There’s nothing quite like spontaneous trips away from home. The excitement, the anticipation, the lack of time to actually pack the things you need… I did quite well really; I remembered drinks, I packed wellies and waterproofs, sun cream and sandwiches. I even brought the camera. We had an incredible day. The sort of day […]
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Accidental parenting: naked beans night
Just because I subscribe to the Gestapo approach to motherhood doesn’t mean that I’m totally immune to the occasional bout of Accidental Parenting. Accidental parenting refers to all those times when a lapse of good intentions create a habit so ingrained you never succeed in reversing it. The children who can’t go to sleep unless […]
Gender confusion in the hen house
Last year we acquired chickens. After a traumatic first week, during which I staple-gunned myself inside the hen house, the chooks settled in well and became part of the homestead. The children gave them names; Mrs Greedy, Queenie and Princess Layer, which cemented their roles as family members and made it difficult for us to […]
Between Ourselves: multiple births
Thank you to everyone who tuned in to listen to BBC Radio 4’s discussion programme, Between Ourselves, which today focused on what it’s like to be a mother of twins or triplets. If you’ve made your way here after listening to the show, please have a look around the site. I hope you enjoy it. […]
X marks the spot
I have been teaching my four year old son to read. He starts school this autumn and for a while has been trying to sound out words from the letters he knows. So we sit each evening for a short time and make up stories from three letter words. Not wanting to cause confusion with […]
French Kisses
I saw a friend yesterday I haven’t seen for some time. As I leant forward to kiss her she recoiled in horror. “What on earth are you doing?” I had forgotten that she doesn’t ‘do’ kissing. Once I’d reassured her that my sexual preferences had not changed, I wondered what the etiquette was around greeting […]