5 Things Mamas Should Always Carry In Their Handbags

Channel your inner Mary Poppins and always be prepared by carrying these things in your handbag, mamas!

Now that the tidy little cross body bag or cute clutch has been swapped for a nappy bag or something resembling Mary Poppins’ carpet bag (in the volume it carries if not in design), make sure to fill that thing with stuff that’ll actually come in useful and get you out of those common parenting scrapes! Other than the obvious mobile phone (doubles up as entertainment – hooray for youtube and selfie-obsessed-minis), and wallet, water, old bits of lego, dolls shoe and one odd sock etc, our top 5 things include:

Water Wipes

Kind of like baby wipes but made of 99.9% water and 0.1% something else (that smells nice and is apparently natural) – it doesn’t matter what age your kiddo is, these are essential for wiping up inevitable spills, cleaning sticky body parts, giving the car a quick wipe down before giving someone a lift – oh the list goes on. And the fact that they aren’t full of anything icky means that they won’t irritate sensitive skin and are perfect for wiping smudgy makeup if you’re suddenly thrown into a tear-inducing moment (we know how those post-kids hormones can be!).

Available at Mumzworld

Snacks (aka bribes)

No matter how much your little one insists that they couldn’t eat another thing at the breakfast table – as soon as you’re in the car or out and about they’ll suddenly be absolutely starving. Snacks that’ll cause mountains of crumbs or melt and go gooey are a big no – if you can palm your kids off with raisins then go for those (but be prepared to find them in every possible nook and cranny of your car for years afterwards). We love the Bear yoyo real fruit snacks that look deceptively like sweets/treats so are perfect for bribing (we’ve all been there), have no sugar, sulphites, gumming agents or other nonsense and count as 1 of their 5 a day too!

Available at Park ‘N Shop 

Spare pair of sunnies

For covering up the eye-bags or resorting to when your other pair is sat on/yanked off your face or forgotten in a mad flurry while trying to get your gang out of school. Enough said. We love these Le Specs Air Heart cat-eye acetate mirrored pair – and not too expensive either (because we go through so many pairs each year…).

Available at Net-a-Porter

Pencils & Paper

Invaluable for making lists and also for keeping the kids amused or even getting them to practice their spellings while waiting for food in a restaurant. You could even throw in a little colouring book just to be extra prepared – and to practice your mindfulness activity when you need a moment of zen.
We’re like kids in a sweet shop when perusing stationery – head to Typo or Paperchase and you’re guaranteed to want to buy everything.

Band-aids

Whether out at the park or cruising the supermarket aisles, kiddie cuts and scrapes are a daily occurrence with our gang. There’s nothing like a cartoon-decorated band aid to make that ouchie feel ok – and they double-up as stickers if you’re really desperate to distract!

Pirate & Cupcake bandages available at Amazon