Shandean Reid's Blog, page 10

Five Painful Pregnancy Symptoms

Pregnancy is a beautiful journey in its entirety, but we mom can agree that are some parts that are anything but. Painful pregnancy symptoms can be very common. What’s not common is how much they are discussed. Why is that? Yes, pregnancy is beautiful, but it can also be an uncomfortable, painful and life-threatening experience as well. Additionally, we typically speak of pregnancy symptoms as if they go away after the first trimester. They most certainly do not.

They may go away, but some o...

Don’t Be A Wife to a Boyfriend… Eh, Really?

‘Don’t be a wife to a boyfriend’. ‘Don’t give your boyfriend husband privileges’. ‘Don’t act like a wife.’ Yaddi, yaddi, yadda. In this, the Internet age, I could point to a million blog posts, articles and memes telling women not to be a wife to a boyfriend. Hell, someone even wrote a book a whole book about the topic. But every single one I have come across personally is basic. The reasoning points were shallow and mostly unrealistic.

While I understand that we need to protect ourselves as...

Cost of Living In Jamaica 2021

My home island Jamaica has a fair number of ex-pats or potential ex-pats who want to know the cost of living in Jamaica. It is something that isn’t always readily available through a quick google search and even might be lacking. You can ask around, but answers are likely to based on perspective. It’s also very easy for Jamaicans abroad to not realize how truly inflated the cost of living is. This blog post is intended to provide a good measure of the cost of living in Jamaica for a family of t...

Sweet Red Wine For Beginners

I have a divine preference for red wines when it comes to alcohol. Specifically, I prefer sweet reds. So today, I thought of sharing a list of my favourite sweet red wine for beginners. Now I’m not knocking a good bottle of white wine, (excluding Chardonnays, I find the taste to be quite awful), red wine is Bae (I can’t believe I used that word in public, haha!)

I’m not tipping the bottle every day or anything, but I do keep at least one bottle on deck in the refrigerator, especially now. Lo...

60+ Blogmas Post Ideas – A Bloggers Guide

Let’s talk about Blogmas Post Ideas! I know, I know. its only September. I’m not crazy, I promise. December 2020 was my first year participating in Blogmas. It was truly a joy that helped me fall in love with blogging all over again, but it was also a very last minute decision. I also paired it with my first attempt at Vlogmas (also last minute) and it was great. To all my new subscribers who joined us between Blogmas 2020 and throughout 2021, you’re in for a treat.

You might wonder if t...

Back to School List + Life Update

“ Have you done the booklist for back to school yet?”

This what my mother in law called to ask me one hot day in early August and I immediately thought, ‘Smaddy come for this lady’. My peace was shattered because I realised, summer holidays aren’t as long as they felt when I was the child. Back to school is just around the corner, which means preparations should have long started.

Our Inside, Pandemic Riddled Summer

I was very happy for the summer holidays and I’m going to go out o...

Back to School… For Both of Us – Life Update

“ Have you done the booklist for back to school yet?”

This what my mother in law called to ask me one hot day in early August and I immediately thought, ‘Smaddy come for this lady’. My peace was shattered because I realised, summer holidays aren’t as long as they felt when I was the child. Back to school is just around the corner, which means preparations should have long started.

Our Inside, Pandemic Riddled Summer

I was very happy for the summer holidays and I’m going to go out o...

The Secret To Good Mental Health? Staying Ahead Of It

As a Feel Good Expert, I know a thing or two about how to achieve good mental health. Coming from someone who has experienced the lowest of lows and highest of highs as a millennial mother, I want to share my postpartum struggles with as many women as possible. Because while I believe in the power of authentic storytelling, I believe in the power of female connection even more.

When I had my son five years ago, I was a wreck. My self-esteem was shot to hell not because I was worried abou...

Chlorine Hair Damage: What I Didn’t Know as a Mom

When my daughter started taking swimming lessons earlier this year, I had no idea that I needed to be protecting her from chlorine hair damage. She wore a swim cap, and though it still got wet around her hairline when I take her to the pool (And whenever my husband takes her the whole thing comes back soaked, don’t ask me how), I didn’t recognize it was that big of an issue until it was far too late.

Partly because what I now know to be the problem was initially delayed. Also, I can’t swim,...

Jamaican Bloggers With Active Blogs in 2021

Jamaican bloggers are a bit hard to uncover these days. When I say bloggers, I don’t mean content creators. If you’re wondering what the difference is, it’s in the content type. You see, all bloggers are content creators but not all content creators are bloggers. This means that content creators with actual blogs (which are regularly updated) are far fewer amid the growth and popularity of platforms like Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok that favor audio and visual content.

But for those of...