Don’t get me started on the issues facing working mums in the UAE. Okay, let me me have a little rant… From 45 days of maternity care to a gender pay gap that is frankly shocking for 2016, mothers are often on the back foot with many regionally-based companies. Add in the fact that part-time […]
I’m not normally a fan of those Facebook notifications, the ones that show you what you were doing three, six, eight years ago, when my dress size was smaller and I didn’t look so bloody tired. But after a long day, tonight I flopped on the sofa with a giant glass of wine and idly […]
I first heard about Babies and Beyond through my day job, and remember thinking ‘Great idea, but it doesn’t really apply to me’. With fantastic live-in help in the form of Loreta, and a job that now allows me to work from home, we have thankfully never needed extra babysitting. Then Loreta went on leave […]
She has helped everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to… me. I sat down with childcare expert Rachel Waddilove for several cups of tea and here we share her advice, from breastfeeding to the problems facing modern mums ON BREASTFEEDING I did my training at St Thomas’ hospital in London as a maternity nurse in the days […]
Now in her seventies, June Kenton, HM Queen Elizabeth II’s corsetiere, talked to The Mothership about motherhood, changing body shapes, and why you shouldn’t buy your dinner and a bra at the same time You might not be able to solve the baby crying at night, but you can wear the right bra. If you are […]
Happy Mother’s Day, to anyone that is celebrating, or being celebrated, from breakfast in bed, to a hastily typed WhatsApp with a heart emoticon. This is my second – my first year as a mum I was six weeks in, still so raw with emotion and trying to leave the house. But this year I […]
When I was pregnant, many women who had already given birth would give me a squeeze of congratulations then pause – weighing up if they should tell me what I might go through. No one did. We went to antenatal classes that covered labour, breastfeeding (top tip: make your boob like a burger) and swaddling, […]
With rumours and concerns growing about the unavailability of the Meningitis B vaccine here in the UAE, I spoke to Kim Quick, travel medicine specialist at Health Bay PolyClinic, to find out more – and if parents should be worried Can you tell me a bit about Meningitis in general? There are many different strains […]
This feels like a break-up, and even though I’m the one ending it, I’m still heart-broken. Three years ago I was about to launch a magazine, working long hours fine tuning everything from how the page numbers would look, to our very first cover feature, pouring years of publishing experience into a project that would […]
Kipling’s famed poem is about stoicism, something a lot of mums know a lot about, so I felt a little mother-themed update was in order…. If – by The Mothership If you can keep your head during witching hour, While the baby is screaming blue murder, If you can be trusted to go on a […]
I’m Helen Farmer, an editor and journalist, mum to 2-year-old Phoebe and baby 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 online, shedding some light on the good and bad of life, work and motherhood in the UAE.
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.
