| Welcome to Next of Kin: The Parents Podcast. I'm your host Emma, I'm a British expat living in Dubai, UAE with my partner and baby girl. Join me on my expat motherhood journey, I'll be discussing different topics each week and will be joined by some wonderful guests. Now, if you're a Mum you're probably short on time so let's jump right in
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 | Welcome back and thanks for joining this week. I want to let you in on a little behind-the-scenes because at the point of recording this, we are live! I believe in last week's episode I told you that I would be recording in advance and the reasoning behind that was because I was under the impression that it took weeks or months to get approved by apple podcasts. So I recorded and edited my very first attempt at a trailer and decided I would publish that and use it to submit to Apple. Then in the meantime, I could actually learn how to podcast and get better, probably re-record a way better trailer and then upload it once Apple approved. Anyway, it turned out that as soon as I hit submit that Apple automatically approved the pilot and it instantly went live. I then went over to Spotify and the exact same happened. So as someone who has never really put themselves out there, you can imagine my combination of nerves and excitement at this prospect and as I think a lot of people would do... I just didn't tell anyone about it because I couldn't cope with the idea of people actually listening! Anyway, in the following 24 hours I had a string of weird coincidences, If you believe in taking ques from the universe or the like then you'll be smiling to yourself about this, but firstly that evening I got a follow from Abbie of Base Brands who has the Buyer to Badass podcast based here in Dubai, I started to give it a listen and couldn't quite believe the similarities and that she has a whole fabulous podcast about leaving buying and working for yourself which is ultimately what I am doing. The next morning I came across a podcast club and mentioned that it was such a coincidence that I had actually just gone live with the pilot for my own podcast - obviously the lovely ladies then asked for a link. OMG listeners. I paused for a moment then realised that sooner or later people were going to listen and that was kind of the whole point but it also bought about another fabulous local podcast by Amanda @dubaitravelmum called Finding You Now which is about mindset and coaching especially aimed at Mums so basically the combination of those 2 podcasts is exactly what I need in my life right now! So here we are we're doing this, no more just planning and recording and saving them hoping no one will listen, I'll have a new episode each week going live early on a Friday morning so please subscribe and follow along this journey!
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 | So in another behind-the-scenes, it's actually been 2 weeks, not 1 week since the last recording as I catch up with going live and into a weekly swing of things. So I have lots to catch you up on! Last weekend was my first weekend of solo parenting, my partner was off on a stag do so what started off as him just being away for a couple of nights ended up in me solo parenting for the best part of a week when you factor in 3 nights plus travel plus the 2 days written off for him to recover. I feel very lucky compared to a lot of people I know to have gotten this far before solo parenting, and I'm not going to lie, it felt pretty daunting before, I don't know if anyone else gets the daunting realisation now and again when something happens that you are actually living on a different continent away from the family, I definitely felt that, but it was mainly daunting because it has tipped over to being too hot to go outside. And like most kids Bonnie wants to be out and about, on the go, so I  knew she would get really bored at home but we're also at that awkward age where soft play and these indoor activities for kids and toddlers aren't really of interest to her quite yet. Oh and I should probably add that she is notorious for having a breakdown in the car so this weekend was the first time I drove without someone in the back seat to distract her. I know, pretty wild that I've got to this ages either getting taxis or with back seat support. I mean I drove 5 mins round the corner - but still - I only threw my phone with ms rachel on at her for 1 of those trips! So I'm going to give myself a Mum gold star for my first solo weekend and first solo drive. This then got me thinking about some content ideas for Instagram, I think we're all desperate for ideas on what to do with the kids of all ages in this heat so I'm on it! I'm going to test out as many ideas as possible and get some reels up for you all to provide some inspo and it also gives me the motivation to keep us occupied all summer! So please send me any suggestions to try. As always you can DM @nextofkin.ae or email podcast@nextofkin.ae. But back to what I was saying... I'm going to share a WhatsApp I sent to my partner on a Saturday morning, he'd just woken up, and despite a hangover I'm sure he was loving sleeping in a comfy bed with no distractions so with that in mind and the 2 hour time difference this is my first message to him on Saturday morning, I think you'll probably find it pretty relatable: 
 | Morning, how was your night? Well me and Bon have already been up for 7 hours, so far we have got up dressed, and out for a walk, breakfast and then playtime at home, playtime in a playroom, nap 1, then she had a run around in her walker, went to another playroom, got fruit and vegetable delivery so played with those, she loves kiwi and passion fruit, then we went to Waitrose and a pharmacy, had nap 2, lunch, played with bubbles, new kiddos toy rental came so playing with those now before we get our swimmers on for a dip in the pool. What are your plans?
