Parenting isn’t always the easiest job, so if you’re looking for a giggle or some light-hearted relief to get you through the long summer holidays, here are the bloggers to bookmark… 

If rose-coloured, insta-perfect family-life isn’t your thing, try these blogs for honest, warts-and-all anecdotes that will have you howling with laughter. 

Everyone’s Buck Stops Here

“Kids left shocked at mum’s recent Netflix ‘cringe binge” is just one of the sensational news headlines Sharon Brison, aka ‘Mummy Buck’, shares on her hilarious blog Everyone’s Buck Stops Here. Do you watch Netflix with your teens? Sharon “defended her choice of Netflix viewing after being branded ‘weird’ & ‘cringy as hell’ by eldest son.” Read the post to find out what her 16-year old caught her watching…

It’s easy to imagine Sharon gliding through life like the proverbial swan. “When I’m being a grown-up,” she says, “I work as a paralegal in criminal and military law. I also have a weekly column in That’s Life Magazine.” Her blog, on the other hand, tells a different story. Sharon is paddling furiously beneath the surface as a busy mum to four loud teens and tweens. Stories of her son repeatedly losing his PE kit and being terrified as her daughter learns to drive are hilariously told and very relatable experiences.

Me, Them and the Others

If you were a tabloid headline, how would you describe your parenting? “Mother claims benign neglect is justifiable parenting style,” is how self-confessed introvert and ‘free range parent’, Josie Cornhill, describes her approach over at Me, Them and the Others.

Josie is incredibly frank about why she felt she wasn’t really “temperamentally suited” to early years parenting. “I hate dribble, I like to be organised” and “I’m essentially lazy,” she says. “I need a certain amount of time alone to function and toddlers who want to accompany you to the toilet really don’t allow for that.” We can all allow ourselves a wry smile at that assessment!

Her hands-off approach means that she has amassed plenty of brilliant suggestions for younger kids when they complain they’re bored. Next time your kids run out of things to do, take a leaf out of Josie’s book and suggest that they phone a relative you’ve not seen for a while, make an indoor obstacle course, build a den or put on as many socks as they can in a minute. Genius!

Not Another Mummy Blog

“What’s not to like about having to crawl through germ-infested, urine-covered balls, showing your builder’s bum to local parents galore as you chase after your over-excited toddler and protect them from being trampled over by the bigger kids? I mean, it’s just got PARENTING JOY written all over it, right?”

Given her dislike of such activities, Alison Perry has been somewhat surprised to learn that soft play centres and sweating through swimming lessons are two of the things she has actually missed during lockdown. She might be on her own with soft play, though!

As a new parent, Alison admits that she struggled with “mum” becoming part of her identity, and set up Not Another Mummy Blog as an ironic gesture. While her blog has grown and developed into a mix of family travel, style and opinion, this award-winning blogger, magazine and online editor admits she’s learned a lot more about herself in recent months. Flying the flag for curvy women everywhere, Alison’s blog is relatable, quirky, beautifully observed and written with just the right amount of self-deprecating humour to raise a genuine chuckle.

The Secret Life Of Me

“Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside” is how Cath Bambi Drews describes herself, and if you’re prone to anxiety, The Secret Life of Me is a great blog to bookmark.

Cath had a rude awakening when her expectations of parenting were not met by reality: “My child was going to be a tidy eater. Would eat everything put in front of them and definitely not throw food…My top tip is to get a dog to hoover up the biggest bits from the floor.”

This mum-of-four likes to talk about the lighter, funny things in life and, having navigated postnatal depression and anxiety, says she’s “trying to inspire before I expire.” Her tips for an anxious person dealing with enforced isolation include binge watching netflix, avoiding social media, plus exercise and activity to help mindfulness and relaxation. She also celebrates doing stuff just for the fun of it: “Tik Tok is basically saving my sanity with its silliness,” she says!

The Exhausted Mum

“Fuelled by coffee, numbed by wine,” is how Laura Jagdev, The Exhausted Mum of two toddlers, manages to get through her days. Before having two babies in quick succession, Laura says: “I was one of those helpful advice-givers to friends who had children before me”. Afterwards, she almost immediately turned into the very parent she’d always frowned upon, giving in to the ‘four in a bedroom’ set-up just to snatch a few minutes extra sleep!

