We're here to give you strength to survive parenting!

At WaterWipes® we know parenting can come with its challenges, so we’re here to give you strength. Multi-award-winning content creator, author and podcast host, Louise Boyce (aka Mamastillgotit_) and comedian, Chantel Nash hosted a Bring Your Baby Comedy Gig for parents to launch our new wipes that are now twice as strong. Because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.

With four in ten UK parents turning to humour to cope with the messier side of parenting, we asked Louise and Chantel to flex those parenting muscles, with a little help from humour and a lot of realness. Here’s some of their best jokes, tips and anecdotes to get you through, alongside some from our community.

Chantel’s anecdotes to give you strength

On breastfeeding: I did extended breastfeeding with both my kids. Yeah, it messed me right up. I actually call my boobs "the working girls" and my son was their best client. People said, "Oh you don't need to worry about trying to stop breastfeeding. Your child will let you know when they're ready to stop. But in the case of my son, that did always feel like a conversation I was going to have to have with his wife.
On ‘teaching moments’: I asked my 6-year-old this: "Etta, today, you're going to plan our journey to school... Can you think of a way to school that crosses the least amount of roads?"  She looked up from her breakfast and said, "Mummy, that feels like a you problem.
On brutal honesty: I heard my daughter say to my partner, "Do you want to do it, Daddy?" And he said, "Do what, sweetheart?" And she said, “do you want to jump on her fat belly?  But the maddest thing about that wasn't the fact my 6-year-old fat shamed me.  It was that my partner replied, jump on her bum instead. It’s much bigger!
On gentle parenting: People also say gentle parenting is easy because the love you have for your kids is infinite, it's limitless. But I can tell you precisely where the limit of my love lies. It lies between the 4th and 5th time I have to ask my kids to do anything.
On wipes: I once used a certain brand of wet wipe (not WaterWipes®) that was neither wet nor able to wipe. My son was pretty chubby when he was a baby. More rolls than the bakery chubby. He had a really chubby bum with the deepest bum crack. These wipes were so dry every time I tried to wipe his bum the wipe would tear in the middle of his bum crack. I’d be left holding a tiny corner of wipe and he’d be left with this little white flag sticking out of his butt cheeks like he was trying to surrender in battle.

Louise’s best tips to give you strength:

Lower the bar: Dinner doesn’t have to be homemade, organic, and shaped like a woodland creature. Sometimes beige food is a balanced diet. Fish fingers, nuggets, waffles = food groups.
Silence: School WhatsApp groups. Mute. Them. All. Save your strength for real emergencies, not debates over “World Book Day” costumes. Unless you want to spend three hours arguing if pyjamas count as literature.
Bribery: It’s just a strong word for “creative parenting.” Never underestimate its power. “Yes, you can have an ice cream if you just please get in the bloody car.”
Choose your battles: Shoes on the wrong feet? Character pants over trousers? Going to the shops dressed as Spider-Man? If it gets you out the door, it’s a win.
Laugh at the chaos: Wee in the bath? Poo up the back? Sick in your hair? Grab your WaterWipes®, clean up and write it off as “content.” Remember: if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry (and then laugh about crying).

Our campaign has encouraged the parenting community to share their own disasters too:

Dazzler86: My husband was running the London Marathon (his dream) and we were tracking him round and it had lost connection just coming into the last mile, so coming through at any minute. “mummy, I need a poo”. The nearest toilet was a 5 minute walk away, through a crowd. My mum pulls out the empty sandwich bag and my 4 year old takes a poo in a sandwich bag, on marathon day. I’m sure there must be CCTV of that somewhere.
Muchavaira37: I woke up to my son literally covered head to toe in code brown. I mean everywhere, mouth included and all over my wall and the cot. He was smiling away at me. I really didn't know where to start. This was 7.30 am.
Sarah_po: Before I even had kids, I remember a friend telling me she had done a major clean up job then hours later flopped on the sofa and turned on the telly to find S*** HANDPRINTS all across the screen. I still went ahead and had my own kids.
Excapeartist: My husband will always remind me of the time when our small daughter shouted from the top of the stairs ‘I’m sticky!’ We both ran to the code brown over her cot and walls.

Our new WaterWipes are 2x stronger†: "WaterWipes have introduced an enhanced wipe design that is twice as strong, with increased thickness and softness—delivering superior cleaning performance while maintaining our pure, trusted formulation. Read more.

^{†material than previous WaterWipes}