• Does a cafe/restaurant have a right to ban small children?
• Would you pay a surcharge to take a child to a restaurant?
• When does a child's behaviour become unacceptable in a cafe/restaurant? Is it when they cry, or when they bang their spoon on the table?
• Do parents have the right to take their kids to any cafe/restaurant they want to or just the "child-friendly" ones?

One comment posted that made me chuckle was someone who asked something like "If we can ban children because they are too noisy can we also ban the tables of pretentious grown ups that laugh too loudly and talk at the top of their voices all the way through dinner?"

For me personally:

• I like taking my kids to a range of cafes/restaurants .. not just the officially child-friendly as it is important they learn how to behave in a "grown up" environment. Having said that I mostly go to child-friendly places because it makes my life easier and therefore we all have a much better time.
• A surcharge for my kids - that is just ridiculous!
• Banning Kids - I can't believe I am going to say this but I think if that is what fits with the restaurants values and business then they should do it. If they believe it will make their "preferred" customers happier and therefore they will make more money - so be it. Of course, I will feel put out and offended ... but hey, if we are really not going to be welcomed with kids surely it is much better to just have that out in the open so I can go elsewhere
• What behaviour is unacceptable from my children in  a cafe ? well, the same behaviours I would find unacceptable at home. Tantrums, hitting siblings (or other kids), throwing food/plates etc on the floor intentionally, screaming ... If my kids behave like this in a cafe (which would be very rare) we would either leave or at least have some "timeout" outside. If my kids are just being kids, happy, bit noisy, bit messy, but generally well behaved ... I ignore the occasional dirty look I might get from someone who was hoping to read the paper in total tranquility.

What do you think? Should a restaurant be allowed to ban children? What boundaries do you have with your kids about behaviour in a cafe?

So I decided to log my exercise for 7 days and see how much exercise I really do get ... no secrets ... I am saying like it is!

MONDAY: Busy day with kids. My Dad came to visit today so he took them off to the park for a while so I could get on top of some work. I had planned to start my pre-natal yoga class tonight as I have ticked "12 week" box a few days ago but I had felt so sick all day (my ALL DAY pregnancy nausea is a killer) that I just couldn't face it. I did, however, take advantage of my Dad being with us by taking my husband for an evening stroll once kids were asleep. Does a "stroll" count as exercise? For me at the moment it does.

Total: 30 min

TUESDAY:  Work day - basically sit at my computer all day. Does hanging out washing count as exercise? don't think so. I did go for a massage tonight ... first one in years. So I do earn some brownie points for self care.

Total: 0 min

WEDNESDAY: We have a family plan on the fridge to help us schedule in things that are important. Wednesday morning is marked as my morning to get up early and go for a swim. Since falling pregnant I haven't been once ... I just feel too ill. Maybe soon?

A 'mummy' day with both my girls. I take them both to swimming but I doubt the 30 minutes I spend in the pool with my baby counts as exercise for me. Feel pretty sick ... again ... no energy for walks to the park or jumping on the trampoline. I settle for building blocks and a board game with Miss 3.5.

We do take an afternoon walk to the supermarket at back all together. Again, I count this as a stroll but better than nothing

Total: 30 min

THURSDAY: Technically a work day but after spending 2.5 hours at the hospital getting NT scans done (baby in very uncooperative positions) not much time left for actually working. Feeling conscious that the week is ticking by and I "should" get some exercise ... hmmm

Total: 0 min

FRIDAY: Weather permitting Friday evening is "family walk" night to mark the start of the weekend. My husband leaves earlier for work in the morning and is home earlier in the evening. We usually walk to our local park so girls can have a short play on the swings etc before walking home ... round trip 45 minutes. Walk time 25 min

Total: 25 min

SATURDAY: bit of a job day at home.

Total: 0 min

SUNDAY: the sun was shining in Sydney (trust me this is rare at the moment!!) so we headed to the beach for the afternoon. I spent a lot of time walking with a heavy 14month old on my hip ... to and from car, along the beach to find a spot without a mountain of seaweed (result of storms yesterday), then back to other end of beach to swim in ocean pools because waves were too rough for the girls. Note to self - take the backpack for her next time. Then off course there was all the time playing in the water with the girls.

Total: 60 min ... maybe more

GRAND TOTAL: 2 hours & 25 minutes

Well, that total is hardly anything to be proud of but I guess it is better than nothing. I do hope in coming weeks when I feel less nauseous I will get into some better exercise patterns.

How about you? what would your weekly exercise diary look like?

