We’re a BritMums BiBs 2018 finalist!

…and it feels pretty awesome.

But what does that mean?

To us, it means, regardless of what happens next, we’re already winners just to get this far.

Family Days Tried & Tested (best known as FD) is a very special place that’s incredibly close to my heart, and over the years has become an extension of our family. It seems surreal to understand the way it has become my own daily inspiration through parenting, my comfortable piece of the internet and a relatable place to be, my shoulder of support and my ‘go to’ place to share and gather smiles. It has turned into a worldwide community of loveliness that I could never have imagined.

And I’m proud of that every day.

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ they say, and this is my village. An open, welcome, warm, friendly hug of a village of parents winging it on a daily basis. Sharing ups and sharing downs. Lending inspiration to each other while we all travel on the same path of adventuring through parenting with love and dysfunction in tow.

It’s a celebration that we make it through intact every day and a reminder that every day is a new day.

We’re all winging it here and we all have a voice regardless of our differences in opinions. FD is proof that we can all stand side by side without judgement of each other. We can all be celebrated and still hold each other up during our differences of opinions and parenting choices.

FD is proof that we all strive for the same goal: raising children who are happy and empathetic to others around them, kind and aware. We all strive to give our children the richest of lives through grasping onto precious times and memory-making, natural play, thinking outside the box and the most simplistic of ideas. And through sharing that goal on a day-to-day basis there is a great enthusiasm in seeing that it is achievable.

But most importantly it doesn’t have to be an everyday consistency because life is all about bumps and hurdles, let-downs and unexpected thumps from life in general. And murky, foggy clouds which we sometimes have to wade our way through to see the sunshine again.

But mostly, it’s a reminder that parenting is beautiful and something to be treasured even when that’s hard to see.

I started FD 6 years ago shortly after the birth of our 6th child. With sleepless nights and days at home, FD became a place where I reached out to share my days, and very quickly people reached back. It became a community of support, fun and laughter, an inspiration of ideas. It all started as a Facebook Page and that’s still where you can find us every day.

We believe there is nothing that doesn’t have a voice here. With personal experiences of miscarriage, child loss, bereavement, mental health, childhood abuse, personal disfigurement, major health issues and many more taboo subjects we have touched many and in turn, found understanding through our own turmoil.

Everyone has a voice here and everyone has an ear to listen.

We believe there is always a positive and always a silver lining to be found.

Along with sharing fun, inexpensive, creative and achievable activities daily, we’ve shared many highs throughout our parenting journey too: births, deaths, engagements (the marriage is still coming!), life-changing surgeries and the everyday trials and tribulations from parenting toddlers, school days, the frustration of teens, right through to the emotions of children flying the nest. With 8 children from 1 year to 26 years, we’ve pretty much covered most bases but always welcome the voices of followers within our community to offer their own experiences.

FD has grown, as I share my daily crafts we’ve added a play forum inspiring almost 60k people daily. Crazy!
A Family Days Outdoor Exploring Facebook Group which encourages people to head outdoors whatever the weather and reap the benefits of the outdoors during childhood with natural play and exploration.

And our highly supportive FD Chat Group which is possibly the most supportive and lovely slice of the internet with parents from all walks of life. A group in which I bare my soul most days with the knowledge that I’ll never be judged for my parenting choices but will always be supported. The FD Chat Group is run by my beautiful sidekick Cath (lovingly referred to as Queenie) who has the FD ethos running through her veins and stands by my side in everything that FD does. We are Team FD and, within the FD community, she is virtually worshipped for her everyday honesty, acceptance and the pure joy that she throws into our community even whilst facing her own battles.

So that’s it. Sure we would love to win an award and be recognised for our social media loveliness and everyday realities and fun but, regardless, the best reward for us is the love and acceptance that gets thrown back at us every single day.

Overall, we’re exactly what it says on the tin: Family Days Tried & Tested in all its entirety.

We’d love to thank BritMums for making us feel so special in getting this far. It’s a real wind blown into our sail and has made us proud to be recognised for our social media efforts.

How to Vote

Family Days Tried and Tested is a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards 2018. This year the BiBs (as the awards are known for short) are made up of 11 categories and each has 8 Finalists. We are a finalist in the Social Media category.

Please vote for us!

Voting for the winner of each category closes at 23:45 on Friday 21 September 2018. The voting form has been created to allow one vote per person. Everyone is asked to only vote once as multiple votes by the same person won’t be counted.

The BiBs Winners will be announced by @BritMums live on Twitter on Friday 12 October 2018 at 13:00 UK time.

 

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