This very funny mother is one you may well have heard of. Or at least, heard of her business. Tights for boys. Such a simple concept but one nobody had bothered to put in to production until Kathleen invented Slugs & Snails. And they don't discriminate. Lil owns a pair and I shall be buying her more. Go check out the very playful, colourful designs.
NAME Kathleen Redmond
OCCUPATION Owner of Slugs & Snails and Noah, 3 and 3/4 years.
WHAT DID YOUR LIFE CONSIST OF BEFORE YOU BECAME A MAMA?
I worked in the
legal industry and talked a lot about finishing my qualifications and sitting
the bar exams but then got distracted by a tickin’ clock in my uterus.
HOW HAS BECOMING A MOTHER MADE YOU A BETTER PERSON?
I am far less
self-absorbed and I never spend money on myself anymore. I appreciate the
emotions and sacrifices my own parents experienced and made to give me all the
opportunities I had. I make the most of time, this time, every second of it, has
the potential to form my son’s memories of his childhood and so it has to be
valued and absorbed, even if we are only sitting eating snacks and calling each
other fart head.
ASIDE FROM CONCEALER, WHAT CANT YOU LIVE WITHOUT NOW YOU HAVE A CHILD?
A
trowel to pile it on with. That and eggs, flower, butter and sugar because if
all else fails we make cakes – no lie!
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A FIRST TIME MUM?
Don’t listen to advice, as
parents we act like Frat Girls over newbie mums, especially if they are still
preggers because we know what they have to go through to get that baby out,
they know we know and they know we know that baby weight is not going to do a
posh spice and vanish before they leave the hospital. I found other mothers
with older children intimidating when Noah was a baby because I always felt
that they knew what they were doing and I had just landed on planet insanity
and I had no map to get around. Just keep doing what you are doing (as long as
you are not microwaving your baby and breast feeding your dinner) it all just
works out in the end.
HOW HAS YOUR WARDROBE CHANGED SINCE HAVING A BABY?
Haha, seriously, my
wardrobe is now a shrine to designer suits that have a layer of dust thicker
than a guest on Jeremy Kyle. My clothes are nothing but a barrier to protect
unsuspecting visitors from my nakedness and saggy bits. I do have a lovely pair
of Jimmy Choos somewhere but they would look a tad wrong with a dressing gown
given that I am not a drag queen.
CAKE OR BISCUITS?
Cake for sure!
WHAT OR WHO INSPIRES YOU?
Ooooh a tough one, I should say my mum, dad,
yadda, yadda, that’s a given. Really I would also say I am inspired by my
desire to not be a 9 to 5er. I left the rat race of city life and tube trains
and somehow ended up in a field in the West of Ireland and as much as it’s
sometimes isolating it is immensely liberating to not be controlled by a boss
or be begging for a day off to take my kid to the vets, I mean doctors. So in a
sense my desire to be Noah’s mummy inspires me.
DO YOU HAVE ANY SECRETS OR TIPS TO MAKING MOTHERHOOD THAT BIT EASIER?
Enjoy it! Seriously, as Noah has grown I have suddenly realised that it
seems no time since my mum was my age, doing these little mummy things with my
brother and I and now here we are thirty years later and she is a bystander
(sometimes an opinionated one). I am sure she would love to slow that clock
down and go back to 1984 and savour her time as the centre of our world for a
little longer.
Don’t compare yourself to other parents, they are lying if they say
their kid does things that make you feel inadequate. Buy an iPhone, download
Netflix and one morning a week let your kid snuggle in bed with you and choose
something to watch, you get a lie-in they get a bit of square eye time, just
don’t tell those perfect parents that, pretend your kid just sleeps in due to
all the stories you read before bed and the lullaby you
composed and sang before they rested their angel faced head on their pillow of
rare goose feathers.
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