What was it like growing up with two mums in the 1990s?
As Pride month closes, I want to share some reflections by way of saying what I hope is different for kids of LGBTQ+ parents these days - including what we can all do to help make sure of this.
👇
#LoveIsLove
#Pride
If any pregnant women are unsure about getting the covid jab, I had both my doses whilst pregnant & here is my happy and healthy (and yawn-y) 10 week old!
I found
@RCObsGyn
,
@PregnantScrewed
&
@VikiLovesFACS
very helpful for info.
One definite perk of working from home is that I never have to make tea with a fork or knife unlike in every charity I have ever worked in
#WhereDoTheSpoonsGo
The CEO of a charity I once worked for complained to my manager he’d seen me leave work ON TIME.
Not only is presenteeism toxic, but you never know what’s going on in you team’s lives & their own time must be respected. In this case I was leaving to go to therapy.
5 years since I graduated from from the
@OpenUniversity
having spent 7 years on a psychology degree alongside full time work. Every time you see the OU on a CV, know the vast majority of students are balancing study around other big commitments & that qualification is hard won!
Yesterday’s waiting for the baby activity was quite literally that - the little breech boy would not turn so entered the world bum first via c-section. Little Lewis, a chubby cheeked, 6lb 9oz, very special rainbow baby ❤️🌈
I’m really excited to be rejoining the cancer sector today in starting at the brilliant
@TeenageCancer
as it’s interim Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns.
I’m looking forward to making a difference and reconnecting with colleagues in the sector!
Dear service providers, if you’ve now been experiencing ‘unprecedented high demand’ for two and a half years since the pandemic started, it’s now your usual demand and you need to up your resourcing to meet it.
He’s been obsessed with “Code” since I did my theory test last year. It’s regular breakfast reading. The road sign pages are his favourite, he says they are “beautiful” & has his own names for all of them 😄
Well pals, today I turned 40. People keep asking me how I feel about it like I’m turning 100, but genuinely, I think every year of life you get with people you love is a privilege and so today I am just grateful. And especially with my new tiny person!
This feels like quite a vulnerable thing to say, but I’ve been surprised at just how lonely I’ve found parts of my maternity leave to be. And how this is common but something no one really talks about. Finding people on your wavelength to spend time with can take a while.
I wish we would all start say covid ‘protections’ instead of ‘restrictions’. It’s ultimately protections being lifted. Words matter, and I wonder how things may be different if we’d got this right at the start.
After recently experiencing something hard, I’m restarting counselling this week with my brilliant former therapist.
Why am I telling you this? Because we need to normalise talking about - and looking after - our mental health and I want to play my part in this
#mentalhealth
I’m so delighted to have joined the brilliant
@SEAresource
team today as Head of Policy and Influencing - quite a time to be starting a new job!
I can’t wait to get stuck in and support
@nicolajanesharp
and the team in continuing to transform the response to economic abuse ✊
Someone said ‘baby brain!’ to me yesterday after a very minor mistake and I’m still fed up. I hate the implication that once a woman’s had a child her brain doesnt work so well. Human error is a thing!!
I just had my first vaccine at 29 weeks pregnant.
Getting vaccinated when pregnant has felt like a big decision - whilst we can be vaccinated, the onus is on pregnant people to make that choice, weighing up benefits & potential risks, & getting advice from professionals.
I was asked recently who my hero is & I replied
@Joeli_Brearley
. Here’s just one example why. The work she’s led with the
@PregnantScrewed
team has been incredible in changing so many women’s lives for the better! 👏
Yesterday’s waiting for the baby activity was quite literally that - the little breech boy would not turn so entered the world bum first via c-section. Little Lewis, a chubby cheeked, 6lb 9oz, very special rainbow baby ❤️🌈
I saw all these security protected boxes of formula in Sainsbury’s earlier and it made me so sad.
Imagine how desperate you’d have to be to steal food to feed your baby. And how terrifying the prospect of not being able to feed your baby would be.
I’m beyond thrilled that I’ve been appointed permanently to my role at the brilliant
@TeenageCancer
!
As I’ll be going on maternity leave in September I’ll be sharing details of recruitment for my cover soon so watch this space if you’re after a fantastic fixed term contract.
All hail the power of Twitter - I’ve just had my second covid jab a few weeks early & at almost 34 weeks pregnant thanks to the kindness of people who shared tips. Thank you ❤️
But so many pregnant women haven’t been as lucky as me - & it shouldn’t be down to luck to stay safe.
I’d love to see specific train carriages designated for mask wearers (preferably with social distancing too) so that vulnerable people feel safer to travel come the end of restrictions. Public transport should be accessible and safe for all.
I am still masking. If it makes someone vulnerable feel more comfortable to sit near me on a public transport then that makes it all worth it to me and why I’ll continue to wear one.
Today was my last day at the brilliant
@TeenageCancer
ahead of my maternity leave 😱 Feels so strange to be clocking off for almost a year! I will miss my ace colleagues but am excited about the next adventure with my new tiny person.
Please everyone, don’t buy from the free from aisles at the moment if you don’t need to - people with allergies and and conditions like coeliac disease means we rely on these products to be able to safely eat.
Wow it was emotional moving out our flat. I’ll miss the beautiful parquet floors that saw so much life.
It was our first owned home. Where we got engaged & had a huge party after our small wedding. Where we brought our baby home & lost two others.
