Jen Walshaw | Mum In The Madhouse

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Author name: Jen Walshaw

Mum-in-charge Jen Walshaw runs the UK’s top parenting blog Mum in the Madhouse, and she describes herself as a “fat, feisty and over 50” Northerner. Based in North Yorkshire, she’s mum to young adults and a big believer that family life is messy, creative and fun. In 2009 a double mastectomy gave her the nudge to start blogging; with two boys under three she needed an outlet and a digital scrapbook to capture their chaos.Jen’s posts are a mix of crafts, kid‑friendly recipes and honest parenting, peppered with northern humour. She’s happiest when up to her elbows in tea, fabric and pizza dough – sewing and making homemade gifts – before sneaking off to write about it. As a proud Northerner she warns PRs that a “quick pop down to London” isn’t quick at all. Her blog has earned her a stack of accolades, including the Cision #1 Mummy Blogger title in 2024  and consistently topping Vuelio and Tots100 parenting‑blog charts. Whether she’s advocating for diversity and body neutrality or sharing tales of parenting teens, Jen keeps things chatty, real and refreshingly down‑to‑earth.

Christmas Eve Traditions

6 Comments / Christmas / By

Christmas is not about how much money you spend, but how much time you spend with the people you love. I love Christmas and I love spending time with my family. I like Christmas Eve to be a day of joy. Since the boys were small we introduced Christmas Eve Elves. Basically they delivered each year a bag for each of the boys with things to keep them busy and entertained on this exciting day.

This year the bags include:

New Pyjamas (so they look their best on Christmas Morning in pictures)
A How to draw book each
New Gel Pens
A new family Movie – Brave
A family Game for the XBox
Reindeer food
Snowman Soup
A new book for bedtime
On Christmas Eve I will visit Mum’s grave and take a basket of flowers. We then spend the rest of the day at home. MadDad prepared all the veg etc for the next day, then we settle down to family time. We make cranberry and popcorn chains for our tree outside for the birds whilst we watch a movie. We make our snowman soup, play board games and generally have quality family time together. We try to keep the day as relaxed as possible.

As the daylight fades we wrap up warm and go for a walk round the neigbourhood to take a peek at everyone’s christmas decorations and lights and to try and tire the boys out so they sleep.

We end the evening with a bath to carols, then we sprinkle our reindeer food and leave a special key outside so Father Christmas can open our door. The last thing the boys do before bed is to leave Father Christmas a mince pie and a drink on the plate that I made them

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A Frugal Christmas and a Debt-Free New Year: Tips for Celebrating on a Budget

2 Comments / Christmas / By

Are you cutting back this Christmas? Research by the Co-Operative Bank shows that a third of us are spending less this year than last year and nearly two thirds of us keeping our budget the same.

I am a great believer that in order to have a good christmas, you need to take a step back and realise that it isn’t about what you get it is about spending time with the ones you love and really enjoying spending time together. We have had a fantastic advent, making, baking and just generally having fun together and I am so looking forward to spending some time with all my family over the next couple of weeks.

Looking at the infographic below as was shocked to find that I live in the region spending the most and just how much less we have spent. This just goes to reinforce with me that you do not have to spend to find happiness.

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Some last minute christmas Gift ideas

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If you are still wondering about what gifts to give people, then why not take a look at my last minute gift guide.

ATK All Terrain Kart – £175

Now I do not have a review for you on this as the weather has not been kind to us and we haven’t had time to really put it though it’s paces, so will be coming back to you in Spring with a full review What I will say is it is a great size for older children when they outgrow their other ride ons. It is aimed at 7 to 12 year olds and it is a perfect pitch. My boys are beside themselves to go on it for more than 5 minutes!

Sound Asleep Pillow – From £12

My boys love listening to music in bed and often go to sleep with either music on or listening to a story and with these fab pillows they can listen to MP3 players without having to use speakers or headphones. Mini’s has come in very handy to play his Relax Kids MP3’s which I swear by. You can see Miss Frugal using hers. The boys are younger, so I make sure that I put the music on for them.

LEGO Creationary – £20

We love LEGO. In a BIG way. We bought he boys this for last christmas and it has been one of our most played family games. We ALL love to play this together, even I can win at this. You choose a card and have to build what is on it and your team member has to guess what it is. The wonder of LEGO games is that you can change the rules to suit you, so we have timed races, who can built the best, build offs and lots of other games all from the one box. It is brill and I do not say that lightly.

