Hi folks, great to meet you!

My name is Tan, and I’m new around here, but I am excited to let you know that I’ll be here for a while! So grab a cuppa and let’s get chatting.

As you are likely sitting there thinking “who is this chic, and where is our Queen Bee?”,  I should probably begin with a little bit about me.  

You see I happen to be a mum to 5 crazy humans - 3 boys, 2 girls to be precise.  Each kid couldn’t be more different - it’s a virtual box of smarties at my place!

They are mostly grown up now, with just 2 tweens left to fly the coup, but believe me when I tell you; I have seen it all!

Pokemon, sour warheads and tutus...

In the 22 years since I became a mum, I have seen SO many fads come and go - both for the boys and the girls.

 I have been dragged through (sometimes kicking and screaming!) colourful cloth nappies, organic baby products, Dora The Explorer, Blues Clues, The Wiggles, Transformers, light-up sneakers, Pokemon, skinny jeans, Dance Moms (*waves to Jojo Siwa*), Extreme Sour Warheads, Dr Who, bow ties, unicorns, llamas, all things gaming related, tutus, baseball caps and let’s not forget FIDGET SPINNERS.  *Shudders*.

These days it’s more about slime making, ombre hair, TikTok, Nike Air and The Mandolorian but believe me, I remember it all!  

Kids fads and their (not so cute!) obsessions are about as varied as the paint colour charts at Bunnings, and I promise you that no parent will get through unscathed!  If you never get to spend at least 12 months of your life picking Lego out of your feet, then you have not truly experienced parenting at it’s finest.  All hail the Dyson Gods! I almost cried the day that Big W started selling a permanent range of cheap Dyson vacuums!

It certainly made me appreciate what my parents must have experienced as they navigated their way through bubble skirts, hypercolor t-shirts and Cabbage Patch Kids!

When little legs outgrow the latest craze...

So about 10 years ago, these cool legwarmers for babies appeared on the scene.  As your typical trying-to-be-eco-friendly-whilst-still-being-cool-cloth-nappying-mum, I jumped on those things faster than you can crow “who has been making a cubbyhouse with my favourite bamboo sheets again, kids?”.

These legwarmers, aka “Baby Legs” aka “Huggalugs” were EVERYWHERE.  No vegan mum get together was complete without a handful of chubby babies screaming in unison and kicking their rainbow legs.

Now, as I had a baby boy at the time, my then 2-year-old and 6-year-old girls wanted in on the colourful action.  They would steal his brightly designed legwarmers and put them on their arms, under their skirts, and even tie them around their ponytails.

But the problem was, the design was for babies, so when they stretched them out to suit their lanky little legs, the effect wasn’t quite as cool.  The taller they got, the less they loved them, and the craze disappeared along with their wiggly teeth.

Somewhere along the way, one clever lady noticed just how much kids loved being able to get on board the crazy sock/legwarmer train in pursuit of developing their very own fashion style.

And when little ballerinas all over the world suddenly started to exert their independence and refuse to wear “ballet pink” tights to class, the time had come for some serious change!

As adults, especially those who live in a corporate world, wearing some funny socks can indeed be enough to brighten a typical groundhog day.

Welcome to the world, MadMia socks!

More than just colourful socks…

The thing about Madmia socks is that there is something to suit every kid! Boys included! Novelty socks come and go but these ones are always on-trend.

Whether your tween is obsessed with unicorns, a lover of bows, a social media savvy guru who only speaks “emoji” or the next wildlife warrior, there is a design that they will love.

The range is enormous and the only thing you need to worry about is whether you should keep your sunnies close by in case your kid decides to treat you with an impromptu Madmia fashion show.

Just check out these babies…

Stocking stuffers that aren't "lame"!

Of course, we are almost at the time of year again that strikes fear into the hearts of every self-respecting tween parent - Christmas!

You may have some younger siblings in the house, or you may have a late bloomer who holds onto being a “believer” - but either way, you are stuck with the quandary of finding *something* to stick in those stockings that won’t result in eye-rolling and muffled gasps of “OMG, how LAME!”.

So how about you feast your eyes on this little vision that I put together for you?

Head on over and grab a couple of pairs from the Harper Bee Madmia sock collection, and your kids are guaranteed to have the most TikTok worthy Christmas stockings you can find!

Or better still, why not grab some Madmia socks and fill them with goodies! You can start a Madmia Christmas stocking fad!

Ok folks, well thanks for the warm welcome to the Harper Bee blogosphere (I’m just assuming you are all in agreeance here!), and I’ll be back in a few days for another “Tan-talising” chat with you all (see what I did there?)”.

Tan.x

PS In case you didn't know, it's only 41 days until Christmas!