mums

The Evolution of my Snap Chat Timeline

| Tracey

The beginning of Snap Chat:

The first person I followed on Snap Chat was Suzanne Jackson back in 2015, I hadn’t a notion how to use the fekin app but somehow I managed to install it and add her username, from there on I began to add more and more bloggers. Then the MUAs began to snap. After a while random Snap Chatters became popular like James Kavanagh who had no blog to plug or tutorials to show, they just snapped their daily lives and I was obsessed!!!

My daughter had Snap Chat and used it years before it ever became massive like it is now, but she only ever used it to message her friends. Now its like another form of entertainment, its right up there amongst Netflix and YouTube. Its a micro-entertainment platform.

I 100% became obsessed with it, I couldn’t wait to go to bed at night and stick in my ear plugs and see what these “celebs” got up to every day. I learned a HUGE amount about makeup and I bought more from snapchat reviews then any million euro advertising campaign!

The Change:

Then the day came (last September) when I began this blog and I knew that having my own snap chat channel would be the next step!

Something changed for me and snap chat over the autumn and winter, well first off Gilmore Girls was launched on Netflix and I became obsessed with binge watching that every night so I neglected snap chat. But not only that I began to become bored of watching the same old snap chat stories, same old #spon #ad on every second snap. Snap chat stories started to become a personal advertising space for products.

Sharon Leavy was always a favourite of mine, she was a blogger but a completely normal human! Her snaps were so relate-able and from her I was introduced to other normal people who snapped for the craic, like myself! Then Sharon left snap chat and I have had to fill my timeline up with other normal snap chatters (usually mums) who come on snap chat just to have a rant, a chat or just blather on about anything that pops into their heads. I love this! I do it myself, I come on to talk about something and then I end up talking about the price of cabbage!!

Instead of a backdrop of Jo Malone candles, IKEA drawers and perspex makeup holders (which I will have in my beauty room when one of my kids move out!) I was watching ladies at lunch time, hair unbrushed, kids napping and a coffee in hand to have a chat. I had been a stay at home mum for 7 years until 2 months ago and honestly these ladies on snap chat got me through many a hard, sometimes lonely day alone with the kids… I laughed at Kelly’s (My Little Babog) little gang running circles around her, I loved to watch Karen’s (bliss bakery) foodie adventures, I found Katy’s (ktk2) body painting so relaxing!

There’s been so many more that I have been so glad to have found along the way, I don’t get the time to watch every story every day anymore with my full time job and the full time job I get paid for!! But I still look forward to climbing into bed watching my snapping mammies and I’m so lucky to call many of them my friends now.

The future of my Snap Chat:

I love the fact as mothers we all have flaws, we all roll our eyes when we hear MMUUUMMMM for the millionth time that day, we cannot enjoy a hangover in peace anymore, we are all just muddling through as best as we can, we all have issues, dramas, history and we are all getting through being mams as best we can while having a fekin laugh at and with each other…

This is snap chat for me 2 years after I began watching it, a completely different timeline of people! Real people, no shit, just real life.

Until next time!

Tracey xxx

Image credit: Snapchat

  p.s. now it would be rude for me not to out up my snap chat handle!! Continue reading →

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When the Firsts are the Lasts

| Tracey

I read a blog post recently about a mum talking about her youngest child completing the milestones of their first step, first word and these being the first last step/word she will ever have as a mum as this baby would be the last. When I had my toddler 19 months ago I knew he was the last, but its recently as I am throwing out his bibs and thinking about cutting out his bottle that it has dawned on me to soak his ‘firsts’ because these will be my last firsts. *Disclaimer:Now I can guarantee you (and Mr. Mumsmakeupbag!) that this does not make me broody in the slightest, my ovaries have stopped skipping a beat when I see a newborn or smell that baby smell (even though no smell will ever beat it).*

I first became a mum at 19 and now about to reach the grand old age of 35, I am watching my baby turn into a toddler way too fast for my liking. I have spent almost 16 years on the baby train and I am more than happy to jump off. I am not sad that I will never be a new mum again, but I have had to mourn it. I know I will never feel my baby kick inside me again or waddle around at 30 weeks wearing stripes and I am content with that, but I wish I could have that last kick one more time just to remember it better. Now I am determined to embrace every last first my children go through. Its so easy to get lost in the busy moments of parenthood and work and basically life that we don’t see the times we wont see again, we miss out on the lasts. My oldest is almost 15 and her firsts do not mean any less than my youngest  but I have gained (obviously maturity) but also the gift of hindsight to take a step back from a busy day (not every day) and lock in memories that were forgotten about before with the older kids. Its hard bloody work to get them all through the day and fed and to bed without too many tears, I just want to collapse on the couch and watch TV once they’re all snoring! But once in a while I will lock in a memory, it could be the 4 of them having dinner at the table together, it won’t be for much longer the youngest will be in a highchair or in a couple of years the oldest will be gone off to college and her chair will be empty but I just make a mental image to remember… Like Phoebe’s boyfriend (Alec Baldwin) in Friends “Click!” !!!!

Its not even the big firsts, I don’t remember that last time I helped my daughter with her homework, like I helped her everyday and then one day it obviously stopped but I don’t know when that was. I complain about having 2 sets of homework to help out with the twins but there will come a day when they won’t need my help anymore and I want to remember when this happens. Silly things are standing out to me like, when did the boys stop asking me to get them a drink or buttoning up their school shirts or zipping up their coats. I am still very much in demand with tying their laces and fixing their school ties but the tasks they have that only mum can help with are reducing at a rapid speed.

Now I am not saying I am going to be standing in my hall at 8.55am on a wet Tuesday morning going “Oh this could be the last time I took your shirt in and fix your tie, let me soak it up” with a tear in my eye…Jesus no. I am just saying once in a while I will take a step back and embrace been needed so much.

With the baby its different, his needs and his firsts will never happen again.Its a melancholy kind of outlook I suppose. As his independence grows with little steps like being able to walk or feed himself, my duties as his mum grow a tiny bit smaller.

His firsts are my lasts.

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