My daughter is asleep on me, her warm body fused into mine. I am typing with one hand; a skill learned nearly six years ago during hours of breastfeeding. My daughter sleeps, and I hold her the way I held her as a baby. I drop my lips to the top of her head, but instead […]
Parenting
The Night Before Christmas: a poem for parents
It’s the night before Christmas and all through the land, Mothers are pacing, the wine close to hand. Have we bought enough presents? Have we got the right ones? Is Rupert too little to play with Nerf guns? When’s your mother arriving? How long is she staying? She always drinks more when she’s not the […]
Five Christmas Cards You Really Shouldn't Send
Surely it’s time to ditch the Christmas cards? Rising postage costs; the ever-decreasing rain forests; that slipped disk Postie got last year… despite all the reasons not to, we still waste time and money giving a card to people we see every day. If you simply MUST write them, here are five cards you really […]
There is a punch line to grief
There is a punch line to grief that no one tells you. You won’t find it in the leaflets you clutch as you leave the hospital, or in the waiting room when you go to register the death. It won’t be in the platitudes from family and friends, or in the order of service you […]
Christmas Countdown: How to be a Smug Mother
Christmas is coming and the corn-fed, hand-reared goose is getting fat. Up and down the ‘shires Smug Mothers are glowing with festive pride as they prepare for family celebrations Kirstie Allsop would be proud of. But Smug Motherhood doesn’t come naturally to us all, and if you’re struggling to keep up with the Bingham-Joneses, I’ve […]
Eating out
I took the children out for lunch the other day, and caught the tiniest glimpse of someone so like my father my breath caught in my chest. I used to love having meals out with my parents. It didn’t happen all the time, which made it all the more exciting, but at birthdays and on […]