Hello Reader,

This week seems to have lasted longer than the whole of January and yet somewhere I’ve still not managed to get everything done that I planned to - can you relate, Reader?

It’s been the last week before half term for the kids so they’ve been that challenging mix of excited and exhausted as they’ve juggled a school disco, a ‘bring a cuddly toy to school’ day, and being too overtired to actually get to sleep at bedtime. So it felt like a fair assumption that my snail-like pace has been the result of tiredness, with my mood sponsored by endless rain.

But then something happened today that made me question this. A friend who is also a toddler mum text me to ask what I do about finding fun clothes for my son, as she put it, “boys clothes all just seem so dull”.

Something you might not know about me, Reader, is that I have A LOT of thoughts on how children’s clothes reinforce gender stereotypes, so best believe that question got my attention! I started writing her a text about which shops I like to buy from but before I knew it I had compiled her a multi-page Google doc of fun children’s clothing items, each hyperlinked to the shop page and under the relevant category of either ‘colourful’, ‘sequins’ or ‘leopard print’! Honestly, within less than an hour I had compiled an alternative kids’ clothes catalogue and provided her with multiple photos of my son in his fun rainbow outfits for style inspiration, haha!

Realising the energy I found to throw at this unrequested task, it became apparent that tiredness wasn’t the only reason that my task list dragged this week. I’d given myself a lot of boring tasks to do and forgotten to mix in enough fun and stimulating tasks. As someone with ADHD, I have an interest-based nervous system - simply meaning my attention goes to things that interest me and it’s incredibly hard to focus on tasks that I find boring. So when the list is mostly boring stuff, trying to get anything done feels like wading through treacle. Whereas the novelty and fun of researching kids clothes got my dedicated attention and got finished fast.

So this your (my) reminder that when things feel hard, sometimes the answer is to ask ourselves “how could I make this more fun?”

I’d love to hear your ideas!

From Laila with love ❤️

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​P.P.S If you want to check out my ideas for injecting some fun into your toddler's wardrobe, let me know and I'll share the doc with you, too!