The Person Behind the Parent {Hayley: Devon Mama}
1) Please introduce yourself…
Hi, I’m Hayley and I live with my husband, baby son and the world’s bounciest dog in rural Devon. I took up blogging whilst on maternity leave in 2016; my little boy was born in May and I’ve loved having a way to record our adventures and feelings of this period.
2) Where can we find you?
You can follow our adventures as a family via our blog www.devonmama.com, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
I’ll start with some easy ones…
3) What’s your favourite food?
Salt and vinegar chipsticks, chocolate, anything that isn’t that healthy for me. Unfortunately, I’m attempting to shift the ‘baby weight’ so my current favourite food is lettuce. Yuck.
4) What’s your favourite film?
I’m awful at choosing; Father of the Bride, Pride & Prejudice, Inception… I just went to see LaLa Land and that could be up there as a favourite too now!
5) What’s your favourite book?
The Book Thief. I put off reading it for years but once I opened it, I couldn’t stop reading. I would recommend it to everyone.
6) Do you have any hobbies?
Does blogging count? I don’t have time for much else at the moment what with the baby, returning to work and attempting to blog whenever possible. Luckily, I love it.
7) Tell us one guilty pleasure.
Every Monday morning, my little boy goes to nursery and I’m meant to be working from home. Instead I work like crazy for three hours and then spend an hour catching up on trashy American TV whilst baby free. It’s bliss… my husband and work would kill me if they knew!
8) Tell us something quirky about yourself.
I can recite most 90/00’s r&b song lyrics. I could probably be really clever if I could get those out of my brain.
9) Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I love a bit of fancy dress. I pretend I don’t but… I do.
10) One word to describe yourself would be…
Me!
Now some harder ones…
11) Children aside, what has been your proudest moment?
Completing my first paid blog post felt pretty amazing to be honest. Having a baby really knocked my confidence and blogging was solely as a hobby/diary at that point. When I got my first bit of interest from a brand, it felt like a huge affirmation that I WAS capable. I’m sure there are other things but baby brain has addled my memory capabilities.
12) Children aside, what has been your biggest achievement?
My biggest achievement was joining the Board of Directors at work. I’ve worked there since I was a teenager and it felt like a huge reward for many, many years of commitment and a lot of hours! It’s a family business so people assume that I’ve got it easy but it’s often quite the opposite. You have to work even harder to prove yourself and prove that you deserve your opportunities. That said, I work with some great people that make me laugh all day long so it doesn’t feel as hard as it probably should.
13) If you could meet one person (dead or alive) who would it be and what would you say?
Oooh, the Obamas? I feel like I want them to adopt me so we should probably meet and discuss this as soon as poss.
14) If you weren’t where you are now, where would you be? What would you be doing?
I would be on a sun lounger somewhere warm just napping, reading a book and occasionally getting up to go in the pool. In the mornings, I’d go skiing, I’d eat a huge lunch without getting fat and then laze on a beach all afternoon. What?! It’s a fantasy… you can be flexible with geography in those!
15) If you could be one person for the day who would it be?
Taylor Swift? Or a baby so that I could nap ALL day… tempting! YES!! I love naps.
16) If you could travel to one place in the whole world where would you go?
I’d love to go to Iceland, it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go! If teleporting were an option then I’d choose Australia. My brother lives out there and he’s not seen his nephew since he was born. If it wasn’t a 24hr+ flight we’d go visit but it’s just too far with a baby.
17) If you could learn one thing, what would it be?
How to cook; I’d love to be able to look at a cupboard of left overs and whip up a decent meal. One of my favourite things to watch is the stage in Masterchef when they create meals from scraps – I’m so jealous of that ability!
18) If you could tell yourself one thing, what would it be?
That I’m doing a good job. Being a parent has made me question myself constantly, even more so than I did before. I worry about my parenting choices, the balance between work and home, basically anything and everything. If I could tell myself something, I’d give myself a big talk on the fact that I’m doing well… not that I’d listen but still! You are doing an amazing job, mama.
19) Where is your happy place?
I love being at the beach. I’ve always lived 10 minutes from the coast and a walk along the beach blows out cobwebs and helps me get a grip on myself.
20) What is your life metaphor or mantra?
Karma’s a b*tch. I’m a huge believer in what goes around, comes around. I guess you could say I’m a bit of a hippy like that!
*****
Thanks for joining in, Hayley! Remember, you can find Hayley over on their blog, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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I love these The Person Behind The Parent posts 🙂
Thank you, that’s really kind. X