Parenting

Ah, the end of the school term. Traditionally a time to reflect on one’s performance and consider areas for improvement. So how did I do? Let’s compare my performance at the start of the term, a mere ten or so weeks ago, with the final week of term. Then: packed lunches made the night before […]

A while ago I wrote about Naked Beans Night – the family tradition I started by accident when my children were babies. Recently I was invited to share my tale with the listeners of CBC Radio, Canada’s national public broadcaster, as a guest on a programme about the lessons children learn by accident. I duly ensconced myself […]

Mother has three children. Two thirds of her children have bad coughs. One child with a cough wakes three times each night, the remaining child with a cough wakes twice as much. The third child has no cough but has eight tantrums between 7am and 7pm – twice as many as the other two children […]

My children adore Harry Potter. It’s not the most age-appropriate films to watch with pre-school children, but it keeps them quiet while I’m looking for the gin*. Viewings are interspersed with fierce outbreaks of role-play; Josh (the oldest) bags the part of Harry, Evie takes on Hermione (she has the hair) and poor Georgie is […]

It’s been a month since we said farewell to the nanny and I took over the reins of full-time motherhood once again. In this time I have realised the following; I didn’t pay the nanny nearly enough. Thinking of creative and nutritious meals (and then cooking them) is quite a challenge. Three children produce a […]

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 […]