For Mums on the Go my focus was to add 2 more cities to the child-friendly directory (most likely Brisbane and Perth), work on increasing number of Mums visiting the website every month and really get stuck into creating revenue ... after all I can't "donate" my time forever.

Personally, I wanted to really focus on self care ... getting fitter, feeling calmer and having a little more "down time". As a family we wanted to do some travel this year to take advantage of the last "non-school" year and airfares before our 'baby' turns 2 in November. We planned a trip to Waiheke Island (NZ) to see if it is somewhere we might like to live one day, a trip back to Magnetic Island to enjoy some tropical warmth and our big trip was to be 4 weeks in Europe/UK to visit family and friends. My husband has a brother and a sister over there who have 3 kids each ... we would love our girls to meet their UK cousins.

Sounds like a great plan! The only thing is my plan for 2012 hit a small bump before Christmas ... I discovered I am pregnant!

We had always wanted to have three children and having struggled to conceive our first two babies I was thrilled to have fallen pregnant without actually trying. I felt like a silly teenager turning up to my GP announcing I was pregnant and had no idea when my last period was ... who was counting ... I was too busy moving cities!

Obviously we are thrilled by this news but it does mean baby #3 is becoming part of our family sooner that I had "planned" so there are quite a few things in 2012 that won't be happening anymore ... like that trip to Europe, and I think I will settle for just getting Brisbane added to Mums on the Go. Trust me ... I am not complaining at all though ...

The great thing about plans is that you can always make new ones!

Linda x

So with my grand plans in place what actually worked and what didn't?

• leaving Wednesday afternoon and spending the night in Mudgee was perfect. Although it was later than hoped when we arrived (9.30pm) we still had kids asleep by 10pm and got a good night sleep
• I hadn't paid enough attention to the instructions downloaded off internet about best way out of Sydney. So we found ourselves in long weekend traffic, torrential rain, slightly lost and taking much longer than expected to really get on the road. One very cranky husband in the car and Miss 3.5 saying "I don't want to go on holiday, I want to go home"
• In car entertainment for kids: colouring in was a flop - crayons just didnt cut it for Miss 3.5 and I refused to have textas in the car; lots of kids CD's was fantastic so always new songs to sing; DVD player an absolute lifesaver although ours is a handheld one so the batteries don't last 460km ... will definately invest in one that plugs into car. Miss 14 months was the hard one to entertain in the car when she got bored/tired/grizzly so jumping in the back seat to sit with her was helpful
• We did the whole 460km in one go on the Sunday. It took 8 hours including 2 stops. One stop in Mudgee for lunch in a cafe & a cuppa stop at a friends house in Blackheath. It was actually a lot better than expected although DVD running out of battery caused a meltdown. It rained most of the way which meant no playground stops for the kids which was a shame but I was really impressed with how good they were for such a long time.

Where on earth is Coonabarabran?

View Larger Map

And our weekend in the country?

Well, there were 5 children under the age of 4 to juggle in the plans (Miss 3.5, twins just turned 2, Miss 14 months and a 7 month old baby) ... and it rained a lot so we didn't get to DO as much as we would have liked. But I had a wonderful time catching up with my girlfriend, Miss 3.5 LOVED playing with the dogs on the farm and patting Nelly the very tame Kangaroo, we did a couple of very short walks in the bush and enjoyed just being out of the hustle and bustle of Sydney.

Would I do another long car trip with my kids - absolutely!

Linda x

• leave Wednesday around 4pm. Drive 90min then make a short dinner stop at the Golden Arches or some such I thing. Drive onto Mudgee which is another 90 minutes away
• I have booked us into a motel here for the night. Hopefully we arrive by 8pm so we can settle kids to sleep before gets too late. I have splurged on 2 rooms for the night so my husband and I can actually sit up for a while together
• Thursday morning, take a stroll around Mudgee after breakfast then set off around 9am hoping that Miss 13months will fall asleep.
• Pack lots of CD's and books for Miss 3, throw in a Chupa Chup at a critical moment and hope this keeps her happy while her sister sleeps.
• Keep middle seat in back free from bags etc in case I have to sit in the back to provide entertainment.
• It will be 3 hour drive to friends house ... I figure 1 playground stop needed and some snack?

We then have 3 nights on our friends property, we are pitching the tent. They have promised a good country BBQ/party with fireworks for Australia Day, a camp fire and camp oven meal on Friday night under the stars, and some kid friendly bushwalks. I should note my friends have 3 kids, the eldest (twins) just turned 2 last weekend. This should be a lovely few days.

