A snapshot of life as a Tappy Toes Mummy!

By Tiffany Matthews

Being a Tappy Toes Mummy

I hear the alarm going off. I tap it and roll over for a few more minutes of peace. That’s when I hear it…’Is it number 16? Is it number 16? I SAID…IS IT NUMBER 16!?’

And now I am fully awake! No snooze alarm needed. Just a 5-year-old working out what day of her advent calendar she needs to open. And then I hear the second enjoyable morning sound….my youngest crying.  Clearly her sister woke her up too. And so, the day begins!

Amongst my sleepy daze, I stagger into my daughter’s bedroom and get her out of her bed, whilst my mind is repeatedly saying to itself…….  ‘I must be constructive. I must be constructive today.’ This is the life of a Tappy Toes Mummy……getting jobs done in a permanently distracted kind of way.

Getting Ready

It’s 8 am and the pre-school run carnage begins. ‘Please can you put your shoes on’ I say as I quickly check my emails in the study. Someone wanting to attend my class that morning has emailed. Quick! I open the system and enter the customers name. Meanwhile my daughters are chasing each other up and down the hall- way. ‘Stop! Do you have your shoes on? Is your sister’s nursery bag there? Where is your book bag? Is your water bottle filled?’

I quickly manage to sort out the customers details and enrol them. Done! Phew!  I then walk into the hallway to assess the situation. The result……. the girls are sitting on the bottom of the stairs with Polly Pockets. ‘Seriously!??’  I open the front door – surely that will give them a sense of urgency? Remarkably today it works, to some extent anyway. One has their head in the shoe unit searching and the other is actually putting school shoes on. Success! I control the urge to do a little celebration dance and walk towards the door. Then the school run begins.

The School Run

We park near school and I see I have a Facebook message. An enquiry about our Tappy Toes classes. I have time, and always like to be as quick with responses as I can, so answer it straight away. Times, prices, what we do – all the questions that I’m familiar with answering. Done! Today there is even some time for a bit of ‘Biff and Chip’ in the car before we head into school.

I drive straight from school into Fareham for my Tappy Toes class. Today there are no traffic issues, which is a relief.  By 9.10am I’m in the studio setting up!  I like to be organised for classes so lay all props neatly in order in our Tappy red bags. Important checks……. music working, and Freddie the bubble machine of course. Teaching without our bubbly friend would be a disaster!  All ready and soon the dancers all enter……. the sea of red little Tappy-Toers! I love saying hi to each one of our wonderful dancers, and they never fail to make me smile!

Getting my Exercise

It’s 10am. I’m warm. My Fitbit already reads about 5k and the day has only just begun. I’m detangling dance ribbons as quickly as I can. Orange, yellow, blue…. we have a few knots today! But it doesn’t matter because our dancers were focused and fantastic. The best thing about Tappy Toes is seeing the progress our little dancers make. They can copy movements accurately and retain them from week to week – amazing!  Tuesday is a busy day as after Tappy Toes I teach dance to adults for a couple of hours too, so I head into the theatre and start dancing away again!

12.30pm- Teaching for the day is complete and I’m off on the nursery pick up for 1pm. All my big props bags are packed away and filling my boot. I might just need a bigger car! I arrive at nursery on time and collect my girl who is looking rather sleepy. It only takes to the end of the road before she has nodded off in the car seat. Every time! That dilemma of whether to get them out of the car and risk waking them or let them have the nap they need!? Ahhhh!  Today I decide to let her nap and do some admin in the car.

I read emails, pay some venue invoices and do a little Instagram post from the class earlier. I wouldn’t survive without a banking app, that is for sure!  Social media is a steep learning curve for me too but I’m getting there!

Daily Tasks

Out of the car I manage to get a bite to eat. And of course, some snacks for the hungriest human in the world! I just have time to get together the uniform order from an email earlier. I do love that our Tappy Toers look so smart and cute in their Tappy tops and tutus! This is done just in time for the school pick up – here we go again.  I never knew I would find the school runs so exhausting every day. What makes it better today? That 3pm down pour that seems to happen daily!  Wet, wet, wet.

The rest of the day consists of making dinner (of some kind) and getting ready for swimming lessons of course. After the pool, the normal carnage of the nightly routine begins. Bath, teeth, book and bed. That sounds so simple! It’s because I’m missing out the bit where they are playing hide and seek, screaming and running up and down the landing like headless chickens.

Peace at Last

And that’s when I hear it….quiet. Not total peace and quiet as one tends to be singing themselves to sleep, but that’s ok. I can now do the typical parent thing of cramming another days’ worth of activities into the evening. Packing school bags, finding gymnastics kits and some business marketing. I look through all my class pictures and begin typing away. It’s not the level of organisation I used to know but it works!  Are there any other business parents out there with a crazy routine?  Each day seems to be different but that keeps me on my Tappy Toes! Peace finally descends on the household. BED! I love being a Tappy Toes Mummy…

Owning my own business = FREEDOM! Life as a Tappy Toes franchisee definitely works for me!

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