This may come as a slight surprise to you, but I may have the ability to SOUND dramatic.

In a world (Benoni, South Africa) where the need for a car is a necessity, having problems may be the norm but having car problems well that is where I resort to ugly crying.

Having grown up in a family of mostly girls the over-analyzing need to not sound or be dramatic fails me constantly.  So I will tell you my story whilst giving the facts and to the point. I will try not to be dramatic and keep to the facts. The following story is a recount of the life of Ms Chanaynay.

It is August. I have been trying to do a year round up every month since 2017, so I am pleased to advise that managing this post makes me simply unstoppable.

Between the chaos and the WTF moments, 2018 has had some wonderful moments. However, I do not want to focus on the good. The crazy moments that I have endured make me funnier.

I have had consistent car problems.

My Car-ma ,yes I just did that, has been a bit off.

It may have started with my reversing into a stationary Jag, the car. And then there was the slight hiccup when we had to tow my car to the local mechanic due to the teapot light (the oil filter) coming on. Apparently trying to save money by extending the time between services is BAD! Who knew? 

What happens when you find yourself car-less?

Between this one part of my goings on, life carried on in the usual rhythm of getting kids to school, some days with sunblock other days they had lunch. Give and take I’ve been told … when it comes to parenting.

The day that everything changed was the day I went to an Aromat launch – it was about a month ago.

It was the day the real car problems started. I left the Good Food Studio on an event high. Excited that Aromat have created something wonderful and involved some brilliant South African people. And now we can be happy and guilt-free when feeding our children

With no MSG, GMO’s, artificial ingredients, preservatives or colourants and 40% less salt, Aromat Naturally Tasty is bursting into the South African market as a guilt free healthier seasoning option.

I managed to get back to the East Rand and after some meetings and a few errands, I was lucky enough (see still being positive here) to have my car have its emotional breakdown as I drove into my driveway. 

Needless to say for a second time in as many weeks my car was towed.

Between begging and pleading for lifts and relying on the goodwill of mom friends at the school, and family as we have now entered the 5^th week of no car. Firstly I absolutely hate having to ask for help. I have had to swallow a lot of pride and ask for help. I am just a lucky girl to surround myself with some phenomenal people

When trying to share one car creates another car problem

My brother in law without question let us use his Fortuner which the hubster has been driving. I have been driving the hubsters *gulp* … manual.

I love driving the hubster’s car because it has power and I feel like I can reenact a scene from “The Fast and the Furious” except that when I drive I am in fact not fast nor furious.

Surely things do not get worse at this point of the story?

Well … guess again!

During this time I may have needed to jump start a borrowed car that couldn’t start whilst in the school parking lot. Apparently this car’s lights do not turn off automatically. In front of the preschool, the Grade O’s were preparing for an outing. And so in front of the Grade 0 classroom, the teachers including the pre-school headmistress, all got the opportunity to watch my helplessness as the car’s alarm let off intermittent squeals. Eventually a groundsman bought a jumper cable and Miss K’s friend’s mom jump-started my car.

It has spiraled. Forgetting a book here, being late there, forgetting to dress Miss T in her PJ’s for Pyjama Day and even though, to be fair she did look like she had just gotten out of bed, she was understandably upset.

Miss K was currently in her last school concert performance before school holidays started. I was helping the Grade One girls get ready and then rush to get the much-missed pyjamas and slippers. So once again I continue my walk of shame at the school as I walk the corridors. The parents look at me as they pass me, with great pity saying, “Shame, shame, shame …”.

I need to stop writing now as I have to arrange to get my garage door fixed. Yes! That has stopped working too. The not so good news is that, as we stand, my car has had to be towed from the current mechanic to the dealer to try to find the electric fault.  Whilst the bills continue to pile up, just know that I am not crying and rocking in a corner. Why? Because there are just sooo many things I choose to be grateful for.

I am struggling a little, but once I start chatting to everyone around me I realise that we all have our struggles. I would however like to think that my struggles are just that little bit more funnier.

Last night, we watched the kick off to the FIFA Soccer World Cup 2018 held in Russia. Robbie Williams sang and for me, it will already be one of my favourite World Cups thus far. Now as an avid all round watcher of any big sporting event I realise that some partners may not have my enthusiasm – even though I have no clue on a good day. I thought it was best to write up a “How to Survive The Soccer World Cup  2018″

Saudi Arabia and Russia met on the field for the opening game. Russian scored 5 goals and I went to bed with the knowledge that Putin would be a very happy President. My prediction would be that there will be no oil deals in the near future with these two countries. I guess it brings in surviving into a whole new context.

As we head into the next few weeks soccer fever will escalate. Potentially so will most wives tempers. I approached 2 friends whose husbands are quite the avid soccer watchers.

An idea that became a reality.

My fellow co-founders and I still sit back in awe of what we created at the #GirlMomsMeetUp.

More so now that we have had a chance to catch our breath and reflect back on the #GirlMomsMeetup event.

Did we achieve what we set out to do? Did what we hope to achieve get conveyed to our readers and followers? Looking forward to feedback.

Our mission

Get a small group of  mommy bloggers who have daughters together to start a conversation and review products and activities during a morning together.

Here is my feedback.

This past Saturday my girls and I had the pleasure of being invited to a Build-A-Bear workshop at the Toy Kingdom in the East Rand Mall

It all started with a pre-event gift unveiling of their Disney Princesses.

