When your muse isn't musing

My kids are dull - so what am I meant to write about?

It’s no secret I have struggled to write for Distracted recently. Partly it has been exhaustion. There is only so much time to write after bed times and around working or looking after the kids. But more than that my kids are just not that interesting any more.

Well, to say they aren’t interesting isn’t probably true, there have been many incidents worth writing about - at one point there were many calls from the head teacher (again) and subsequent parent guilt and worrying. But in some ways the interesting bits are such that they are fraught with ethical issues. Other children are involved and education establishments and teachers who shall not be named. My son can read now and so can his peers. I worry about bullying and name-calling and that my observations of his behaviour and my reactions to it will feel more like a judgement than amusing material. The more this newsletter grows the more my moans about my children could cause some sort of legal implication or psychological problem down the line. Something, let’s face it, none of us have time for.

I’m wondering if it’s okay that I don’t write as much, after all I can barely claim to be the hands-on stay-at-home-mum I once was. Now my youngest is four, the dramas are genuinely fewer and further between.

Of course there is other stuff going on. I’ve just turned 37 and fear my hormone levels may be falling off a cliff, although it could be perpetual stress of working motherhood and an uncertain job - because that is definitely a thing. Christmas obviously, and it’s incredible overwhelm is on my mind. But writing about that is one of the things that doesn’t seem cathartic and actually has a more stress-inducing effect. My youngest starts school next year, so there have been preparations in selecting his school, but not in anyway as extensive as for his brother after all they have to go to the same place. If anything, I am noticing as the stress of the first child lessens, with its fewer news and firsts, the second just follows on behind - milestones go unnoticed, which of course causes pangs of mum guilt in itself.

Everything is easier now, and as my whole brand is built on complaining, perhaps it’s more honest to say I have less to complain about now, and maybe that’s a good thing?

So What is Next?

A pivot is probably ahead, and I hope it suits you, but I can only write about what I know:

• My kids (less interesting, as I have explained)

• My freelance design venture and my quest for flexible working (it’s a rollercoaster, I promise you!)

• My efforts to write and be creative with and in spite of the responsibilities of motherhood

• My hormones and life as I hurtle towards mid-life

• Life as a woman in this male-dominated world (I mean that never gets boring - right?)

So I hope you stick around and I hope to bring some interesting writing to you in 2026!

In the meantime, here are 5 of my favourites from 2025

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