iBlog Friday: Our weekly roundup of Aussie bloggers

At iVillage we’re passionate about supporting Australian bloggers. That’s why we’ve created iBlog Friday.

It’s a chance for bloggers to 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!

Louisa Simmonds of My Midlife Mayhem explains the rules her husband has set out when it comes to buying him Father's Day gifts in her post 10 Best Father's Day Gifts.

As Fathers Day looms the old man has taken to dropping hints at every opportunity.

But what can you really buy for the man who doesn’t believe in spending money?

To further complicate things, he has also imposed stringent rules about what we can and cannot buy him.

Read the rest of Louisa's post here.

Susan Taylor of One Woman Circus learns something significant from her child in her post Life lessons from my toddler.

My almost three year-old asked to stop and look at the water fountain. No big deal. But as we stood there, I turned my head for a second and when I looked back he'd climbed up and put his legs in the water - jeans, shoes, socks and all. I couldn't believe it. Instantly I got cross because we still had jobs and playtime ahead of us, and his pants and shoes were soaking. I was sure we'd have to abandon the mission and head home, but I was wrong.

Read the of Susan's post here.

Rebecca Bowyer of Seeing the Lighter Side of Parenting shares a beautiful poem she wrote about her son in her post Please be 3.

“Can’t wait til you’re 3!”
As you unpacked a cupboard…
For the fith time today.
(Nearly nap time: hooray!)

Read the rest of Rebecca's post here.

Shelley Marsh of Money Mummy shares her advice on what parents should know about money in her post 5 Financial Tips You Should Know Now You're A Parent.

Let’s face it parenthood changes everything.  From your social life to your ability to go to the bathroom in peace.  Things are no longer just about you and your partner, there are other considerations that must be made.  With parenthood also comes extra financial responsibility, there are extra costs and quite often less income coming in the door as one partner stays home or changes to part time work.

Read the rest of Shelley's post here.

Bianca Slade of Wholefood Simply describes the scene in her home when her kids are enjoying this delicious treat in her post Apple Crumble.

Right now I can picture this vividly. It is a scene I know well. But in a year’s time my son will be big enough to sit at the table; my daughter will be off at sporting events, my husband, me, who knows? What I do know is that life changes constantly, sometimes more rapidly or drastically than we would like. Sometimes subtly, with us barely noticing. If only we could capture the precious, everyday moments?  The little things you feel so sure you will never forget and then something happens, times passes and suddenly it isn’t quite so clear.

Read the rest of Bianca's post here.

Kathryn Boyd of Katzrambles talks about the item all new parents need in her post The Must-Have Item For All New Parents.

So, like any good student, I armed myself with all the latest ‘parenting textbooks’ and crammed the words into my head so hard that I could memorise the contents off-by-heart – hoping that when the ultimate test arouse i.e. figuring out why the baby was crying, I would be 100% ready with the right answer.

As you can imagine, this is not what happened. Unlike a school exam that you can cram for and be assured to get most answers correct, parenting was nothing vaguely similar. Nobody could tell me what to do and what was best for my baby – although they definitely tried! – because in the end parenting is a learning process and one where the best you can do is use your common-sense and trust your instincts.

Read the rest of Kathryn's post here.

Jacky Barker of itcinthecove explains the new sign you're getting old, and it's not for the faint-hearted, in her post Twerking and YOLO - If you don't know what they are then you are getting old.

Yesterday I found myself starring Gen Z in the face and I felt old.  My neighbour and I held a garage sale.  She was selling some old land line phones.  For some reason one of my daughter’s friends took a like to the landline phones (must have been the groovy square buttons and the cord).  He purchased the phone for $1.00.  After the transaction, he proudly said – “It will work after I insert the SIM card”.    Oh no Gen Z thinks all phones have a  SIM Card.  This made me feel so old.  Then I started to think of all the other things that make me feel like I am getting old.

Read the rest of Jacky's post here.

Joanna Lamb of Joanna Writes Here writes the post every married couple needs to read in her post Things people don't tell you about marriage.

Today is our first wedding anniversary.  It’s been the journey of a lifetime, with the love of my life by my side for the whole ride.  I didn’t, by any means, go into marriage thinking it would be easy.  It’s been a year of incredible highs and lows, as well as lots of amazing things in between.  I was once told that marriage is like a car; it requires a little bit of maintenance now and then.  I don’t think it’s supposed to be easy; all the best things never are.  What’s easy is knowing that you will always have someone’s hand to hold when things get scary.  You’ll always have someone to laugh and cry with.  You’ll always have your best friend.  However, there are some things that people don’t tell you about, and you learn as you go.  In all my wisdom of one year of matrimony, allow me to impart some advice.

Read the rest of Joanna's post here.

Kellie Turtu of Mama Pyjama never thought she'd have to use the word 'no' so often as a parent in her post Being The 'Bad Guy'.

I had not anticipated the impact on my state of mind that being the ‘bad guy’ would have.  “No” is not a word I like, and one I rarely needed to use pre-children.  Now it seems it’s in every other sentence that comes rolling off my tongue.

There are times when I just want to cry because it feels like all I’ve done for 12 hours is take things away, say no and put the brakes on anything that looks remotely like ‘fun’.

Read the rest of Kellie's post here.

Caylie Jeffery of Distractions of a busy mother talks about the family fights that come from nowhere and take you by surprise in her post En Garde, Armchair Warriors!

My brother and I had our first fight in years on Facebook. I was new to it, and thought all those Memes were pretty funny, so I was sharing things all over the place. I had no idea how irritating they could be to FB friends, especially ones who’d been there a while. Anyway, being my brother, he told me to stop putting up crap on my FB page. I replied that if he didn’t like it, then stop reading it.  He might have told me to “Grow up” so I did what any good Computer Commando would do: I pushed the big red UNFRIEND button, and disarmed him. Take that, little brother!

Read the rest of Caylie's post here.

Dragana Lolic of Light.Love.Soul learns a profound life lesson in the most unexpected of places in her post Wise words of intuition.

I had a wonderfully amazing aha moment in my yoga class today. As I was struggling to keep my balance in the tree pose, my lovely intuition spoke to me loud and clear. Strength doesn't come from losing yourself in the past or the future, it comes from staying in the present moment.
My first thought upon hearing that was "Whoa who just said that?" followed by "What a clever little cookie my intuition is!".
So there I was balancing on my left foot whilst my right one was firmly glued to my left thigh with the knee wide open and the arms lifted up in the air, trying to breathe through all that craziness and my intuition gets all wise and throws that statement at me.

Read the rest of Dragana's post here.

Keri Arkell of Awesomely Unprepared discovers a new fitness craze that mums MUST participate in, in her post Hot New Fitness Craze: Toddler chasing.

OK, so it’s not a ‘fitness craze‘ yet, but it will be. I have an idea that will revolutionise organised exercise forever. It’s going to spread all around the world, y’all. Just take a form of exercise that parents have been doing for thousands of years (well maybe some cave babies got lost – they hadn’t invented helicopter parenting back then probably) and turn it into a fantastic way to work out.

Let me pitch it to you.

Read the rest of Keri's post here.

This week's winner will receive a 'Dad's Dermalogica Pack'. The winner will also be published on Monday.

If you'd like to enter iBlog Friday send us your entry by midday on Thursday at info@themotherish.com.