Well, technically it’s two mics but that wouldn’t make as nice a title for a blog post if you ask me!
Either way, I’m now offically a Podcaster! In case you hadn’t heard, (or you’ve managed to avoid me more or less spamming my Instagram account with it!) the new podcast is called Under The Motherhood. It’s my friend, and Mam-of-four Joanne and I meeting up on a weekly basis, having coffee, cake, and lots of chats about everything under the Mother-hood! (See what I did there?!)
We are now two episodes deep and honestly it’s the most enjoyable project I’ve started in a long long time. It was something I had been thinking about doing for a long time now, mainly inspired by my friend and work colleague Will, who runs his own podcast with his wife, also Joanne, and I really enjoyed listening to theirs and chatting to Will at work about it in the mornings. Generally though, I’m a big podcast fan, and listen to lots of different ones from the Blindboy podcast (endlessly interesting) to true crime ones like Casefile, to Desert Island Discs and right through to other Irish parenting podcasts like Parenting Pobal or The Mothership. That’s one good thing about having to commute to work is that whether you like it or not, you have a couple of hours a day to dedicate to reading, or music, or listening to podcasts!
But for me at least, there’s something about Podcasts that feels more relaxing than sitting down to watch a movie or tv series – because you have to just listen you’ve no choice but to just sit, relax and just focus on that one thing – you can’t really scroll through your phone, or casually flick through a book while listening because you won’t hear it properly. I can just choose a time, (most often on my commute!) throw on the headphones and zone out. Or if I’m at home, I can start cooking the dinner or bake something and have it on and I just find it such a relaxing way to switch off. If Podcasts are something you haven’t really considered then I highly recommend you give them a go – no matter what your interest is I promise there are plenty out there you’ll love! (Naturally I recommend you start with ours though..!)
So it’s exciting that we have started our own little podcast and two weeks in, I’m really enjoying it. Before I moved to working part-time, time generally to do anything was a problem, between the kids and work I realistically didn’t have any time to put towards the commitment of keeping a podcast going regularly. But then my move to part time opened the possibility up again, and I approached Joanne about it. She didn’t take too much persuasion when we realised that at the very least it would be a great reason to have to meet up on a regular basis, as we used to do when we were both on maternity leave at the same time. So we risked it and bought the equipment we needed and off we went!
Like the writing, I find it really therapeutic to just chat about all the things we can all relate to when it comes to motherhood. So much of it when you’re in the middle of it feels like you’re the only one going through a tough phase and that it will never end, but of course that’s not the case at all. So much the hard parts of motherhood are so bad it’s funny and it’s great to be able to laugh over it and realise that even if it’s one of those long endless days, when bed time feels like a decade away, that we’re all in it together.
The other lovely thing that really attracted me to doing this is that the kids are pottering away in the background playing together. Every so often they come in and ask us questions, and I love the idea that I could listen back years from now and remember this time and what it was like, and how they sounded, because so much of it we forget about as they get older. It’s also nice to think that when they’re all grown up, maybe they’ll come across these in some dusty virtual archive and be able to listen back and hear just what was involved in making their little worlds into the people they will become!
So all that’s left to do is go and give us a listen! You can catch us here and also by searching for Under The Motherhood in the podcast app if you’re on an iPhone – we would love to know if you do listen, get in touch and tell us what you think!
Over and out! (We don’t actually say that don’t worry 😄)
The Scenic Route 