You might be thinking ‘why kickarse mum?’ Is it because I think I’m the world’s best mum? Have I mastered the art of parenting? The truth is, it’s none of the above.

I figure there’s days when I need to kick the kids’ arse (relax I don’t beat my kids – it’s a metaphorical not literal arse kick) and keep them on the right path, there’s other days when I need to kick someone else’s arse if they’re doing wrong by my kids and of course there’s those days I need to kick my own arse into gear!

It’s also because my name is so familiar that whenever I need to choose a ‘user name’ I get stuck with my name (or a version of it) with some randomly generated number in the high 500’s so I went for something a little out of the box this time!

I’ve been a single mum for most of my parenting life which started at the ripe old age of 23 and now have a beautiful 14 year old son and cheeky 6 year old daughter. Together, we are about to embark on a four month half lap around Australia in our little Rav4 towing a 2013 Jayco Dove.

I’ve been called crazy, mad, brave and a bunch of other (loving) things throughout the planning of this trip. I don’t feel overly brave – perhaps it’s because I’ve almost always done this parenting gig on my own so doing it in a camper van with some gorgeous scenery around and no work alarm going off doesn’t seem too scary to me.

I’ve been through some pretty horrific challenges (yes that’s a good word for them) in my life and encountered some unsavory people over the years. My start to 2016 was less than good with a fairly unsavory experience to kick the year off – this has made the planning for my trip more stressful than I’d like but equally makes me more excited about getting away.

All of the unsavory in my life has made me a pretty resilient chick with a laid back attitude and great sense of humour. I’m pretty confident that these traits will get me through the next four months on the road.

So ‘brave’? ‘crazy’?, ‘mad’? (possibly a little of column a, a little of column b) I’d say it makes me a little ‘kickarse’ and I hope you enjoy reading what I’m sure will be a cathartic exercise for me on my ongoing quest for parental bliss.