One of the many challenging aspects of sharing my house with two other adults (in my case the nanny and my husband) is that I can never be quite certain at whom to direct my wrath when something goes awry. Was it my husband who left the Wensleydale unwrapped, or the nanny? Was that wet […]
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Neglectful Mother
I am a terrible mother. I have always suspected it, but tonight it has been unequivocally confirmed. I had to work today (that’s not the bit that makes me a terrible mother, although I accept it may be a contributory factor) and as the nanny doesn’t come at weekends my mother came over to look after the […]
Granny Hobo
I went to London a few weeks ago for A Very Important Meeting. I arrived far too early and walked surreptitiously past my destination to make sure I was in the right place, whilst adopting the nonchalant air of one who is merely passing. There was a pub at the end of the road and I tried […]
Networking and blind dates
My friend K is terribly good at networking. She’s extraordinarily well connected (although happily very casual about it) and very generous with her time and her contacts. I’d love to be a useful sort of person in that respect, but since practically the only people I know are my mother and my next door neighbour, […]
No sympathy here: the Nazi-parenting approach to illness
My son has chicken pox. When the nanny rang to tell me (yes, I do know how that makes me sound. To make it worse, I wasn’t even at work – I was gallivanting about in London at a lingerie press preview) I let out a silent whoop of delight. You see, I’d been rather […]
How much is too much?
I picked up a text at work the other day which made me laugh out loud. I explained to my curious colleague that apparently my four year old son had just informed his teacher that he and his sisters came out of my vagina. “Oh my God!” She exclaimed. “Who on earth told him that?” […]