Please introduce yourself.
*Stands up* Hi, I’m Charlotte, and I have baby brain *sits back down.*
… Can you give us a bit more than that?
Oh right, OK, sure. So… My name is Charlotte, and I am a mum of three - two boys and a girl. I had my first baby in 2019, my second in 2021 and my third in 2023. The first two, Poppet and Pickle, are the boys. Peach is the girl. Poppet, Pickle and Peach aren’t their real names, though I do sometimes accidentally refer to them as such when I’ve been writing. I’m married to a wonderful man (their father) who is most often mentioned simply as ‘my husband’ but is sometimes also called ‘Ted,’ despite his name not being Ted. I spend my days taking care of the kids, writing about our lives on this here blog (the stories are all real, even if the names are not) drinking tea and snacking on chocolate. I really do have baby brain, too, my memory is appalling and sometimes I put weird things in the fridge.
So this is a mummy blog?
Straight to the point, I like it. Is this a mummy blog? In that I share my life as a mum of 3 under 5, documenting the highs and lows of motherhood in (what I hope is) a humorous fashion - usually under cover of darkness, as I try not to wake whichever child is in my bed - yes, it is. Despite my original intentions, it absolutely is.
Will there be loads of adorable photos of babies on here then?
No, sorry. I am desperate to show them off at all times in all ways but am also afraid of kidnappers and AI, so…
Fair enough. Moving swiftly on. Do you work?
Before the babes, I worked in marketing. For 10 years I honed my skills in content strategy, SEO, social media and more, working on huge brands for internationally renowned agencies before going solo and working for myself. I didn’t love it. I liked it, I didn’t love it. Between baby 2 and baby 3 I retrained as a baby massage teacher and taught sessions for over a year, completing lots of training with the intention of setting up as an infant wellness consultant once my maternity leave with Peach was through. I was and am passionate about infant wellness, so this may still be in my future. For now, though, I plan on returning to work in October to a position in sales for a small business I believe in.
Fab. What was the training you completed?
Wow, well, thanks for asking. Qualifications in the baby wellness arena include: Level 4 gentle infant sleep & perinatal mental health, trained by Babyem. Certified baby massage & yoga instructor, with CPD in colic and reflux & massage for babies with additional needs, trained by Blossom & Berry. CPD training in colic, reflux and food sensitivities & childhood anxiety, trained by London School of Childcare Studies. Tummy time practitioner, trained by Carly Budd Developmental Play Academy. I also have a level 4 OCN qualification in child psychology, a level 2 GNVQ in health and social care, and am studying yoga for kids with Cosmic Kids.
Do you incorporate any of that into Baby Brain?
On the main feed, not really, the posts about my family and my life are purely about that - my family and my life. I do however have a new section incoming called ‘Explains It All,’ where I plan to share lots of stuff that interests me about infant development, sleep etc. The idea is to link to posts within this section when I do talk about my own life, should something organic come up, but I won’t reshape my main posts to shoehorn anything in. I sometimes mention co-sleeping and contact napping, for example, so will likely do write ups on both of those at some point and cross reference from there.
Oh, cool. Will subscribers automatically be added to that section?
No. As the content will be largely informational rather than written for entertainment, I’ve decided not to automatically add subscribers to this list. If you are a Baby Brain subscriber you can subscribe to Explains It All by going to https://substack.com/settings, clicking on Baby Brain, and hitting the toggle next to the section name, listed under ‘Notifications.’ You can also do this to only get Explains It All posts, if family life posts aren’t your bag.
Sounds like a plan. Where are you based?
Cheshire, though I’m originally from the midlands, and met my husband while living in London.
Do you like being a mum?
I love it.
Ok, last question. Do you often interview yourself like this?
This was my first time. How did I do?
You did great.
Great.
