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A Day With: Babi A Fi

A Day With: Is a fun series I am running on the blog. I love 'day in the life' style mummy posts. They are fun to read and interesting to see the way different mums manage their days. I think all mummies are superheroes  We all have our own challenges with managing our lives and running our households, but we get through it and that should be celebrated.

Today's guest is the lovely Jess from Babi a Fi. Jess shares her life with her adorable toddler Marianna and partner Anthony. Together they live in Wales. Anthony is a stay at home dad and Jess works as a Labour Party Councillor. I'm super excited she has agreed to guest and I find her day so interesting. Jess blogs about her life, blogging tips, politics, collecting dolls and loads more.

I think Jess has managed to find an amazing balance between being a mummy and having a career and I'm amazed at how she manages to really keep things together. She's very lucky to have Anthony who seems like an amazing daddy to their little one, which must make balancing life a little easier. I'm also very impressed at how many times Jess manages to press her snooze alarm. Do any of you other mummies out there use an alarm?


A Day in the Life - Monday 14th March 2016

7:45 am - My alarm goes off.

7:55 am - The snooze alarm goes off. Marianna lets us know she's awake and bored so Anthony brings her into our room. She then proceeds to pull at my hair and attempt to poke me in the eye.

8:05 am - Snooze alarm goes off. Again. Marianna defeats the duvet barricade I've created and sticks a finger in my eye. Again.

8:14 am - Pre-empt snooze alarm and haul self out of bed. I spend the next 25 minutes or so making myself look presentable; make-up and clothes go on, curlers come out, and shoes are recovered from wherever Marianna has hidden them. Some days I get to lie in until 9, maybe even 9:30, but this is not one of those days.

8:45 am - I carry out my usual routine of sticking a load of laundry in the machine, and plopping Marianna down in the living room to watch Rainbow on DVD. She has a nappy change, breakfast, and clean clothes put on, though not necessarily in that order...

9:15 am - Give Marianna and Anthony a kiss goodbye, then leave for work. Anthony lost his job not long after Marianna was born, so I went back to work when she hit 8 weeks and Anthony became a SAHD. At least our house is just a two minute walk to a stop on the main bus route. I don't drive so I begrudgingly hand over £16.50 for a week pass and console myself that when I'm old (like everyone else on the bus), I'll travel for free.


9:45 am - Arrive at work. I'm an elected councillor for Torfaen County Borough Council so I don't have set hours as such, it just depends on what's on the agenda for that week. On average I work three days a week, but some weeks it will only be one day while the next will be every day, which makes it difficult to plan and get into a good routine. This week I have stuff on every day, so I'm trying to be as organised as possible.

Today I have a pre-agenda meeting for the Healthier Overview and Scrutiny Committee, looking at the delivery of social care in general and, this time around, the work of the adoption service in particular. We come up with a list of questions to ask the heads of service at the actual meeting, which will be held on Thursday.

11:30 am - Go to the members' room for a cup of tea and a look through the day's local newspapers. I've got nearly two hours until my next meeting so I deal with my work and personal emails via my trusty Blackberry, report some local issues to neighbourhood services (litter, etc), pop out to the market for a jacket potato, chat to other members, and check my social media. Anthony generally posts a cute photo of what he and Marianna are doing on Facebook, so I feel like I'm still in the loop.

On days when I'm not in work I try to get out and about with Marianna to the shops, the park, etc. We read her books together, play with her toys, and at some point I invariably give in and put 'Brrabrry' (Rainbow) on when the pleading gets too pathetic. The happiest I've ever seen her was at a planting event when she thought the local housing association's bear mascot was Bungle from Rainbow!


1:30 pm - Every Monday we have a members' seminar at 2pm on various issues. I occasionally take Marianna along, if I don't have another meeting on before it, because they're quite informal and she'll sit quietly for about an hour or so. Any longer and she gets too restless! This week Dame Rosemary Butler, the presiding officer of the Senedd, is coming in to give a talk on women in politics. The Leader - of the council, not some strange cult I'm just namedropping - has asked a couple of other councillors and me to meet and greet her before the talk. I mostly avail myself of the plate of biscuits laid on for this special occasion.

