We now have our first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The circumstances of her ascent to the top job were tumultuous -  Labor party MPs made the decision to oust Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and backed Gillard as his successor. Rudd stepped down when it became clear that Gillard had the numbers to win a caucus vote.

Political manoueverings aside, I feel buoyed by the week’s events – as a woman, a mother and an Australian.

With hard work, intelligence  and no family or money connections, Julia Gillard has worked her way up and taken the most powerful job in Australia and that fact makes me so happy for my daughters that really and truly, they can do anything they want. It doesn’t matter that we won’t be sending them to one of the more prestigious Melbourne private schools. Of course, with privilege comes great opportunities but that is no guarantee to success and happiness. (How many privileged offspring have failed to thrive and gone off the rails?)

On a more personal note, the fact that Julia Gillard is Welsh (she migrated to Australia at age 3) is an added pleasure. My husband is Welsh and it is a country I adore. I am looking forward to taking my girls there at some stage to see where their dad and grandparents are from. (My mother-in-law lives in a west Wales village and it feels like my second home.)

The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd was on my home patch today.

He rocked up to a popular shopping precinct and was greeted by a throng of media (I was one of them) and locals (I was also one of them) who were snapping away with their mobile phones and thrusting their kids forward for the PM to meet.

It’s not every day you get to see your leader up close and personal.

I was watching a music channel countdown of the top 20 hits of the 80s the other night. “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles came on and it reminded me of the times I would get up early to tape music off the radio.

I can clearly remember one morning desperately waiting to tape “Walk Like an Egyptian” (it was number one on the charts at the time) and making sure I paused when the ads came on so that I could ensure a seamless (well, as seamless as recording on a tape deck could be) listening experience on my pink ghetto blaster.

The point is this took commitment and planning. There was work involved in the creation of a mix-tape. (It was 1986 and I was 10 so I had limited funds to get cassette singles.)

These days, you simply have to load stuff on iTunes or click a few buttons to buy stuff online and voila! You have an instant mix-tape. (Well, mixed MP3.) I’m not bemoaning the technology. I access it and love it too but I can remember the days before technology made things so…easy, I guess.

Having two kids of my own now I am quite worried about how technology will be integrated into their lives. I didn’t used a computer until I was 14 (remember the black and green screens?) and didn’t own a mobile phone until I was 19. I really feel like my generation are the luckiest because we grew up free of distractions like Facebook, MSN Messenger, mobile phones and iPods. (I use all of these things and think they are great but in small doses.)

All I can think is thank God there were no mobile phone with cameras to capture mistakes I made, or YouTube to upload my youthful indescretions. I am so relieved I could make my mistakes and learn from them without the constant reminder of a photo snapped on a phone. We had a refuge from troubles at school and that was at home without Facebook, MSN or MySpace as another vehicle for people to harass you.

I have no idea what it will be like when my preschoolers hit their “tweens” or “twihards” or whatever that age is called these days…I still like the term kids!

 (At the moment I am adament they won’t get a phone until high school. Or go out with boys until they are 18. Hell, we just want to keep them indoors until they are at least 21! )

I flip between worry that this interest is going to give her unrealistic expectations about what it means to be a girl and her role in the world, and then enjoyment in watching the dvds (Little Mermaid, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty mostly) and playing with the dolls. We role play the stories (she is the wicked stepmother and I play Cinderella) and when I ask her what she wants to be when she is older the reply is “a mermaid and marry Prince Eric”. (My friend said it’s good she wants to be a mermaid because they can’t have s-x!)

Lately she has been very choosy about what she wears and if there is an item I put on her that she doesn’t like there will be tears, tantrums and screams of “I don’t look pretty in that”. This attitude worries me. The general advice from friends and the staff at her childcare is that it is a phase.  I am not a “girly-girl” or someone who is very fashionable or cares that much what I wear so I am  finding it challenging having a child who changes her clothes five times a day and only wants to wear dresses (I rarely wear dresses and when I do she says “mum, you look pretty. I want to look just like you.” That melts my heart and then I realise I should relish the moment because she ain’t going to be saying that in 10 years!)

I have written previously about not worrying about gender-specific toys and I think there is a mini-hysteria from parents who want to be seen to be hip and cool and edgy by eschewing the kinds of toys that we played happily with as kids (dolls, My Little Pony, Barbie, Fisher Price).

What I do like about the Disney Princesses is that there is a sweetness and innocence to them but also gutsiness. Ariel is inquisitive and adventurous, Snow White is kind and Pocahontas has dreams and drive (I realise Disney has taken some liberties with the hitorical accuracy of the story though.) Bratz on the other hand… they are never setting their platform-wedged feet in our house!

One of my regular questions to these devoted couples is “what are your secrets to a successful marriage?”.

I am always waiting with my breath held for a nugget of advice that is so amazing that it will change my life but to be honest, the replies from these couples are simple (they admit as much that there is no complicated formula) and ones that many of us have heard before. Here are some examples:

1. Don’t let the sun go down on an argument.

2. Love each other.

3. Be kind to each other.

Seems so simple but I have failed on all three counts (and endless other marriage-enriching strategies) at times. I have been married eight years in October this year and I think that is a really long time! It has flown by as well, which is as startling as the fact I have sustained a relationship for this long! (My one other significant and  long-ish relationship was ballsed up by me being incredibly selfish, impulsive and confused in the way that defines some people’s early twenties.)

I have gone to bed completely enraged with my husband and have woken up with sleep not quietening the rage. I have been very unkind to him and have definitely had times where love has definitely had nothing to do with the relationship.

That’s normal, or so I have been told.

But on this Valentine’s Day we have our two daughters as a reminder that we are very blessed. I also have a partner who is on the same page as  me on things like movie tastes (He thought Mission: Impossible II was crap. Ditto Love, Actually…apart from the bit when Emma Thompson’s character receives the Joni Mitchell CD and plays ‘Both Sides Now’) and reads and watches as much news as I do.  (We were watching BBC World News the other night with a cup of tea… not sexy or exciting but perfectly enjoyable!) We have a similar sense of humour too. Some of this seems so superficial as I write but I find it comforting to be on a similar wavelength.

Post-It note: Kindness. Love. Sort out arguments promptly.

See our bookshelf below (Note the Go Duster. It has become more of a toy for our daughter than used by us as a cleaning aid!):

Children's books are impossible to stack neatly, no matter how many times you rearrange them.

Several times a day my husband and I find ourselves re-stacking the shelves and trying to work out new ways to make it look neat. (Since having kids I have discovered that I like neatness and order. Sorry, Mum for all those years where you could not see my bedroom floor for all the clothes and books and stuff!)

The bookshelf actually looks relatively neat in the photo because the kids are at daycare today.

(The Jack-O-Lanterns were a fantastic op shop find yesterday for 99c each. Our three-year-old is very interested in witches and Halloween and ghosts at the moment. I hope this is not a sign she will become a Goth or an Emo?!)