Who am I?
A question I find myself asking more and more. I am Erica. I am The Incidental Parent. A school run loathing, swear word using, forty-something mum of two boys. I’m a food-loving vegetarian, I enjoy a tipple and a giggle. Primarily the blog is all about me and my thoughts. My natural habitat is a watering hole somewhere on Facebook.
The two boys in question are Big L, who was born in 2011, and Little L, who surprised us in 2016. Their dad is Vince, or Monsieur Incidental as he is often referred to. He is French and probably wonders how he ended up here. We met in a pub in 2009 and the rest, as they say, is history.
My mum also lives a few minutes walk away (lucky Vince) so she features occasionally, but daily at my house…
Where are we?
We live in Sevenoaks, Kent (a lovely town a short train journey from London). I’ve lived in Sevenoaks my whole life, although we often have notions of moving to France where we spend most of our holidays visiting Vince’s family.
Why The Incidental Parent?
I started my blog in 2016, with no idea quite what I was doing but I knew I wanted to reach people through writing and make them laugh. I’d be a stand up comedian if I had the nerve – I don’t, or do I?
The Incidental Parent was born from a desire to be something other than a Mummy Blogger, I hope I achieve that through my sense of humour, candid thoughts and the varied topics I cover. I’m not sure I fit into family and/or lifestyle categories either (but they’re the boxes I tick on forms). Yes I am a parent but that’s incidental (do you see what I did there?).
Living and Parenting with Crohn’s Disease
Being diagnosed with Crohn’s in 2012 I felt it was important that I cover that on my blog but I didn’t want it to be the main focus. I want to show what it is like to live and parent with Crohn’s but, as much as possible, in a positive light. It affects my daily living but I want to show that there is still a life to be led.
I was a finalist in the Britmums Brilliance in Blogging Awards 2018 in the Inspire Category for my writing about living and parenting with Crohn’s disease, which is something I am immensely proud of.
What about this blogging lark then?
If you’d asked me 5 years ago what I’d be doing now, blogging would not have featured. However, I love it! It has brought me and my family opportunities that I didn’t dream of, my children have too many toys due to reviews, we have lovely days out and meet amazing people.
I hope my blog goes from strength to strength and thank everyone who has joined me along the way. My life keeps changing direction, Crohn’s tends to see to that, but blogging can adapt to life changes. That’s one of the reasons I love it so much.
If you would like to work with me, or to see my media pack, please feel free to email me using that icon thing up there ⇑ and to the right ⇒