Three years on, Holly Wainwright has a tree-change update
From lessons learned after walking out on an old life to the former tradwife who swears never, ever again. Plus, the parenting trend that explains A LOT. Welcome to your weekly dose of MID-spo.
Any regrets?
What about now?
Three years ago, my family left the city. That's me, my partner Brent, our two (then) primary-school-aged kids and our (then) dog, Elvi.
Those two bracketed 'thens' illustrate how life just keeps racing on up ahead. My daughter is now in Year Nine. My son starts high school in January. Our beautiful Elvi died. We adopted Tuna, her ‘sister’ (in family lore only, you understand).
And it's the most commonly asked question by people who know me, and by people who read or listen to the things I make.
So, any regrets about the tree change?
What about now?
We were part of a great wave of COVID-era regional migration. We (coincidentally) moved out of Sydney on the same weekend the city went into its second and longest lockdown. I wrote about that, here and here. Tree-changing was big, driven by both the unbearable proximity of locked-in families and the sudden possibility of remote work. The highway south was bumper-to-bumper dreamers, longing for more space, more freedom and praying for a solid internet connection... continue reading.
Listen to what Holly had to say about her big move. ⬇️
My life was the parallel of Ballerina Farm. This is why I left.
It's a story we’ve devoured. That of an aspiring ballerina turned beauty pageant queen turned tradwife and mum-of-eight living on her husband's family property.
We're talking about Hannah Neeleman from Ballerina Farm, of course – the tradwife content creator with a cult social media account.
But when a profile published in British newspaper, The Sunday Times, didn't exactly paint Ballerina Farm as idyllic (unlike the image projected on Instagram and TikTok), the fascination with Hannah’s all-American cookie-cutter family took on a whole new direction.
And while there’s a myriad of ways to be happy and no one way of doing things, the depiction of Hannah’s life left us all with… questions.
Now, one former tradwife has come out to explain why it wasn’t the life for her.
Enitza Templeton married her partner in 2009, when she was 26. Raised in a religious family and community, being married meant embarking on a tradwife lifestyle, despite her having a degree in graphic design.
Soon, Enitza was in a rigid ‘homemaker’ routine. Her life was cooking and cleaning while her husband went to an office job, and the couple planned to have “as many kids as we can.”
Without any control of the family finances or money of her own, and a second child who was born with Down Syndrome, life seemed to keep on getting harder for Enitza.
“It should have been like, ‘I love you. I love our children. This is a lot. Let's pause as a family,’” she says.
Without contraception, the torrent of babies continued, with a fourth conceived as she finished nursing a third. After a miscarriage... continue reading.
Listen to the Ballerina Farm controversy on this episode of Mamamia Out Loud. ⬇️
The parenting trend that makes sense of Gen X childhoods
We all know about the sandwich generation, right? DO WE EVER.
Mainly because by midlife, many of us are squished in the middle of it. ‘It’ being parenting parents while wrangling kids. It’s the messiest of messy sandwiches and we are the deeply uncomfortable, torn in all directions, frazzled filling.
It’s juggling the demands of caring for our fabulous, frustrating, ageing parents with those of our fabulous, frustrating, growing kids. All at a time when we’re often feeling anything but fabulous and nursing a growing sense of frustration ourselves.
Fun times.
Of course, in the words of every talk show therapist, we should talk it out. Discuss the issues. Express our feelings. Find solutions. With our parents. With our kids. With ourselves in the shower.
Except, as it turns out, if our parents are Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964), this talking business will never happen thanks to a recently unearthed parenting trend called ‘dishonest harmony’.
Yes, of course it has a name. It’s the trend law.
We can thank TikTok user Angela Baker for explaining this particular style of parenting which was apparently favoured by Boomers, in a now-viral video.
Angela explains that Boomer parents likely approached conflict in a 'sweep it under the rug' kind of way.
“What matters most is that we have the appearance of harmony, even if there's nothing harmonious under the surface,” she says.
This concept has caused a Gen X epiphany, with many claiming… continue reading.
Listen to this episode of The Quicky on the generation that got this parenting thing right. ⬇️
THE SCROLL 📱
Feed your mind. Fill your heart. Nourish your soul.
Gen X is entering our season of loss. How a notebook could be the solution.
Read this now or later? The opposite of procrastination has its own issues.
This spicy trend is boosting women’s sex lives by 74%. Buckle up.
When the mental load of caring is too high, saving yourself is the smartest thing.
Balance out all the arseholery peri skin serves up with this make-up superstar.
MID-SPO STYLE: 2024 trends but make them French
French women just seem to get fashion ‘right’. So, for every woman who’s been watching the Olympics from France with the capital city’s gorgeous belle époque backdrop and is wondering how to pull off Parisian style, hold our croissants. We’ve got you. Though to be fair, it’s Marie-Anne Lecoeur who’s your femme. See her picks below. Vive la France!
PS. This particularly fine episode of Nothing to Wear deep dives French fashion too and is well worth a listen while your focus is on all things 🇫🇷. Or, more precisely, on all things 🥖 🍷
🚨 Season Two of MID drops Tuesday 🚨
Keep your ears peeled and your eyes to the ground (or something like that – you do you) because Holly’s back with Season Two of MID on Tuesday, 6 August. You're not going to want to miss these incredible conversations with (and for) Gen X women so if you haven’t already, subscribe ⬇️
All the (uncomfortable) feels