Once upon a time two little princess received a gift from the land of Toy Kingdom. So these princesses squealed with delight, not realising what was in store for them (I made a funny). They were about to embark on adventure with their mom.

It has been one week since the South African Mommy Blogger Awards were announced and I am still walking around like a boss. My children partially listen to me. My husband thinks I am hilarious, well that is what I tell him to think about me.

What’s Going On? to be sung in the same tune as 4nonblondes.

I won Best Comedian Writer at the 2017 SA Mommy Blogger Awards!!! That’s what’s going on!

Today is one more sleep and then it is school holidays.

Am I scared?

A little… and that is a rookie thing to be. Scared, not a rookie at parenting.

The first rule of parenting, or taking care of the children, is that those snot-flickers can smell fear. It’s part of their DNA, so we can’t really blame them. It’s mother nature’s fault.

Back to first rule: Do not ever tell your children that it is a special day and that they must behave. Something ticks over in the brain and then there it is. The glazed look and twinkle in their eye … CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

“I will do everything opposite to what my lovely parent has asked of me”

Said in an evil whisper.

Sayings that I try live my life by:

Be the change you want to see in the world. Be kind always.

I was nominated by Carly who blogs over at Mom Of Two Little Girls to do a Random Act of Kindness. Don’t worry, I don’t just stalk her, she does know who I am. Promise!

Upon receiving my nomination, I went through the different emotions of me:

• Elation and Excitement (it’s the same but I was that happy)
• Amazement (I was picked)
• Doubt and questioning (mmmh was this her Random Act of Kindness … why me?)
• Over-analysing (what will I do?)
• Procrastination.

 Yes, it is exhausting being me.

We are only in February and I am already experiencing huge anxiety because I feel like I have failed my child, and I think grade one is going to break me. My anxiety about this is making me a bit of a hot mess, as in sweaty.

Grade One and homework, who would have thought that you would cause me more anxiety than Jacob Zuma?

Grade One was so different when I started school, now the pressure is on. Everyone warned me. I thought I was prepared. It turns out, I wasn’t. Nothing can possibly prepare you for Grade One.

In one of my past lives I was an au pair, and for a few years I ran a local agency supplying au pairs to families.

What Is An Au Pair?

There are many definitions of au pairs and childminders, but during my time running the agency and trying to put some structure to a very new environment and service, this is what we decided on with regards to providing an explanation for each service:   

A couple of years ago we decided on a lovely family holiday. This was back when we only had one child, now we have two. We ummed and ahhed over flights to Cape Town, but in the end we decided that a road trip would be much more fun! What follows in this post is an account of day one of our journey!

Making it from the front door to the car

This is a post with no helpful travel hints on keeping your child occupied. We were quite lucky as my child kept herself rather well occupied; she did this by asking for us to stop for a wee every 18.7 minutes and alternating with the questions, “Where is the sea? When will be at the sea? Can I have a wee in the sea? Why can’t I pooh in the sea, I want to pooh in the sea? Does the sea have eyes? I want the sea? When can I see the sea? Can the sea see? When will we be at the sea?” All of this was as we were pulling out the driveway, in Benoni!

Expectation vs Reality

I envisioned the perfect holiday and it started out that way; perfectly chaotic that is, with a meltdown or two thrown in for good measure.

Meltdown one: Me to Ms K. “Morning, we are going to the sea my baby. You have a choice of these two outfits.”

What ensued was 40 minutes of screaming, crying and feeling sorry for oneself and that was just me! This is an ongoing problem in our household, getting Kenzie to wear the required outfit for the ensuing activity. Somehow, through the snot and tears, she ended up wearing a blue tutu with a spotted top and those plastic girly high heels, also known as, “eina” heels. Smugly, thinking we had won, we put her in the car, ready to leave for the sea. Come to think of it, Miss K won, she wore neither the dress nor the t-shirt and shorts combo that I put out.

They were cute outfits, I promise.

Meltdown two: Ms T didn’t want the cereal I made for her breakfast, nor did she want to sit, stand, crawl or smile.

Ok, let me rephrase that, I can be so negative sometimes; she did want to cry and moan.

Meltdown three: A mom, wondering where her perfect holiday vision had gone, as she sits in a cesspit tears that have washed away her dreams, as she starts drowning in the constant stream of pity and worthlessness.

First world problems can bite me.

At this stage we are already an hour behind schedule, and it is a bit more delayed as we have to stop for our obligatory personality, Coffee!

I’m all about solutions!

The perfect way to avoid any of the above is to fly with your children instead! Here are my top 5 reasons why flying with children is better than any of the above:

1. There are loos everywhere so nothing stops one from getting to said destination.
2. Not having to navigate. This is a whole other blog post, but honestly, how do marriages survive kids and directions on road trips?
3. The experience of flying. I love it and I hope my girls will love it even more than me.
4. Time. Saving time to holiday and getting to experience more. Let’s plan road trips when the kids are older.
5. Air Conditioned airport lounges.

In case I haven’t managed to convince you yet here is a video from our friends at Travelstart about their experiences of flying with children.

Here are 10 Tips for flying with children:

In case you were wondering, the next time we decide to go on holiday, we will definitely be booking cheap flights to Cape Town!

Disclaimer: This post was done in collaboration with Travelstart.