Mother-of-two Shannon who is the publishing director for children's books at Penguin Random House UK, has created an entertaining and honest journal. She has a new baby as well as a toddler and aspires to wake up naturally - without the aid of children - one morning.
It’s a book for parents to record their own experiences – both the highs and the lows – and to chart the extraordinary transition to parenthood.
Shannon says "I created this journal for new parents who are looking for a bit of downtime, which probably amounts to about 96 seconds per day. I wanted to reflect my experience of parenting, which is that everything is a balancing act - balancing your baby with one hand and a glass of wine with the other. But alongside the more frazzled moments there are all the wonderful memories that you think you’ll remember forever, vastly underestimating sleep deprivation. My journal is intended as a playful way for parents to remember the ups and downs of their parenting adventure."
The book is fully interactive with space alongside funny comments, quotes and activities for new parents to fill in, including pages to smudge your child’s fingerprints on, design parenting emojis and play baby bingo.
Inside you'll find a wealth of fun ideas to do and doodle to take your mind off the fact that you're probably knackered and don't have a clue what you're doing (at least I didn't).
For example you can create your ideal playlist, do a dot-to-dot or challenge yourself to see how quickly you can get the baby into the babygrow. Or how about this for a quote:- "The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable". Actually that one is STILL true almost 10 years later.
It's a fun way to record how you were feeling in the precious early days and to keep and feel slightly smug later on when you realise how far you've come and how well you adjusted (because you will).
I'm Wrecked, This Is My Journal would make a great present for a new parent, parent-to-be or just to cheer yourself up when you feel that your life will never be fully under your control again.
Looking back on your experiences you'll soon find that you've had more #parentingwins than #parentingfails even through the haze of sleep deprivation and pureed fruit.
I'm Wrecked, This Is My Journal is published by Michael O'Mara Books RRP £9.99.
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