 | That’s all by 12.30! And I bet the experienced Mums here are shouting that’s nothing at me right now, but funny that he was still lay in bed reading that.  Exhausting as it was there were so many giggles and obviously, when you're playing full-on all weekend you really are in the moment and switch off from work so that's got to be a good thing too. And the best bit is that Bonnie was possibly on the edge of turning into a Daddys girl but after a weekend just me and her I am miles ahead in the popularity rankings now. 
 | For those of you following along my business journey, I guess I've been working on all aspects of the business building little parts here and there and actually starting to pay for things like the website hosting, this podcast hosting, email hosting, I'm not going to lie, I had no idea about everything needing to be hosted before becoming a business owner. Last week I said it felt like it was starting to become real but now that more money has actually been invested the excitement has ramped up but so have the stress levels! For those who are thinking that perhaps I am married to some Rich guy so can easily just quit my job and start a business for a bit of fun, that is actually not what is going on right now, we both did alright in our last jobs but we are still a household which needs 2 incomes so the pressure is very much on and I know I need to get things up and running as quickly as I can. A few things in the last weeks that have actually gotten me super excited for project Next of Kin the brand are firstly getting fabric swatches through, I used to develop handbags in a previous role and I have missed the creativity of colour schemes, range planning and fabric selections, I just love a good swatch book. I have a cute behind-the-scenes snap of my little one playing Creative Director she was just rolling around trying to chew each swatch. Ona. much less creative end of the spectrum is the logistics side which I have obviously been trying to put off sorting, but it was made much more fun last week when I visited a warehouse with robots, a photography studio and pop-up space, really shows you the potential for the future which is super exciting.
 | So last weekend was my solo parenting adventure and this weekend I set about to start finding fun things for us to do, so I had a lovely Sunday morning at a Mums meet up with the ATB Mums. We all met for a breakfast at Zoga Yoga and had a Q&A and general chinwag with Julie, who I'm sure you all know as @igmidwife. Sidenote, she said she'll come on the podcast so I can't wait for that! For those of you who are wanting to join in on some Mommy meet-ups, I get involved in organising the ATB Mums meet ups once a month, so those will resume in September and we're all ears to any ideas you have for them. The other groups or Instagram pages where you can find all sorts of meet-ups are The Mum Club Dubai, I haven't been but have seen some nice photos from their weekday breakfast meet-ups, The Mum Folk, they always have a full weekly calendar of things to get involved with, there's also Dubai Mums Meet, I've been to one of the play sessions where they have a play set up for babies and toddlers and nannies on hand so you can order yourself a breakfast if you like. So those are just a few of the meet-ups you might want to look into. But back to my weekend of investigating the best family activities to keep us all entertained during the long hot summer... on Saturday we decided to try out Sharjah Arabian Wildlife Centre, so settle in, I'm gonna give you my review. For us, it was only a 45min drive to get to and entry is only 20aed each for adults which is great because I believe there is a petting zoo and all sorts that you can go to there, but some of that being outside whereas the wildlife centre is all indoors so we just head there. Now we enjoyed our day but I'm gonna give it a 3/5 stars, it probably lost stars for us for reasons that really wouldn't matter to most people, they were very personal and actually quite funny. As we arrived we had a very urgent nappy situation, you know what I mean, and to my surprise, there was no baby changing, we even asked and they said they didn't have it at all - in a family place - sorry what! So suffice to say we ended up having to deal with this in the back of the car air con blasting. Anyway, situation was dealt with and we head back in - oh also on the note of no baby change, there weren't nursing rooms either and Bon likes to flash me whenever anyone walks by so we ended up back in the car for that too! Anyway once finally inside it is a little underwhelming at the start but all the good big animals are at the end. So don't end up with an overtired kid at the end who just wants to go (again personal experience - Bon Mummy wants to look at the leopards!) I think the wildlife centre would be good for kids around the age of 6-8, you know when they are learning about habitats at school because the centre has all Arabian wildlife only. Obviously, we didn't expect an 8-month-old to get loads out of it but what we hadn't accounted for was how she just doesn't like dark rooms and obviously, a lot of rooms are dark with lit-up pens or whatever for the animals, so that was a bit of a fail and then the biggest fail is when we leave foxes and Arabian cat section to a big sign saying RODENTS. I have a couple of phobias but Rats have to be my biggest but there's one way out so there I am being guided through with my eyes shut. The bit I loved was the canteen area (maybe take your own food) but it has a great viewing area which makes you really feel like you are in a wildlife documentary with flamingos and ... oh god what are the actual names of the other animal... ibex maybe, deer-y goat-y desert-y type animal! clearly, I am not the type of person who actually reads the information about the animals, terrible I know, but I used to hate going to places like this with my Mum and Stepdad because they really took their time reading everything and we as kids would be going come on I'm bored, hurry up! So anyway the round viewing section in the canteen was great, and then that leads onto the cool big animals like leopards and I found a mama baboon with swinging nipples looking shattered as an energetic baby baboon tugs and pulls at her which I felt like I identified with. So that's my round up, we went on a Saturday around 1-2pm and it was really quiet so something to try, a nice way to get out of Dubai and head over to Sharjah, and very well priced. Maybe we'll try it again when Bon is learning about habitats and animals at school in the future.
