At iVillage we’re passionate about supporting Australian bloggers. That’s why we’ve created iBlog Friday.
It's a chance for bloggers introduce their favourite post of the week to iVillage readers and for our community to read what Aussie writers are up to.
Here are the bloggers who have sent their submissions this week. Happy reading!
Josefa Pete from Always Josefa shares a story about how a random encounter made her appreciate average burgers, and moments of unexpected generosity in her post Random act of kindness.
“Excuse me Sir, I saw you looking for food, so I bought you a pizza.”
I turned around to see a tall, poised woman, in her smart business suit, handing over a cardboard pizza box to the man. She was sharp and concise. As soon as she handed him the pizza, she turned on her heel, stepped onto the escalator and was gone. There was no exchange of thank you, no exchange of any more words at all.
Read the rest of Josefa's post here.
Katy Berry of The (mildly) opinionated manager explains how ongoing conflicts at work often provide the key to moving forward (and your own personality) in her post Micromanagement as a performance intervention. Can it work?
Well, I had my little tantrum yesterday, and now that I’ve got it out of my system I want to look a little bit closer, and with a lot more seriousness, at some of the things that I have done (or supported others in doing) and how they might have contributed to the problems that are currently frustrating me – that is, ongoing conflict between members of my team.
All interpersonal conflict is complex – it can’t be explained by a single action or reaction, but one point that I want to focus on and explore is the impact of micro-management on staff conflict. What sparked off this line of thought was a colleague telling me that micro-management EQUALS bullying.
Read the rest of Katy's post here.
Keri Arkell of Awesomely Unprepared give some excellent advice to first-time mums who think they can plan things such as a baby's birth and sleeping schedule in her post, Don't bother having a birth 'plan'.
My advice to first time pregnant mums is to throw out any notion that you are in charge and that everything will happen the way you want it to, because you’ve thought positively, avoided all negative horror stories and you’ve got a birth plan. Hasn’t anyone heard?? You have a birth plan! You did research! People who do research are better at this, right? Everything’s going to go just as you want it to! The truth is, positive thinking and making smart choices are never a bad thing – in fact, I recommend them. However, they don’t make a ‘good’ labour (ie the one you hope for) a sure thing.
Read the rest of Keri's post here.
Dragana Lolic of Light.Love.Soul examine our behaviour, how the simplest of things are the most fun and why we second-guess ourselves in her beautiful post Perfection in the hardest of moments.
There are many things in life that intrigue me. Like how a baby can stare at it's own foot for hours with utter amazement. Or how a cat can sit around a house for days and not get bored. Really, there is only so much lazing around that I could do before wanting to crawl out of my own skin. Doesn't a cat feel like that? Surely at some point it gets bored.
Sorry I digress. Where was I? Yes, the things that intrigue me. Well one thing that I cant quite wrap my head around is how unkind we can be to ourselves. And the unrealistic expectations we have of our lives.
Read the rest of Dragana's post here.
Carly Findlay writes an important message about how to prepare your children to meet people who don't look the same as most in Preparing children for meeting people with visible differences.
Their cuteness waned fast. I spent much of the time being polite, smiling my discomfort away, trying to make conversation. I asked the children's parents if I should explain about my skin. No, they told me. Then I asked them straight out, in front of their parents, do they want to ask me anything about my face? No. No. And still no conversation was made. In the end I told them, "I'm not talking to you if you're not talking to me."
Julia Alexander of Perfect Wife Magazine takes us through what she thinks is and isn't acceptable whilst travelling on a plane in her hilarious post, Jet-tiquette.
Please wear shoes – It seems to be a frighteningly common custom for people to slip their shoes off as soon as they make themselves comfortable in their seat. As if wearing thongs on a plane is not offensive enough, passengers now think nothing of going the full foot Monty and baring warts and all.
If something is sensitive enough to be ticklish – it should not be exposed on a plane.
Please also consider wearing deodorant
Read the rest of Julia's post here.
Erin Patel of Coffee talk with Erin: Bookgirloz reviews a new book by the brilliant Jodi Picoult in her post The Book Club.
My favourite pass time is reading to my children and I am itching to get into some of the classics for older children such as Roald Dahl’s books, the Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables and others (too many to list). There are also so many great children’s books available for slightly older readers which I’m hanging out to show my daughters. My girls and I spend time at our local library every week, an activity that beats anything expensive and organised that I can think of. But let’s get back to the book of the month, Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller.
Read the rest of Erin's post here.
Kym Campradt of Campo on the run talks about how preparing for a half-marathon can help you learn a lot about yourself in her post Belief, sweat and tears.
So it’s about 10 days until I run my first half marathon. Phew. It’s so close now. I’ve started to see the road closure signs go up and watched the Youtube video advertising this great event that is the Gold Coast Airport Marathon. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it and have just come to the realisation that I will probably cry when I cross the finish line. It might be because Mr C has decided to not come and watch… I think he’s just geeing me up. I hope…
Read the rest of Kym's post here.
Renee Wilson of Mummy, wife me talks about the sight that greeted her after her kids spent their day being looked after by dad in her post Daddy Daycare.
I could hear their excited squeals from out on the street. I couldn’t wait to get inside and cover them in cuddles and kisses. Had they missed me? Did they have fun? Had they had their dinner? Were they ready for bed? Did Dave think it was hard? These questions darted through my mind as I fumbled with the key in the door.
I opened the door expecting my almost-three-year-old, Curly-locks, to come racing toward me to give me a hug. She didn’t. I hid my disappointment and quickly surveyed the scene before me.
Read the rest of Renee's post here.
If you're a blogger and you want to appear in our next iBlog Friday roundup please send the link to your blog to us at info@themotherish.com
We will be posting all the blogs we receive in a round up every Friday morning so make sure we get your blog by Thursday at 12 noon.
Produced by Jay-Z, the soundtrack includes songs by Beyonce, Florence + The Machine, Gotye, Lana Del Rey and Bryan Ferry.
