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.

How do you write?

One of the things that came out of blogcamp Manchester for me was the fact that it is key to develop your own voice or writing style and to stick with it thorough out your blog.

It made my day to listen to two strong, unique and inspirationsal women discuss why they blog and how they developed their writing style. Neither was apologetic for the things they did. Muireann from Bangs and Bun is a funny, feisty and unforgettable powerhouse of words. She isn’t afraid to use them and share the outcome of them with her readers. I love the fact that she doesn’t police comments on the blog and acknowledges that people can have differences of opinion.

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Win a Tidybooks Bookcase

We love books in the Mad House and I have blogged before about encouraging reading in boys and so when we were offered the chance to review a Tidybooks bookcase I was intregied to see how it would fit in to our home.

First Impressions:
The Tidybooks bookcase is self assembly, but it is so well designed that even the boys could help. No small tacks to hammer in the back, everything was fastened with an allen key and it was super fast to put together. MadDad and Mini managed to do it in about 30 minutes and without the help of little hands I am sure that he could do it a lot faster. I was also suprised at how tall the bookcase is (it is taller than Mini at 115cm).

We like:
I love the fact that this bookcase is very slim in depth and is designed so children

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