After 4 years of chronic exhaustion, operation ‘move them into their own room’ was hatched. Laura didn’t expect to reverse the bedtime battles overnight, but over the weeks she was able to increase the days that she had to go to do ‘mummy jobs’ – “watch Made in Chelsea or some other trash,” after storytime. Check out her blog to find out whether she won the war…

Life, Love and Dirty Dishes

Have you read ‘The Gruffalo’ so many times that you know it off by heart? Over at Life, Love and Dirty Dishes, Claire Kirby has published her own brilliant and funny retelling of this children’s classic – but this time, aimed at the tired parents of grumpy toddlers. Her clever pastiche is a great way to remind all parents that we’re not alone!

Claire lives in a Lego house with two very noisy boys – or at least, they “have so much of the stuff [they] could probably build one!” Her blog is full of laughter, honest reflections and award-winning content. Read her fantastic article called “We are not rivals’ if you’re feeling guilty about any of your recent parenting decisions – it was number 12 in Huffpost’s most read posts of 2015.

Real Parent

Everyone’s heard of a bucket list – it’s all the things you really want to do. But what about an alternative list of all the things you simply can’t be bothered to do!? Freelance writer, blogger and mum of three, Lucy Clarke, has come up with a brilliant list of shortcuts to help her wing it as a parent. If you’ve ever done the school run with a coat over your pyjamas, or to save time, you’re “wearing yesterday’s make- up…today, ” this is the blog for you!

Lucy, aka Real Parent, knows it’s more important to turn up to her son’s soccer matches than watch James Martin on ‘Saturday Kitchen’. If you want to know the 9 truths of being a badass football mum too, start with the knowledge that a full football kit might not be the most appropriate outfit for your child to wear to smart events, but at least it all matches - right?

So Happy In Town

We’ve all recently found a mundane, everyday event that for some reason, has suddenly become intensely irritating, right? “Tea should be sipped. Quietly,” says Susie Weaver, complaining about the noises that have driven her crazy during isolation. “There is nowhere in the library of tea drinking etiquette where it says a cup of tea should be vacuumed up with the sound effects of a coffee percolator…” 

Susie lives in London with her husband and three children. So Happy In Town talks about all things family, from parenting issues to mental health, marriage and the joys of middle age. She’s a passionate advocate for young people’s mental health, and in 2019 launched the Tee campaign, with the main message for young people being that “it’s ok to feel shit’ - but it’s a lot more ok if you don’t feel alone. If you’re looking for a way to start a difficult conversation in your house - this is the blog and the t-shirt for you.

The Potty Diaries

“Is it just me whose default reaction to the stress of the constant onslaught of bad news is to reach for the snacks” asks Potty Mummy? “The UK runs out of PPE…” reach for cake. “Infection rate climbs…” Biscuits.

The Potty Diaries mum started her blog in 2007 to rewrite the frustrating experience of potty training her children as amusing. Now her kids are way past that stage, she writes about her hilarious attempts at teen wrangling, the trials of homeschooling, laundry mountains, dog walking conversations and haircuts. Oh, and lockdown eating. “Like I said before folks; I’m only trying to fatten the curve…”

Toby & Roo

Harriet Shearsmith’s blog Toby & Roo is full of wit, refreshing candour and a healthy dose of the overshare all parents can relate to. Her toddlers are always angry, shopping needs planning like a survivors’ supply run, and the “house is in a permanent state of post-zombie-attack-post-looting trauma!” A month after giving birth to her third baby she asks, “does parenting resemble surviving a zombie apocalypse to anyone else?”

Harriet loves to talk about her family life with two ‘crazy boys’ and a ‘dictator-like’ daughter. Her writing is so warm it’s like chatting to a really good friend and there’s also lots of practical stuff like “books we’ve read”, craft ideas and recipes galore. You’ll love her meal plan with gorgeous Instagram pics and tasty family recipes. It’s not surprising she was voted best parenting blog of 2017.

Whinge Whinge Wine

“You’ve never known real fear until your daughter Facetimes her friend while you’re in the bath, and you realised you forgot to lock the door,” says Frances Taylor, while explaining the fact that her six-year old has used lockdown to learn how to Facetime her friends whenever she fancies it, even after the passcode on the iPad had been changed.

Frances’ brilliantly funny Corona Diaries over at Whinge Whinge Wine serve as a lighthearted commentary of life through lockdown. Winner of Mumsnet Bloggers Comedy Writer Award 2016, her blog tells tales of parenting and more recently the woes of homeschooling two small children. “I wrote about things to do when kids are off school, but it wasn’t real then. Now it is,” she says, “with a little bit of lifestyle, food, wine and a big dollop of humour thrown in.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed our roundup of bloggers to make you laugh, and that they’ll help to lift your spirits on a rainy day. Do you follow a humorous parenting blogger that we’ve missed? Let us know over on Facebook or Twitter, and we’ll try to include them in the next set.

Lead image: Maria Sbytova