A (VERY) HONEST TAKE ON
LIVING, WORKING AND PARENTING IN DUBAI
FREE – downloadable family wall planner for 2021

FREE – downloadable family wall planner for 2021

FREE downloadable family wall planner for 2020

FREE downloadable family wall planner for 2020

Your guide to getting a Will

Your guide to getting a Will

Why we need to get real about parenthood

Why we need to get real about parenthood

How should we parent in the digital age?

How should we parent in the digital age?

Nanny or nursery? Finding childcare in Dubai

Nanny or nursery? Finding childcare in Dubai

#InIt… For my family

#InIt… For my family

My little black book: 2018 edition

My little black book: 2018 edition

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Children and the dentist: your questions answered

    Now, call me weird, but I actually don’t mind going to the dentist. It does help that he plays jazz in the clinic and is (very) easy on the eye, but even after teenage trauma of a retainer, I don’t have The Fear, like so many others, and I want my daughter to feel […]


Book vs real life: 16 weeks pregnant

  This week, What To Expect When You’re Expecting tells me what should be happening at 16 weeks. Frankly, writing these posts every week is quite useful, as I keep forgetting how pregnant I am…   Confession: I’ve tried reading this book numerous times, but hate the tone. It’s just not for me. But it’s […]


Where to buy: maternity clothes in Dubai

    Ahhhh, pregnancy. As well as getting your head around the impending arrival, your body is doing all sorts of crazy things, namely getting bigger. This means that, while the LAST thing you feel like doing is a mall trawl, it’s time to buy some maternity clothes.   I’ll be honest here, Dubai is pretty […]


Book vs real life: 15 weeks pregnant

    In a new series, I’m reading what various pregnancy books say is happening in this (growing) body of mine, from baby to brain. This time, The Bump tells us what should be going on at 15 weeks.   The book says… Baby’s making lots of progress: the joints and limbs can all move now. You […]


The toughest test of my life

  As I said when I announced my pregnancy, we’ve had a couple of setbacks, the most upsetting being more testing for Down’s Syndrome with a NIPT test. I wrote the below when I was in the middle of the uncertainty, waiting for the results. Thankfully, a day later I got the all-clear, but I […]


Exciting news! I’m pregnant! And a bit scared…

    Exciting, scary times ahead – I’m 14 weeks pregnant!   Good grief, I’m so relieved that I can finally tell people – though if you’ve seen me recently, you might have guessed, because there is already quite the bump…. Or maybe you just thought that I over-indulged over the summer. Basically, if you […]


A year of blogging: what I’ve learnt

    Last night a flurry of LinkedIn messages arrived, congratulating me on my ‘work anniversary’. Baffled, I ignored them until my husband WhatsApped me, saying “One year of The Mothership! Well done!”. Ahhhhhh.   So yes, it has been a year since I started blogging – even if I didn’t realise it. A year […]


10 of the best: IKEA for kids

    Yesterday I was at the launch event for the new IKEA catalogue for 2017, where guests were not only treated to great food (seriously, try the new pulled salmon sandwich) but we were walked through the new products, even using virtual reality to make dinner in a digital kitchen. I know. Very cool. And […]


Making peace with my mum bod – for my daughter’s sake

    As my daughter was running around the house last night, stark naked, before her bath I caught myself thinking ‘She has my big feet, poor kid, I wonder if she’ll get my thighs, dodgy knees, the boobs that caused me so many years of embarrassment…’.   From the moment I found out I […]


Expat life: why you can’t go home again

    I have been an expat for nearly ten years, and this is the first summer I’ve been able to go ‘home’ to the UK for more than ten days. With a toddler in tow, we’ve spent the last six weeks bouncing between friends and family, planes, trains and automobiles – literally. Long car […]

ABOUT ME

 

I’m Helen Farmer, an editor and journalist, mum to 4-year-old Phoebe and 2-year-old Tabitha, wife to Nick and a mummy blogger in Dubai (even though I don’t really identify as one, but I blog, and I’m a mum, so there you go). I’ve been living in the Middle East for the last 10 years, working in books, magazines and broadcasting, shedding some light on the good and bad of life, work and motherhood in the UAE.

ABOUT THE BLOG

The Mothership is for you if you’re a busy, active mum who can’t stand small talk, bad info and twee blogs that make out that mothering is all unicorns and rose petals, instead of admitting that you can love your child so much it terrifies you – while still wanting a night in alone watching The Great British Bake Off with a double G&T or a night out pretending you don’t have children.

 

Time Out Dubai Kids Awards 2016 - Winner - Parent Blog of 2016

 

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FREE – downloadable family wall planner for 2021

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