Last week I had the following conversation with a friend.
Friend: Are you coming on the coach-trip to Blackpool?
Me: No. I didn’t fancy it with Arch. He hates being strapped in a seat. Making him sit still for three hours there and three hours back is something I’d rather avoid. Continue reading “If adults are different why should children be the same?” →
I went up to my study last week and screamed. For reasons, that perhaps only a five-year-old can understand, Arch had pulled every one of my books from my shelves and hurled them in a spine-bent, cover-ripped pile on the floor. Continue reading “If I can’t remember it, is it still a part of me?” →
There I was making all the preparations for Arch’s fifth birthday – cake (tick), presents (tick), balloons (tick), card (tick).
“Now darling,” I said. “There’s something you need to learn and it’s very important. Continue reading “Arch says “thank you” – and makes me sad” →
For me, there have been few surprises about motherhood. There have been some, for sure, but in general Arch, who is now almost five, has brought me the awe, exhaustion, love, fun and general all-round blissedoutness I had always anticipated. Continue reading “Having a baby has made me want a baby even more” →
The problem with Christmas is that it’s based on the notion that having dinner with our extended families is a jolly good thing.
I wonder where that idea came from. Continue reading “Who put the word ‘merry’ next to ‘Christmas’?” →
Last time I blogged, I was asking for help.
My pride at my four-year-old son, Arch, felt so overwhelming I felt it should not be seen in public. I wondered how other parents handled (or concealed) this obscenely primitive emotion. Continue reading “Why I was not proud to see Arch being a star in his nativity play” →
There’s pride and there’s parental pride and they are two different things.
The pride I take in my own achievements, I can handle – after all my achievements aren’t all that great. Continue reading “Help parents help! My pride is obscene” →
There were tears, of course, when Arch had his first day at school – and they were all mine.
They started on Friday when I dropped him off at nursery for his last day there. I came home and wept those kind of from-the-belly tears that go on for a long time. Continue reading “First day at school” →
I get heartily sick of the challenge of raising a family being characterised in terms of work-life balance.
Who thought of that phrase? Continue reading “Work-life balance? That’s the least of it.” →
As an anal person, I never used to understand why some people lived in a mess. I just didn’t get untidiness, because I’m someone who is never happier than when everything is in its place.
Now I can explain it. It’s called living with a small goat toddler. (Motherhood) Continue reading “I have a tidy house (almost) for the first time in four years” →