Issue 1. UK - Meet Katie

What does motherhood mean to you? What are the most challenging and rewarding parts?

Motherhood to me has been the hardest but the most rewarding thing I have ever done. It’s an emotional rollercoaster. I’m quite old fashioned when it comes to my daughters. For example I prefer them to have imaginary play or get a pencil, paints and paper out, as we are a very creative family. My husband is a part time illustrator for advertising, and a carpenter and we also have a print company called YOURTYPE PRINT - www.yourtypeprint.com (or Instagram @yourtypeprint), offering bespoke and readymade designs. I'm a photographer too, and along with the girls having their own commitments, you could say we are a very busy family! I do find it hard to relax sometimes but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’ve found some parts of motherhood challenging, like making sure they are always happy and healthy and that I'm guiding them in the right direction. I want to teach them to be kind to others, but also make sure they aren't being taken for granted. Just generally working together through problems that might occur, but also trying to make them understand, which in itself can be a challenge.

"I’ve found some parts of motherhood challenging, like making sure they are always happy"

Paint us a picture of daily life as a mother in the UK?

Well, in our house, my eldest Bettie-Jo has always been the earliest riser so she's always the first up, followed by me, and then it’s my youngest. Meanwhile, my husband would have already left for work.
We all get dressed and then go downstairs together.

Every morning I make the girls some fruit before they have their main breakfast which involves either toasted muffins with lots of butter and honey, or pancakes with a glass of milk and lots of coffee for me.

We then rush out to school to drop Bettie-Jo off, followed by dropping Agna-Gray at her pre-school. I'll usually stop off at a cafe for a coffee to answer some work emails. There’s never enough time to get home and back again so I always stay near Agna's pre-school as she's only in for the morning.
After picking Agna up, we have lunch together and go and collect Bettie. When the girl's get home, we have baths and get into pyjamas ready for dinner. We'll usually have pasta with meat balls or a good old fashioned English meat pie made from puff pastry. It's the girl's favourite and it's something my mum used to cook for me as a little girl, and was also mine and my siblings favourite growing up. We finish off the day with milk and biscuits before the girls go to bed at 7:30.