's for you.

I walked into the lounge and found both my girls on the couch — dead still, mouths open, eyes glazed — watching JJ sing about bath time. Cocomelon. Obviously. And the meltdown when I turned it off is something else entirely. So I did what any normal mum does at 11pm when they can't sleep — I went down a Google rabbit hole. What I found about how the show is actually made (and what it's doing to little brains in the meantime) is the kind of thing I wish someone had told me sooner.

It's 11:30pm. The kids are asleep. I'm in bed Googling whether my four-year-old should be reading yet, and one article says it's a sign of giftedness while the next one says pushing it causes burnout. So which is it? In this honest, slightly fed-up, very relatable episode, I unpack the modern mum trap — every single choice has a study that says you're right and a study that says you're wrong, and somewhere underneath all that noise is a gut that already knew the answer.