Hello lovely bloggers linky lovers, how’s it going this week?
Welcome to Week 21 of the #ItsOK Linky.
Have you been bashing out an award-winning literary masterpiece, or sitting trying to think what the hell to write, too distracted by Facebook? I couldn’t possibly comment on that one..
There were some great posts again last week, so I’m looking forward to reading more of the same this week. Just a word of warning, the girls and I are getting tough this week – and clamping down on any posts that aren’t related to parenthood. We want to keep the #ItsOK Linky all about real-life parenting. Whether they are funny, serious, or ranty posts we don’t mind – but they have to be on topic. If not, we’re just going to delete them off the linky. Told you we were getting tough!
And have you remembered we’ve changed the timing of the linky slightly from now on? It’ll now on just Wednesdays and Thursdays so get in quick with your posts!
Thanks for joining us again if you’re one of our regular bloggers. If any of you are newbie parent bloggers – welcome, and if you have no idea what you’re doing, you’re in good company with me.
Onto the linky!
My lovely co-hosts are parent bloggers Kate from The Mum Conundrum, Carly from Mom of Two Little Girls, Nicole from Tales from Mamaville, and Jacqui from One Messy Mama.
Carly hosted the linky last week and has chosen Mummy of a Square Peg’s post How I long for a conversation with my Square Peg Well done! You can grab your badge here.
Twins, Tantrums and Cold Coffee
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
Hey, ‘It’s okay!’
If you’re a first timer to the linky, find out all about it here. We’re basically saying it’s okay to not be okay sometimes – particularly when it comes to parenting.
It’s okay to stick CBeebies on for your three year old whilst the younger two nap, so you can catch up on some stuff (for ‘stuff’, read social media). It’s okay to let your 21 month old twins fight over the iPad at bedtime because it’s the only way they won’t run around in a pre-sleep frenzy. You know it’s okay to hide in a cupboard and eat chocolate when you’ve just given your children a rice cake. And it’s totally okay to only wash your hair twice a week because you’ve not got time for anything more. (I even wrote a post about that – Yummy Mummy or Slummy Mummy?)
The rules
We’re all pretty relaxed here at #ItsOK, but for the linky to work we have a few rules:
1.) You can add ONE of your posts to the link-up – any post you like, as long as it’s on a REAL LIFE PARENTING THEME and you haven’t posted it on the #ItsOK linky before. But as parent bloggers, I’m guessing that’s pretty simple.
2.) Before you add your post to the link-up, make sure you pop the linky badge, using the html below, on your post. It’s not as scary as it looks, honest. Even I managed to do it! Copy the code from this page, then open a new browser tab, go to your site and navigate to the post you want to share on your site. Go into ‘edit page’, change the view (in the top right hand corner of the writing area on WordPress) from ‘visual’ to ‘text’.
Scroll to the bottom of the text, and paste the code in there. If you change your view back to ‘visual’ again you’ll see the linky badge in all it’s glory at the bottom of your post. Ta-dah!!
Twins, Tantrums and Cold Coffee
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
3.) Make sure to comment on the host’s post, the post before yours, and one of your choice.
4.) The linky will run every Wednesday morning at 7am until Thursday evening at 11.55pm.
Share the love
5.) Tweet us (@twinstantrums @TheMumConundrum @MamavilleTales, @momof2lgs and @onemessymama4) with the URL to your post. Make sure you include the hashtag #ItsOK so that we know you’re one of those lovely parent bloggers types and tweet us your linky post, and not just telling us about your random day… Remember this step – if you don’t tweet us, it’s tricky for us to share.
6.) Nicole is hosting this week so will comment on all your posts, and they will be retweeted and shared on Facebook. If your post is featured as one of our favourites then you are very welcome to display our lovely ‘#ItsOK Featured Blogger’ badge on your sidebar.
7.) Come and join our lovely Facebook group, and we’ll share your posts on there, as well as on the #ItsOK Facebook page – pop over to like and follow us where we’ll share the best parent blogger posts from each week’s linky too.
8.) Are you on Pinterest? Come on over and follow our #ItsOK board, we’ll share your posts and you can plunder all the super-useful/funny/interesting reads and finds we amass too.
Parent bloggers keeping it real
The #ItsOK linky is all about celebrating real-life parenting. Please link up with posts on this theme ONLY. We’re not too keen on random sponsored posts. We’re all about Mum (and Dad) life, warts and all.
Even I can follow these rules, so it can’t be that difficult! Any problems, just give us a shout.
It’s a great way of finding other blogs to read, and realising somehow or other we’re all in the same boat – and #ItsOK!
Happy linking!