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. 

What does it mean to be a mom with ADHD?

I was only diagnosed with ADHD this year, 2017. Whilst it was a bit of a surprise to me, apparently not so much to the people close to me who it came as no surprise to!

Why did I decide to tackle this now?

What’s in a name?

Whilst one might think of Gin & Tonic when hearing the name of my blog, and whilst you won’t be wrong, you won’t be right either.

Whilst I do like the occasional Gin & Tonic sundowner, alas that is not the “tonic” I am referring to in the name of my blog – Tonic & Tiaras.

Continue reading

As you may have heard, or seen the girls and I along with the hubster were invited to an exclusive screening of the MY LITTLE PONY: THE MOVIE which hits cinemas this month (October 2017).

We followed the adventures of the Mane 6 pony characters as they journey from Equestria, in a heart-warming tale of adventure, magical characters, colourful worlds and humour for all ages. Watch the Movie trailer here

Something you may or may not know about me. I had surgery in my abdomen which has resulted in me spending A LOT of time in the loo.

Depending where you are in life the topic of poop is a yay or nay when chatting with friends. If you have children a whole afternoon could be spent discussing and dissecting poop. Nothing is off limits to moms when discussing their children’s poop; the smell, texture and of course the colour. However, the poop conversation becomes more of a taboo subject between young lovers because nobody poops and that could spoil the image you have of your hunky or sexy partner.

 I have a love-hate relationship with the different chat groups I am part of in my WhatsApp world.

Our Telkom line has been down and with it my link to the outside world, I’ve been on edge.. no really it’s all I can get on my mobile. I mean what else do we use our phones for. Calls? Pfft

Last weekend the Hubster and I grabbed some popcorn and settled in to watch Arrival.

Arrival stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Remmer who are on an important mission to find out why alien craft have suddenly appeared around the world. As it turns out these pods are trying to communicate and it’s up to the pair to figure out why they arrived on Earth and this needs to be done before war breaks out. I thought this was just another lame sci-fi but it turned out to be so much more.

I have mixed emotions about sci-fi movies, but when you marry a man who lives for them and requires me to throw a tantrum before we get to watch something girly (which more often than not proves to be a massive disappointment) you have to learn to cope. So what I thought would be the background soundtrack to me working on my Pinterest life, has managed to leave me so deep in thought and reflecting on this whole parenting/adult journey and choices we make.

Zola Maseko’s The Whale Caller, is a fascinating story based on Zakes Mda’s bestselling novel.

It is an enchanting, romantic comedy of sorts, told through lyrical and magical storytelling. The film is set against the backdrop of the stunningly beautiful Hermanus, on the West Coast of South Africa. The story follows The Whale Caller (Sello Maake ka-Ncube), a man who has long turned his back on humanity. It’s a heart -warming tale about his journey from misanthropic alienation to human connection, driven by a unique love triangle between him and Saluni (Amrain Ismail-Essop), the wispy sexy town drunk who harbours ideas of grandeur, and Sharisha, a southern right whale.

I love cooking and trying new foods, sometimes to the detriment of my family and friends.

I think my palette is different and it does not like to be bored. My palette is its own entity controlled by weird and wonderful tastes and emotions. One could say my palette is an acquired taste. I have decided that besides my fascination with all things trending in food, my palette is making me a bit of a foodie outcast.

On advice I am going to start with the basics again instead of going straight to making kimchi. Firstly, because not a lot is known about this superfood and then to top it off I do not have many taste testers knocking down my door. So maybe I need to start with more basic South African ingredients and experience that first. I do find myself drawing the line at “walkie talkies” I know what they are but have no desire to cross that road.