My elderly neighbours invited the children and I to accompany them to church for the harvest festival service. The promise of a buffet lunch clinched the deal for me, the cupboards being bare apart from this year’s glut of runner beans. We packed a pound or so of said beans into a basket to present […]
The Big Surprise
My husband has been particularly spectacular recently, and I decided he deserved something a little bit special for his birthday. He’s a keen golfer, so I eventually settled on a surprise break at The Belfry (spiritual home of the Ryder Cup, for those of you who find the sport as yawnsome as I do) and […]
Snobbery in the cutlery drawer
I have a very expensive tin opener. I bought it in one of those kitchenware shops which make you feel you have to speak in whispers and tell the children not to touch anything. It was an impulse buy some time ago; I was seduced by the sleek design and its promise of jagged-free edges, […]
Disappearing: 1in4
I don’t do a lot of campaigning on this blog. That’s not to say that I don’t feel strongly about a number of issues, just that I choose not to use More than just a Mother for political rants and social debates. I was contacted this week by someone seeking to raise awareness of domestic […]
The nanny is leaving
The nanny is leaving. I’ve known this for weeks – after all, I was the one who gave her notice. I was the one who made the decision to work from home, to manage childcare and the school run around work, and to let our very own super-nanny know that there wouldn’t be a job […]
No longer the Uber Mother
For several years I have graciously worn the title of Uber Mother, afforded to me largely because of the fifteen month accidental age gap between my three progeny. This is a happy by-product of fertility; friends and family consider you to be a paragon of motherhood purely by virtue of the number of children you […]