Is it okay not to feel sad about your child finishing school forever?
We have the dress that she loves and didn’t cost a fortune.
Make-up and hair appointments are booked.
We are hosting the pre and transport for the arrivals is sorted.
This will be the baby girl of the family’s end of high school celebration and my 10th and final formal or semi-formal.
She will look stunning, and I am thrilled for her.
A far cry from this time two years ago, when I was a dribbling mess of tears, wallowing in self-indulgent sadness about all the lasts my daughter (and by extension myself) were experiencing as the end of high school loomed.
Now with the youngest of my five daughters about to slam shut the last lunchbox lid on school, I am curiously nowhere near as distraught.
And I don’t know why?
What it means to be a real world Rugby League WAG!
“Switching between the Brownlow medal & the Dally M coverage – so much talk about the WAGs & what they are wearing. So, before the fashion police have their say on the girls, please just remember they are women supporting their husbands at a work function. Most of them only dress up once or twice a year. They don’t live glamorous lifestyles. They aren’t provided gowns by designers. Most of the time they privately live their lives as mums or working women.”
This is what Narelle Walters posted on her Facebook page on the back of the mad Monday double-header football awards night.
Who, some may ask, is Narelle Walters?
Well Narelle is someone who knows more than most what it means to be a WAG.
She was a WAG before there was an acronym for WAGs (wives and girlfriends).
When should you let your daughters watch the Bachelor?
I love watching women in red-carpet-style frocks, some with sequins, all with cleavage, line up and compete against each other to be chosen by a man.
And I know others of my ilk do too.
I’ve seen their gushing admissions of obsession on Facebook.
I also have a keener interest now that I have met four of them. (The Queensland contingent was front-row guests for the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Festival I worked on and that has just wrapped. For the record they dressed rose-ceremony ready and didn’t seem any more desperate for love or attention that any other girls I’ve known of the same age)
But while my and my contemporaries on Facebook, fascination is just a bit of frivolous fun.
The 2015 Qld Bachelorettes backstage at MBFF.
I’ve also realised as the show nears its end and yippee Sam chooses his favourite, it also serves a vital purpose for parents.
We should be not just letting our young daughters tune in to the Bachelor, but encouraging them to.
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Fashion fix! What goes on behind the catwalk.
As always it’s mostly about the fashion.
The tried and true designers that have to come up with something fresh every year, every season, so as not to disappoint and to stay relevant.
The up and coming creatives trying hard to make an impression to forge a start in a tough industry and attract some style traction.
And the middle ground designers with a foot on each side of the fashion chasm, not yet truly established but no longer emerging.
Jen Hawkins walk-through sharing catwalk with wide eyed models
Messages from my teenage ME!
You’ve seen all those letters that people write to their 16-year-old-selves.
The ones that tell them not to worry about their weight, or whether they have enough friends and that they are worthy, kind and wonderful. Well my advice to me, now in my 40’s, is from my teenage self. Read More
Rats and television ratings- no problem for inspirational TV executive!
When it comes to inspiring women, often it’s someone you don’t know; a celebrity, a sports star, businesswomen or just someone ordinary doing something great that elevates your thinking.
So when it’s closer to home, a friend and colleague who attracts your admiration it is warming and palpable.
Overcoming a fear of rats and unknown television ratings, my mate, Channel 9 Queensland Managing Director Kylie Blucher is about to embark on a 300 kilometre trek across the Simpson Desert, renowned for rodent plagues and no phone reception.
The Hamptons-silver service style for the not so rich and famous.
Chanel No 5 in the bathroom, Sherry in a crystal decanter, bedside for a nightcap and a three course, silver service breakfast.
These are just a few of the decadent touches that embellished an indulgent two day, relaxed yet bustling stay in the upmarket American summer playground, The Hamptons.
What is inspiring to know is that we (my lifelong friend Nicole and I), weren’t booked into a five star, extravagantly expensive hotel, rather an extraordinarily impressive value for money Bed and Breakfast inn called A Butler’s Manor.
A Southampton home
Spring Break in our 40’s!
As a teenager of the 80’s, with all the films about all the fun American kids of the same age were having, the defining, most memorable for me and many of my friends, was “Spring Break“. Despite the basic, yet ridiculous and totally unimaginative plot of two sets of university guys heading to Fort Lauderdale for fun in the sun, and everything that inevitably went wrong, it was a movie that marked a carefree time in our lives and a trip that my friend and I vowed to take and never took.
Until NOW!
When we were ‘Spring Break” age.
In transition!
Dear Kids,
The doctor has confirmed it.
Unfortunately there’s nothing she can do for me and we all have to cope the best we can.
Help! 40 weeks of date nights!
I’m not sure if this will be an exercise in setting and achieving goals, heightening marital romance and contentment, or if in fact it will add another layer of partnership pressure! But when my husband outlined his 2015 New Year resolutions the number one item on his to-do list was take his wife (me) on a date every week. EVERY WEDNESDAY! EVERY WEEK! 
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Karryn Wheelans 