Then the drive home ... the BIG unknown. Sunday we will set off some time after breakfast for the long drive back to Sydney ... 6 hours without stops ... with kids ... can we do in less than 9 hours ???
My plan:

• frequent stops in cute country towns, playgrounds, coffee etc
• more music
• more chupa chups
• "discover" the portable DVD player for Miss 3 (hopefully I haven't needed this before then

Have you done long car trips with your kids? What tips can you share to help me keep my sanity? Or do I just need to suck it up and remember if the car trip is horrid the weekend away with friends will still be worth it?

Linda x

A card arrived from my Dad with a picture of Wonder Woman on the front. This made me smile as Wonder Woman was my hero when I was about 5 years old ... I remember going to the Easter Show and getting a Wonder Woman showbag. I thought Wonder Woman was amazing ... she was strong, adventurous, fought for good not evil and had a great costume!

I opened the birthday card and inside was a message, part of which said "Graphic perhaps captures life for you in 2011 - hope 2012 provides more opportunity for relaxing and a slower pace"

2011 had certainly been a challenging year and contained very little "rest". It saw me with a newborn baby in Melbourne, my business partner decided to move on from Mums on the Go leaving me with a tough choice about continuing the business, I suffered depression, added Melbourne to the child-friendly directory and then at short notice discovered we were moving back to Sydney again ...

Am I Wonder Woman for getting through 2011 with a smile still on my face? No, I don't think so ... but I do hope I have captured some of Wonder Woman's determination, adventurous spirit, and energy!

Do I think 2012 will bring the the rest my Dad hopes it will? Not at all!!! I have more big plans for Mums on the Go and some new adventures to plan in my personal life. Hopefully 2012 will be less "bumpy" though ... that would be really nice.

Did you have a childhood hero? Can you still relate to them now that you are all grown up?

Linda x

I learnt some very valuable lesosns this trip:

If you buy new gear be sure to test before you leave

So enthused about camping this summer my husband and I gave each other all sorts of new camping gear for Christmas - and managed not to duplicate any gifts! For my birthday I received a camping fridge that runs off power, the car, or gas. What luxury ... no more UHT milk, no more melted ice. Luckily we tested it before we went as it didn't work when hooked up to the gas and we had to swap it over the day before we left.

I also received an email this week sharing this story "we bought a new double air mattress (twice the thickness of the typical air mattress) with a built in pump only to arrive, pull it out the box to realise we needed electricity to pump it up ;-)" 

Extra adult makes life much easier
This was the first trip where it has just been my husband and I and the girls. Previously we have camped with another family or taken an adult friend with us. The lack of an extra adult was probably the factor that made this trip so challenging. My 13 month old can't be left alone for 5 seconds without getting herself into trouble which meant that at all times 1 adult was on "kid duty" and 1 adult was on "logistic duty". For example when we arrived my husband had to set up our big tent alone while I took the girls for a long walk to get them out of the way. At dinner time my husband took care of food preparation and cooking while I kept girls entertained. I found this quite exhausting so I think until the girls are a bit older we should ensure there are more people involved in our camping adventures ... even if this means more kids because I could have looked after 4 kids as easily as my 2 and life would have flowed more smoothly with an extra adult to help out.

Simple food still the best
With the arrival of all our new, luxury, camping gear - such as the fridge - I decided indulge in camping food we wouldn't normally take. Bacon & Eggs & pancake mix for example. This sounds great except it meant someone had to cook each morning and with the lack of an extra pair of hands this was very time consuming. I think next time I'll stick to good old fashion weetbix and keep it simple.
I had also bought a whole lot of "treat" foods for snacks during the trip - little packs of chips, packets or sultanas, jelly snakes, little juices etc. Only the jelly snakes actually made it as we managed to leave 3 bags of food behind! Note to self - don't assume hubbie has picked up all the food I have put together ... always do a check.

Bushwalking important for us
We discovered that the campground we went to was really set up for surfers. It was a 10 minute walk to the beach which isn't really far but for 2 small kids it is. If the weather wasn't good for the beach there was really nothing else to do. Normally we would take the girls bushwalking when we camp but there was really nothing there. Note for self: only choose camping areas with bushwalking nearby and try to have the beach access closer to the camp ground.

National Park organised activities are great
As it was school holidays the National Park had a selection of activities running each day. I had looked ahead at the weather before we left and noted one day was forecast to be cool and wet. On this day there was an aboriginal painting activity scheduled so I booked Miss 3 and myself in for this. It was fantastic ... for 90 minutes she was totally absorbed in the activity and the stories being told, we were dry under a shelter, and my husband got to chill out listening to the cricket on the radio while our baby had her morning sleep. It was so lovely to relax and let someone else create the activity.