Here’s to make new memories ❤️
Are you looking for any charity policy, campaigns or public affairs support, short or long term? If so, get in touch for a chat!
A job I was due to start Monday has fallen through at the last minute, and so I find myself unexpectedly free...
Today’s my birthday. These past few months have been some of the toughest but today I’m celebrating the privilege of having had another year of life, loving, and being loved ❤️
I popped down to my local vaccination clinic to see if they’d flex policy & give me my 2nd covid jab a few weeks early given I’m in my third trimester of pregnancy & in group 6 & so have 2 risk factors. It was a no. I cried a lot. I’m tired of being scared for me & my baby.
Women looking out for women - waiting for a taxi home from the station as it’s late: one appears and the woman ahead of me offers to share it so I’m not alone and then insists on paying as it’s my first proper evening out after becoming a mum. Strangers can be lovely!
@CCriadoPerez
Telling them science, but getting back the fabulously irrelevant response of “I’m the mother in this relationship!”
Clearly family hierarchy trumps science 🤷♀️
This is the only item of clothing I’ve bought in ten years that my husband’s explicitly told me he hates. And I don’t care because it that special kind of ugly-fabulous and 2020 needs sequins 💁♀️
Finally, if you are kid in an LGBTQ+ family reading this, I hope things are different for you than they were for me in the ‘90s & that, like me, the love in your family gives you the strength to overcome anyone who treats you differently.
And either way, I’m your ally 💪
I wish the end of the working year was like at school where your teacher would wheel in the tv trolley and you’d watch the same VHS film about 7 times before the term ended and it was wonderful.
I’ve just taken every single ‘maybe I’ll fit into it again one day’ item of clothing I own to the charity shop and wow it feels good. I would heartily recommend.
This whole combining a household ‘bubble’ thing for people living alone means that my mum is finally going to have declare which of us is her favourite child.
My dad chose not to be in my or sister’s lives so every year on his birthday my sister and I buy ourselves a present instead and then natter about what we’ve picked as our own sister tradition. Today self gift is a ring and a sharing bar of Galaxy I won’t be sharing 🙂
Today’s the start of Pride month & so I’m re-sharing this - a thread about my two mums which remains the most important thing to me that I’ve ever posted 🌈
#PrideMonth2021
What was it like growing up with two mums in the 1990s?
As Pride month closes, I want to share some reflections by way of saying what I hope is different for kids of LGBTQ+ parents these days - including what we can all do to help make sure of this.
👇
#LoveIsLove
#Pride
News!
After several great years at
@TeenageCancer
I’ve decided to embark on freelance policy and influencing work when I return from maternity leave in September.
Details to follow but do bear me in mind if you need support from late summer! 👇
I thought I had a pretty good immune system until my child started nursery and bringing home illnesses that sounds like they’re from the Victorian era.
It’s fitting for my upbringing that pride month coincides with Father’s Day. My dad chose not to be in my life & I have two brilliant mums instead.
Families come in all shapes & sizes and not all of us have dads who give us reason to celebrate today
#LoveIsLove
I don’t tweet much about having coeliac disease but with awareness month i thought I’d share my story.
I was diagnosed at 21. I’d been in a great deal of pain & discomfort for some time & I couldn’t manage a full day at uni due to pain. It really impacted my life.
Today we launch our month long campaign to drive awareness of coeliac disease.
Did you know that an estimated 500,000 people in the UK are living with undiagnosed coeliac disease? That’s why this year, we’re doubling down on our mission to find those individuals and guide
@OCDUK
I cooked for 12 people today despite a history of contamination ocd and it felt like such a big win for me! I hope others have had a good day and those who’ve struggled have had the support they need 🙂
Unexpected pen pals: My great aunt (84, upstate New York) got a kitten this year, and my husband (34, London) writes snail mail to it as our cat, Pepper, and she replies to Pepper as the kitten…
I was thinking the other day how much I wanted some lovely cheering flowers & how I wished my husband was a mind reader & would buy me some.
Then I realised I was a grown woman who deserved a treat now & again & so I ordered myself some with a card & everything 💁♀️
#LoveYourself
Home after an unexpected two day stay in hospital (the baby & I are thankfully fine). Very knackered but cheered by the fact that the baby’s cheeks are so noteworthily chubby that an obstetrician pointed them out on a scan 🙂
Well done to all my domestic abuse sector colleagues who’ve briefed Lords ahead of today’s Second Reading of the Domestic Abuse Bill 👏 special mention of all of you who live tweeted throughout the full 7.5 hours of it! 💪 great work on behalf of women everywhere.
Today’s my last day at
@SEAresource
before I head off for pastures new.
It’s been such a privilege to be part of this small-but-mighty charity working to improve the lives of women experiencing abuse, & amazing to work w a group of such inspiring women led by
@nicolajanesharp
.
Re-sharing this in light of the awful stats published today on the number of pregnant women who’ve died of covid. Being double jabbed in pregnancy may have saved both my and my son’s lives. And we’re off to get my booster today!
If any pregnant women are unsure about getting the covid jab, I had both my doses whilst pregnant & here is my happy and healthy (and yawn-y) 10 week old!
I found
@RCObsGyn
,
@PregnantScrewed
&
@VikiLovesFACS
very helpful for info.
After 5 months of new mum life, going for my first haircut in almost a year, with a HOT coffee, was such a treat. And my poked eye looks less terrifying!