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 | So I am coming to the portion of the show where I discuss mumllemas, basically, any problems or questions that I or one of our listeners are currently experiencing and I throw this out to the community for tips and support. Last week I shared that I was struggling to establish a routine and wondered whether it was really that problematic. So far the response seems to be that if it works for us then chill and enjoy it and just stick to the wake windows, so thats what I'll do until I feel things need to change
 | I thought I'd update you on how things are going with trying to get Bonnie to take a bottle. This was my very first Mum-llema from the pilot episode and last week I expressed my absolute PTSD after trying and failing to get her to take a bottle so that I could go back to work. Well I thought I would try again and failure, again. This little lady is a clever one. I've spoken to a few people since who have velcro babies or babies who refused to take a bottle and I must admit, I didn't realise before becoming a Mum that some will just not take milk from a bottle. So I am currently mentally preparing myself for a longer breastfeeding journey than I was initially planning. Last week we had 2 identical Mam bottles in front of Bonnie, one with water and one with milk and she would take the water and push away the bottle with milk. I even tried the trick of slipping the bottle in whilst breastfeeding. she took her two hands and gently remove the bottle and placed the boob back in her mouth.
 | For this weeks Mum-llema its got to be weaning. I started weaning quite early with my daughter after consulting with her doctor of course, and she has always been very into her food, I've never found something that she hasn't liked or wouldn’t eat. However I guess as she comes up to 8 months I feel that pressure that she should be eating her 3 meals a day and the last week shes just been a lot more fussy, doesn't want the high chair, doesn't want a bib, doesn't really want to eat, she will, however, want whatever I am eating so I resorted this weekend to picnics on the floor pretending to eat her food or just making one breakfast for example and feeding us both from this. I'm wondering whether it's normal to have a regression around food at this age and would welcome all your best weaning tips over on the @nextofkin.ae Instagram
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 | As always I want to give back a little recommendation to you. This week that recommendation is the Leclerc Influencer stroller. I have this as my one and only stroller, if I was in the UK or somewhere else I would probably want something bigger and more robust but on the manicured streets and malls of Dubai this is perfectly sufficient. The Leclerc influencer is a travel stroller so it can fold away to be stored on the overhead lockers of an airplane, a big selling point for an expat. I think most of us at one point considered the babyzen yoyo it seems to particularly be the go-to stroller out here for similar reasons to the Leclerc and I also personally nearly bought it but I actually found it too fiddly to fold whereas the Leclerc has a one-handed fold so super easy in and out of a car boot with a baby on your hip. It also comes with all the extras which you have to purchase as add-ons for the Yoyo and is actually a bit cheaper for what you get so for anyone out there looking for a travel stroller then add the Leclerc to your list, I've also heard good reviews of the Mamas and Papas Airo, and the much cheaper Teknum, so 2 more for you to test out. If all else fails and you just want something for a holiday then UAE-based listeners just get yourself down dragon mart for a Faux-yo.
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 | So there you go a very random episode as always but thank you for joining and if you enjoy this kind of chatty chaos of a podcast and want to support you can do so by rating and reviewing and sharing with friends. Please join our community on insta @nextofkin.ae and DM me with your questions and suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. See you next time