2:00 pm - We all pile into the chamber for the talk. A number of the senior female officers of the council attend too, and it's heartening that we're one of the few authorities in the country with a woman CEO and Chief Legal Officer.

3:15 pm - Talk over, there is time for some chatting in the mayor's parlour with some members of the local labour women's forum who had come for the talk. It's nice to talk to adults about something other than work for a change!

3:30 pm - Catch the bus back to the town centre and pick up some more washing powder in Home Bargains. The laundry won't wash itself. Sadly.

4:00 pm - Arrive home, have a cup of tea, and play with Marianna while Anthony 'nips' to the shop. Time is getting on so I have to sort my agenda for the next meeting, so Marianna brings me gifts from her toybox and a dubious looking bit of biscuit she's found in an effort to regain my attention. I feel suitably guilty and play stack-a-cups until Anthony gets back and I really have to leave.


5:00 pm - Walk to the local secondary school for a school governors' meeting. It's the school I used to attend and it never stops being weird making the same journey I made every school day for seven years! The meeting itself is fairly standard and non-controversial, and ends about 7:00 pm. I usually have evening meetings once or twice a week. I used to attend more party political meetings and community events before Marianna was born, but now I generally try to be home early so I can collapse on the sofa.

I'd arranged earlier with my mum to get picked up after this meeting - she still worries about me walking around in the dark, which really seals the weird deja vu feeling I get on school governors' days. It's freezing though so I start walking in the knowledge she'll have to pass me somewhere along the route. We meet each other halfway at about 7:15 pm, then go to Aldi to do the weekly food shop. When it comes to shopping I operate on the principle of 'if Aldi doesn't stock it, you can't have it'. It serves me well.

8:00 pm - Get home and unload the shopping. My mum stops for a cup of tea and a chat, and Marianna gives her gifts of baby slobber covered plastic instead. So fickle! Anthony fills me in on what she's eaten, how long her nap was, and other such essentials.

8:30 pm - My mum leaves and Anthony takes Marianna up for her bath. We've been putting her down fairly late the last few weeks because she was refusing point blank to settle, and making herself sick by crying to be picked up. She still does for me, no matter what time I put her down, but Anthony has the magic touch (and isn't such a pushover) so she's asleep by 9pm.

9:00 pm - I have a shower, eat my tea, and faff about online for a couple of hours. I usually enter a few dozen competitions, and spend time on blogging stuff. On this night I put together an infographic of the gender balance in Welsh local politics, clearly inspired by the afternoon's seminar.

11:30 pm - Bedtime! I usually read a book via the kindle app on my phone for an hour or so after getting into bed. Tonight's choice is The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey. I highly recommend!

You can read more about Jess on her blog Babi a Fi or connect with her on FacebookInstagram or Twitter.


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9 comments

  1. Thanks so much for featuring me! Anthony has the patience of a saint - I've been home with Marianna all day today and I feel like I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown! lol. x

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    1. Haha I know that feeling too well! The problem is I'm the one who stays at home. I've lost count of how many times I've been counting down the minutes to when my hubby J will get home. He's also a wonderfully patient daddy x

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    2. Thanks so much again for taking part. Your post was fabulous xx

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  2. Thank you for featuring Jess. She's one of my faves and her day sounds so interesting. I want to be a councillor now!

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    Replies
    1. I know right? I've never met a council lot before! I think it fascinating. Jess is fab x

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  3. Sounds like a really interesting and varied job - great feature, I love hearing what other people do all day. I totally get the alarm snoozing! #bloggerclubuk

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    1. I used to be so bad at alarm snoozing. No joke, I would press it 10 times! X

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  4. It's amazing how much us moms can fit into a day! You don't think about it until you see it all written out like this. My day is the same, it's all go from morning til night & trying to squeeze blogging in there makes it all the more busy. Thanks so much for joining us for #bloggerclubuk, hope you will be back again tomorrow! x

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    Replies
    1. You're so right Becky. Sometimes at the end of the day o can't remember how the hours past so quickly. I think as mums we're always on go mode x

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