As soon as I heard about this week’s Gallery theme I knew which picture I had to use. This one: All right, all right, I admit it’s not a true instance of mother love. Keen observers will have spotted that this is not a child. It’s the divine Mme Bovary again, and it’s not even …
A bit of a shock today. I was having a cappuccino with the lovely S after our usual gruelling twice-round-the-park training schedule when we chanced upon a fellow mummy who shall be known only as D. Talk moved, as it inexorably does, to the question of work. Apparently there are those who consider that the …
I must admit I puzzled over the Census. What on earth do you do if you don’t have a traditional nuclear family? We have two adults who are permanent residents, and a floating population of four children, with two separate other homes. So sometimes we are six, sometimes four. Sometimes we are two. And often any …
We have had a lot of concern about the move. Concern over our cat, that is. For some reason, people assume that humans deal reasonably well with stress. They even believe that I can deal with it, despite having no evidence whatsoever to back this assumption up. But the cat? Concerned voices, whispers, sympathy, even …
I sometimes write for the great parents’ website Ready for Ten and a recent post on sleepovers got some comments suggesting a lot of people feel under pressure to have children round for the night when they aren’t really that keen on the idea. It struck me that even the simple idea of the sleepover …
We thought we were buying rather a grown-up house. But, in the last week, I realise we’ve actually taken up residence in a commune. As I’m writing, there are two radios blaring out – one is Five Live, with the latest cricket scores, and another is an Asian station I’ve already grown quite fond of, …
So the move is finally over. It’s fair to say that there have been a few teething troubles. I went into the garage yesterday armed with many bin bags, to tackle the freezer. I was pretty sure its contents, having been left a-mouldering for the best part of a fortnight, would be quite capable of …
Ten things not to do while moving house 1. Lose track of the wet washing that was in the washing machine 2. Ask the movers to store 60 boxes of kitchen stuff in the garage until the kitchen is constructed some time in May. Then realise that somewhere in those boxes is the wet washing. …
I was warned to wear waterproof mascara at the Tesco Magazine Mum of the Year Awards 2011. I wasn’t warned not to whinge to anyone who’d listen beforehand about the horrors of not being able to find the kettle after moving house. Shallow? Yup, I definitely felt it as eight amazing mums came up on …
My lovely friend Z, who lives in California, has sent me a link to a New York Times article on parents killing their teenage children. Now everyone knows my own children are perfectly behaved *ahem* *ahem ahem* (I really must get some lozenges for my persistent tickly cough) but there are moments when I’ve been sorely …