Welcome to What Nancy Did Next.
I’m Naomi. Nancy is my tween-age daughter. I’ve no idea what she’s going to do next and that’s what makes being her mum so joyous. And so perplexing.
Decoding our tweens
Tweens occupy that space in their lives between being little children and teenagers, so around 9-12 years old. Sometimes it feels like we occupy a different space to the one in which our tweens live their lives. That’s when it’s good to talk to other mums, it’s good to share what we’ve seen and heard and have a go at working out what it all means.
We’re stronger together than apart.
Talking about parenting our tweens makes us better mums. I wouldn’t want to be doing this alone (and we all know dads are different). It’s good to talk, and conversations can transcend the school gates: enter the internet, the blogs, the forums, the pseudo coffee shop conversation that we open up on our phones when we put the kettle on for a quick cup of tea at 3pm before heading out on the school run.
Colleagues in the job.
I’m a mum who calls doing the Mum Jobs my day job. I work with children for 1.5 days each week, but my time is mainly filled with Mum Stuff. I have one tween daughter, a lovely husband and a professional status in teaching. By writing these pages, I’m hoping to find some colleagues, some similar mums doing similar Mum Stuff Jobs. So I invite you to join the conversation. What do you think, what would you do, what you would say and how would you say it in the situations described here? Talk to me, in the coffee shop of the comment box.
Nancy
Naomi isn’t my real name, but everything else on these pages is an honest conversation about real situations and events. Nancy isn’t my daughter’s real name, either (but it was fun re-naming her). This is the internet, after all, and part of our job here is to investigate what having a safe voice on the internet feels like, because our tweens will be vocal. As I have a daughter, and I’m talking about real situations and events, I’m talking about girls. I research my blog posts through reading, talking, listening, observing and loving my own tween and sharing her with you here.
Introducing my friend Thelma
There’s one other person you’ll get to know in my blog posts, and that’s my friend, Thelma. I don’t want to go too far with this whole anonymity online thing so, although Thelma isn’t her real name, it is my real nickname for her, and that will suffice here. Thelma is important because, without her, I am all too likely to disappear inside my own thought pattern. She has tween daughters of her own and she’s my sounding board, wise as she is, and I make sure I get a cup of tea with her most weeks.
So, that’s the team, Nancy and Naomi, sometimes including Lovely Husband and helped out by My Friend Thelma. I hope to connect with other women, sharing fears and dreaming dreams, and if that is you, then put the kettle on and join me, wherever you may be.
Naomi.
Tweet us for a quick chat here: https://twitter.com/timewithmytween
What Nancy Did Next 