I recently received a text from a friend that because she hadn’t made a new year’s resolution, she decided to make a late one now. The decision was that she wanted us mothers to have more nights out. And she means – proper nights out. You know the ones, skip dinner, straight to cocktails, followed by more drinks and then dancing in a dingy club. The concept sounded messy. We hadn’t done this for a while. Although, I have to admit, I love to dance. I can’t put my finger on it but something makes us all feel incredibly free when we go out dancing. So, despite my initial reservations, I felt compelled to say yes please!

Watching a male friend of mine go wild at a wedding a few weeks ago put things into perspective. He was so ‘in the moment’, badly dancing with his hands in the air and eyes closed, I had to take a minute myself just to watch him. He was completely lost in the wedding band’s version of The Killers, Mr. Brightside and he did not care about anything…for that moment.

So, what is it that makes us feel so free when we go out dancing? Seriously, it’s like letting tigers out of a cage. It could be partly the alcohol, but perhaps it just makes us feel young again. I am not even saying we are old. I believe us parents are in the prime of our lives, but getting nearer to whether for you it’s the big 3-0 or the epic 4-0, makes me think, dancing simply makes us feel twenty-one again. Any thoughts of our children escape us for a short time while we self indulgently focus on our dance moves and perhaps more importantly, just being ourselves. And for those few, noisy hours; we feel incredible.

Naturally, we think we must look amazing whilst this is occurring. Surely others must be impressed by our dancing as drinking seems to have turned all of us into professional dancers. Isn’t it fascinating how that happens. However, I do only ever seem to have one regret whilst in the club, which is that I always make the wrong decision of dancing right next to the loudest speaker I can find. Why do we do that? My ears are normally still ringing two days later.

For those that know we well, I am like a crazy person on the dance floor. It happens. It comes over me and I can’t stop it. If I’m out with my husband, there will come a point when he will walk away and pretend he does not know me. So proud. But that’s ok. You may be asking yourself what kind of dance moves is Guilty Mother talking about that would actually make your partner slowly walk away in shame. Well, Billy Jean is a particular specialty, along with abit of salsa mix, some robot moves and if I’ve peaked, then some Russian dancing is a possibility. Therefore, good friends of mine will know when I’m peaking. It starts with Billy and ends with Russian. By the time I reach the robot moves, that is normally when my husband calls time and thinks we should go home. He prefers that we don’t reach the Russian stage.

I really hope I am not the only person in the world that has these dancing traits? Help me out Guilty Mothers. I’m sure you all have some awesome shapes you like to express. You know the ones, heavy shopping, the ping pong, stacking shelves, pulp fiction, the robot. Don’t pretend it doesn’t. It’s time to embrace what I will now refer to as ‘Mother Moves’. I am wondering if I should upload some YouTube videos of these moves.

So all this drinking, giggling and dancing sounds enticing right? Well, feel free and party the night away, but don’t forget the children will wake you at 6am after you have had four hours sleep. Apparently children are not respectful of the hangover. You can read more about ‘The Hangover’ in next week’s blog!

So, on that note, in the words of 50 Cent himself, you can find me ‘In Da Club’ throwing some mother moves.