Plan your "tent time" toys
"Tent time" can be a challenge for some kids ... whether it is forced by wet weather, or just because a little rest time is needed. This seems to be something we do quite well which is good. My trick here is to pack a small range of light weight, compact activities/toys that can have multiple uses.
For example:

• Finger puppets or small dolls ... great for variety of story telling activities. Miss 3 also like to put them all to bed in her sleeping bag
• Colouring in: I always buy a new colouring in book for Miss 3 before a camping trip. She can spend hours absorbed in this. However, this trip I also found her colouring in the flowers on her leggings! She told me she wanted to make them really pretty and I have to say she had done a very neat job so it was hard to be too cross about it. Guess what, 3 days later when I got to wash the pants at home the text washed out ... washable textas are an amazing thing!!
• Books: I packed 5 books for the girls to share. I pick ones that Miss 3 knows well so she can "read" them to herself or we can snuggle up and read together
• Small plastic balls: we have this small, light weight plastic balls that came out of a paddling pool years ago. A handful of these create great entertainment for both girls in the tent ... rolling between us, hide and seek, learning to juggle etc

Our next camping trip will be a little different. We are heading out west at the end of January to visit some friends and will pitch our tent on their property ... so there will be plenty of extra hands and a house to play in during the day. Our challenge on that trip will be the long drive to get out there. Then I will have to search for our next adventure.

What great lessons have you learned about camping with your kids?

Linda x

Mums on the Go - Shining a light on Perinatal & Post Natal Depression - by Calli Brown
This first article focuses on increasing awareness of Post Natal Depression symptoms, and we will be hearing from Prof Austin about how important it is that mother and baby stay together when Mums are receiving intensive treatment for PND.

Breast Feeding & Post Natal Depression - by Melissa Macdonald
If you're a breastfeeding mother, postpartum depression needs to be on your watch list. As scary as it sounds, it’s a reality for more mothers than we realise.

5 Things you REALLY need to know as a new mum - by Dr Mataji Kennedy
I see a number of women in my private practice who have moved from full-time work into full-time motherhood. Let’s face it, it’s a big transition and we aren’t always well prepared for it. Motherhood is joyous and it’s also hard work.

Post Natal Depression - My Top Five Tips for Sufferers - by Michelle Anderson
Having suffered from post natal depression (PND) with each of my three children I feel as though I have some worthwhile experiences to draw upon which might help others currently facing this illness – gee, there has to be something positive to come from it all!!

It's my second baby ... can I still get Post Natal Depression? - by Cathy Corcoran
So you’ve just had your second, maybe even third child and you feel so tearful, as though you’re not coping. You think to yourself,  “I’m supposed to know what I’m doing here. I’ve had a child before. What is going on?”

Clinical Insight to Post Natal Depression - by Nick Petrovic
Transitioning into motherhood or having another baby can be the biggest life changing experience for many women, sometimes overwhelming and unknown.

Benefits of infant massage for mothers with postnatal depression - by Natalie Garmson
Approximately one in seven women in Australia will experience postnatal depression, or nearly sixteen percent of women who have given birth. Mothers with postnatal depression often have problems interacting with their baby; they may seem over intrusive toward their baby, often interfering with their baby’s activities, leading to the baby becoming passive and withdrawn.

We need to talk - how to help someone you suspect of having PND - by Calli Brown
This is the second article written after a visit to the Mother and Baby Unit, St John of God.

Hanging By A Thread...And I Was - by Dr Mataji Kennedy
I think as mums we are well prepared for the birth process. There is so much information and education around getting the baby “out”. But what happens when the baby is out. Then you need to be prepared for taking care of this little bundle and yourself.

Fathers are not immune from postnatal depression - by Nick Petrovic
Most people have heard of post natal depression and how it affects women, but it may come to you as a surprise that it can also affect men as well. Statistics indicate that one in every 14 men will experience depression throughout the antenatal and postnatal period.

For me the new year is a wonderful time to reflect and re-energise but personally I prefer to create a vision or intention for the year to come that will in turn inspire the goals I set as my year unfolds. My vision becomes my measuring stick during the year and I love how unexpected some of the ways I fulfill my vision are.

What do I want my 2012 to be about?

• Laughter: joy, free spirited, lightness
• Adventure: travel, camping, new places, adrenalin
• Friendships: old, new, rewarding, connection
• Boldness: dream big, act big, be big
• Tranquility: calm, centered, meditate, yoga
• Family: love, support, connect, laughter

What about you ... what would you like your 2012 to be about?

Linda x