Parenting

I love my children best when they’re fresh out of the bath. When the excesses of the day are beginning to fade, and sleep is sneaking up on them despite their attempts to thwart it. They bathe together but are dried separately, taking it in turns to slip out of the soapy water into my […]

I am a Bad Mother. And a Bad Wife. I’ve been both those things at various intervals over the years, but not generally at the same time. In fact I usually find I can either be a very good wife, at the expense of the children, or a very good mother, at the expense of […]

I can’t watch Ballamory any more. PC Plum’s apparently innocuous daily visits to the supposedly demure Miss Hoolie? Honestly, you know as well as I do that they’re straight in that stationery cupboard the minute our backs are turned… Miss Hoolie was drooly for PC Plum’s truncheon, Succumbed to his charms and had a wee […]

Mary Poppins arrived with us at the start of the year, in preparation for my full-time return to work. I’m not sure of the correct criteria for assessing a nanny’s performance, but I’d say she’s been a resounding success. She hasn’t resigned, the children don’t cry when I leave them (although they do often cry […]

Why does it have to be so fucking hard? I thought time was supposed to be a great healer? Well you know what? It still hurts like I’ve been punched in the solar plexus. Tomorrow my little boy will be three years old, and if life wasn’t so cruel I’d now be writing two birthday […]

The promise of a holiday has been in existence since the beginning of the year. Ever present but tantalisingly out of reach; always just too far ahead to get excited about. As work has become increasingly stressful I have stolen just a few minutes to look again at the web page; at the beautiful house […]