An afternoon of good, clean fun!

Sometimes you get a PR offer in your email that you just can't refuse:

*Hi, we're from Dirt Devil.  Would you and Jake like to come to The Lowry to watch Mr Stink by David Walliams?  We've got a bit of information about our latest cleaning range too and a great workshop for the kids to attend whilst you're listening to the boring stuff.

*or words to that effect

It took about 2 seconds between the email landing and me replying to accept the offer.  And what a fabulous idea - a cleaning company and a scratch-and-sniff experience at the theatre (more about that in a minute).

Why are women getting into debt?

Advertorial (for more info please see my disclosure policy)

Credit analysts claim that female personal bankruptcies are now growing at 25% a year. But why is this happening?

One likely answer is the increased cost of living, combined with the fact that men's salaries still generally outstrip women's in the world of work. Also, many women who have children will take time out of their careers to raise their families and often return to the workforce on a lower income than they might have reached if they had stayed in work.

I'm on the "When I Was A Kid" blog today...

I am the new When I Was A Kid resident blogger!  You will find me over there a couple of times a month.

Click the logo to visit the blog!

This month we are talking about Outdoor Play.  Look out for the secret page link with a special offer only for readers of the blog and don't forget to nip back here and let me know what you think.

10 ways to become a better blogger

I found my old website/blog.  I've been searching for it for ages using random keywords and old usernames.  It was on Yahoo Geocities and didn't appear to be cached.  Yes, it was that shit that even Google decided not to take screenshots of it.  But for some reason it has popped up in a very random place.  It's incredibly old because it says that my children are 10, 8 and 2.  The 10 year old will be 21 next birthday!  Anyway, it has very garish pages - the type that make your eyes bleed - and one day, when I have rehashed all the good salvageable material from it, I may let you see it.

On part of the website, my obsession for cross-stitching is clear.  There are about six pages (that are still linked) with project ideas, jokes (!!), hints and tips and a little "10 ways to become a better stitcher" narrative.  We've all seen those "10 ways to become a better..." across the internet so, just to prove how adaptable they are, here are some of the "Stitcher Rules" cheekily rehashed into "Blogger Rules".

and over at In The Powder Room...

I have written a calmer, more balanced article about my Mumsnet experience which
has been published in the "Shit Happens" section of  In The Powder Room.

There is also a response from Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet. 

Head on over there to have a read.

(all links will open in a new browser window)

Wikio Parent Blog Rankings - August Preview

Don't the months just fly by?  It's already time for another sneak peek of the Wikio Parent Blog Rankings.  There is the usual movement up and down, a few noticeable absenses for one reason or another and a few newbies.

I've always noticed that during the summer months I experience a drop in readers, comments, people sharing the posts but we all know it's only for a bit of fun, right?  In fact, even though I say I don't take much notice of my statistics, I actually have a glance at them now and again.  It's always useful to know how people are arriving on your blog, how long they stay, if they read any other posts whilst here and how/why they leave.  What do you think?  Do you scour your stats page, do you glance occasionally or do you not really care in the slightest?