Meet Rhona - She Recommends!

Regular readers of our online magazine will probably know that my baby boy is a whopping 6ft 2inches, lives in Glasgow and recently celebrated being 22 years old.  Which means that I’m a wee bit out of the loop when it comes to ‘what-to-do-with-the-kids’ for a day.  This was never more obvious than when I was babysitting my twin eight year old nieces during the school holidays. We came down the flumes at Perth Leisure Pool, played at the South Inch Park, saw the hot movie of the month and got lost in the maze at Scone Palace. After that I was a bit stuck!

I was busy lamenting this fact to my good friend Rhona Maxwell over lunch and as a new Mum of six month old Baby Freya, she informed me she now finds herself choosing coffee stops based on ease of getting a pram in and how big is the Baby Change! The thing is, she told me between mouthfuls of Blairgowrie Berries and Homemade Ice-cream (thank-you Andrew Moss!), no-one ever publishes that stuff.  And really, that's what you actually want to know when you have your Parent L Plates on.  

You know what's coming next dont you? Before the wee chocolate truffles had been necked with the coffee we had hatched a plan that involved Rhona becoming the parent columnist for Small City! HOORAY!

As I said, Baby Freya is only just 6 months old so Rhona is currently on maternity leave and exploring all that Perth has to offer for mums, dads, babies, toddlers and kids.  We decided we could borrow older children to give the column some scope (cue my Best Auntie Award secured for another wee while!) and use our Small City Social Media to pull in all of you Perth Parents to help. 

Because I know that there must be loads to do, I know that there is walks, talks, arts, crafts, sports, books, plays and music for all ages.  As an Auntie, I just need it all to be one easy to find place and someone to have road-tested it and given it a thumbs up. As a Mum, Rhona wants the pain of where to change a bum to disappear and all the wonderful experiences of Perthshire to be laid out before her. Which is exactly what were going to do!

So far, so brilliant! Rhona is going to tell you all about cool stuff she finds to do with other Mums and Dads and their kids as well as sussing out which cafes are big enough to fit a pram in, where you can buy really lovely baby things and what should you so with two eight year old girls when its raining and they've pitched up without their swimmies!

This is our new regular column folks - #RhonaRecommends! Tell other parents, tell grannies and grandads, tell your babysitter, your sister and your brother! Rhona is going to go out and search for the best of Perthshire’s Family Friendly shops, cafes and great kids’ venues.

We’re going to run on Wednesdays – 1^st and 3^rd in the month - and we are looking for YOU to help with recommendations and ideas for our trusty Mum.  This month we're looking for your favourite places to SHOP for kids.  

Please do feel free to leave your comments and also to tell us what frustrates you... Could you help you solve any big Perth Parent questions? (We cannot solve terrible twos or bedroom stalling - these are universal!). Use the hashtag #RhonaRecommends and we'll do our best to search out an answer!

CHECK OUT Rhona's first adventure to Turtle Tots!