Hollie McNish

Quick sketch of thoughts on the advertising industry after reading another article blaming mothers’ at work for children’s issues… take her! i am too tired i am too small Quick sketch of thoughts on the advertising industry after reading another article blaming mothers’ at work for children’s issues… take her! david did not beat goliath i don’t believe it anymore so come pour all your fucking sweeties at each checkout where we’re standing coat your cereals in cartoons your happy meals in shit free toys your fizzy drinks endorsed by all her favourite kid celebrities , she’s yours make another fucking million feeding her your shit then telling her she’s shit for eating all your shit then selling her your fix I’m told mothers are to blame for obesity and body shame I’m standing at the checkout

She spies something with her little eye beginning with…cloud. She starts again: I spy with my little eye something beginning with cloud. She takes two minutes to peel and eat it and I close my eyes to ease the sting of tiredness a little, holding her hand as I do, just to be sure. She asks if this is the chocolate train.

Just wrote this after walking by the graveyard I walk past each day. Not sure a title yet: the headstones look so cold for flowers plucked to wilt upon as people pass and count my years don’t shove me in another urn so bored I’d be up there alone go mourn me – if you want to mourn – somewhere we have loved to be down both prosecco shots for me go snuggle in the cinema read a whole book on the couch get your arse up on a dancefloor climb up to the Campsie fells flash the whole world far below yours tits or arse or cock I promise I’ll be there with you

If UK breastfeeding rates were purely a case of random personal choice by each new mother, then, if plotted onto a graph, there would be no correlation between those mothers who ‘choose’ to breastfeed / continue breastfeeding and any specific social, cultural, economic or political factors which affect different people across the UK. Fewer women ‘choose’ to breastfeed / continue breastfeeding whose jobs do not offer flexible working patterns or who work for employers they do not feel comfortable talking to about possible options which may allow them to continue breastfeeding or expressing during work hours. Fewer women ‘choose’ to breastfeed / continue breastfeeding if their family and friends are not knowledgeable or supportive about breastfeeding Fewer women ‘choose’ to breastfeed / continue breastfeeding who have been exposed to little or no examples of breastfeeding in their lives previous to giving birth. Every time I see articles about a mother’s choice, or articles pointing blame at mothers in the UK for these low rates, or even supposedly positive articles trying to convince mothers to ‘choose’ to breastfeed whilst offering no support regarding any of these outside factors, it makes me want to be sick all over the graph paper.