Brabantia Tea41
I am a tea monster and I love this set from Brabantia as it is perfect for me during the day when I want a cup of tea, but do not want to make a pot as I am a tea leave user. It is also perfect for herbal teas and infusions such as mint tea. It contains everything you need to enjoy the perfect cup of tea. The tea buddy is so handy it attaches to the side of the cup and can be used to carry your biscuit, cake, chocolate or even put your used tea bag in (Yes I know not everyone uses leaves).

Some last minute christmas Gift ideas Read More »

Join me on Wednesday for a #StorkBaking chat!

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Are you like me and get in to a baking frenzy at this time of year. I have already made mince pies and peppermint bark and a gingerbread house along with spiced cookies instead of cards for the boys to take to school Or are you lacking in inspiration?

Whichever is you, please come and join me over on twitter at 1pm tomorrow (Wednesday 19th Dec) as I will be co-hosting a twitter chat with @amylane in conjunction with along with Tots100 and Stork.

We are really looking forward to hearing all your favorite baking recipes, handy hints and top tips for baking with children. I am excited to be chatting alongside the team from Stork, who have more than 90 years of baking expertise and fill me with lots of memories of Christmas pasts.

And as if sharing your knowledge and learning new recipes wasn’t enough to tempt you to join in, there’s even going to be prizes You could win vouchers for Lakeland!

All you need to do is pop over to twitter Wednesday 19 December from 1pm to 2pm and use the hashtag #StorkBaking to join in. Make sure you are also following me @mum_themadhouse @Tots100, @bakewithstork and @amylane.

You can find out more details on the Tots100.

Join me on Wednesday for a #StorkBaking chat! Read More »

Three Layer Peppermint Bark

baking, Christmas, Christmas, receipe / By

Meanwhile, combine the dark chocolate, cream, and peppermint extract in a saucepan. Warm over -low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is just melted and smooth.
Cool to barely lukewarm, about 5 minutes and pour the dark chocolate mixture over the white chocolate rectangle.
Using a spatula chocolate in an even layer.
Chill until very cold , which is about 25 minutes.
Rewarm the remaining white chocolate over barely simmering water and then pour the white chocolate over the firm dark chocolate layer, using your spatula to spread it to cover.
Sprinkle with remaining crushed candy canes.

Three Layer Peppermint Bark Read More »

Swagbucks Update

1 Comment / competition / By

As you know I have been taking part in the Tots100 Swagbucks competition along with 12 other fantastic bloggers and I wanted to tell you about my experience before the winner is announced next week. I am not sure yet that Swagbucks is for me, I haven’t been very stressful with it, but I do think there are a number of reasons. Firstly the toolbar doesn’t work in Chrome and that is my preferred browser and secondly the major one for me is that I think it is possible to get many more points if you are willing to use Swagbucks to register with gambling sites, but I don’t gamble, so it didn’t really work for me. Another issue was that often people post hints and tips to the Swagbucks facebook page and with the changes on facebook I often didn’t realise they were there until to late.

I am not sure that this time of year was the best time for me to focus on Swagbucks, as I am short of time and I think that if you have time to use it to do the daily poll, survey and searches via them you can make a lot of cash. Wendy made £100 in just three weeks, where I made less than £10! Pippa also made an amazing number of points too, which highlighted to me that it is more than possible and it was me that wasn’t using the site right!

Also I think it is really important that you get other people registered and using swagbucks as you get a proportion of their bucks too and neither of my referrals used the search function.

So my top tips would be:

Get in to a routine (I will try again after Christmas)
Use the seach toolbar
get your referrals to use swagbucks
So I am going to try again in the new year when I have more time and if you want to have a go with me, http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/MuminTheMadHouse

Swagbucks Update Read More »

Keeping hypersensitive heads warm with Zaini hats

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The boys chose their hats from the Zaini Kids range.

All Zaini Kids hats are fully fleeced lined for the utmost comfort and quality and are made from 100% acrylic which is extremely durable towards rain, snow and wind. It is not waterproof , but it will resist rain without altering the hat. They can be hand washed only at 40 degrees.
The idea of Zaini started in 2010 in a ski resort in Northern France, when Scottish ski instructor Miranda Harper started hand knitting hats for friends because she couldn’t find the kind she liked. Since then Zaini, and Zaini Kids, has become an established brand which sells and distributes hand made products throughout the world.

So back to the hat, how did it fair. Well he has been wearing it for a week, as it is fleece lines it doesn’t itch per say and he is doing much better than he has with any other hat. He loves the pom pom on the top and it has withstood both hail and rain. At £14.99 it is much more than I have ever paid for a hat for him, but as a cost per wear it is the best value hat I have ever had for him too!

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