What happens when your nest becomes empty, all your chicks have flown and you look at your big daddy bird and think ……WOW – a big fat nothing?  Boredom, ennui, same old, same old -  whatever way you want to put it, it now seems that this is one of the most powerful marriage killers of our generation. Plain, old [...]

Life begins at 40 – or so the old adage goes. However for many women this is a decade rife with life changing events which can turn what seemed to be a stable and steady road into the most challenging obstacle course. There are relationship breakdowns, stroppy and difficult teenagers, older children leaving home, ill and dependent parents, redundancies, money [...]

We had a traumatic incident in our family a couple of weeks ago. Now on the scale of terrible things to happen in your life it  rates quite low, but at the time it was awful and put a dampener on what should have been a really lovely day. It was a family wedding. One of those weddings where I could actually really [...]

I don’t know about you but way back in the day when I was doing exams, life was very different. I am not necessarily saying that this was a good thing. My parents, loving and supportive though they were, believed a little too much in the benign neglect school of thought when it came to education. Whether we did well [...]

Do you  ever wish you had the time and indeed the cash for a professional facial treatment?  Well, here at PlanFreeMum we understand the importance of looking after your skin but also of looking after your wallet. We have put together a guide to a perfect facial which will leave your skin feeling glowing and fresh with minimal impact on [...]

Without exception, every single conversation I have ever had with women in their mid forties about how they look always goes along the same lines. Aside from the few who feel nothing short of major plastic surgery, both of the medical and financial kind will do, most women feel just OK. The majority of us wish that there was a [...]

(or why do I suddenly hate shopping?) Choosing clothes in your mid forties can be the most soul destroying of experiences. Whilst lots of women I speak to still love shopping the way they shop has changed. Many women now find that they enjoy shopping for shoes, bags and accessories but break into a cold sweat at the thought of [...]

According to Yourdictionary.com an empty nester is a parent whose children have left home. Obvious really. However what this brief and logical explanation fails to get across is the overwhelming mix of emotions parents and especially mothers feel when this momentous event finally happens. You spend 18 or 19 years nursing bruised knees and broken hearts in your children, all [...]

Depression is one of the conditions of our era. People born since 1945 are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression than those born before. Women are more likely than men to suffer from depression, with estimates ranging from 8 to 15% of women suffering it in some form over their lifetime. The modern medical view is that depression [...]

PLAN FREE MUM’S TOP TIPS FOR COPING WITH DIVORCE 1.    TALK – Try and find people to talk to. If you have no close friends or family whom you feel understand join an online forum. This is group therapy at its best. You can be completely honest and open because you can be anonymous and you will be talking to [...]