In Memoriam – Part II


family & parenting

My 6 year old son is more sentimental about the past than his Great Grandmother who was born in 1920. And yet… he combines this nostalgia (for when he was a small boy, that day when I let him have 3 polos, the time he found a stick in the park, the birthday party three […]

25th May 2014

Pot(ty) Luck


family & parenting, incontinence

I loathe the phrase ‘quality time’. Possibly because I can’t work out what it means. And I am both suspicious and indignant about things when I don’t know what they mean (and everyone else seems to). I’m told my husband and I should have more of it. And I should feel guilty for not spending […]

16th September 2013

Don’t Touch


family & parenting

My favourite parenting nightmare is when a simple conversation with a toddler is revealed later to have a different, often diametrically opposite meaning to each participant. Or indeed when many conversations appear to have been at cross purposes. Such as in February when we realised the toddler thought that the word for the ladder on […]

9th May 2013

Wobble


family & parenting

Eldest child has his first wobbly tooth. This is the sort of thing which makes me feel unimaginably old, but also so very young and green and quick. It unites the child me and the grown up me, sheds light on the foolish me of my twenties when I was clear I’d leave a twenty […]

9th April 2013

The power of chocolate – Part One


family & parenting

Easter. So much sweet stuff; so little time. My lads love chocolate, though Newborn has a faith of sorts in cocoa. He attacks eggs and bunnies, crams so much in his mouth. He’s prepared to let a third dribble away to get the rest in, and he scoffs with suspicious eyes. They are live with […]

13th April 2012

The biggest insult


family & parenting

I was prepared, if apprehensive, for school and the complex battering process of growing up my son would be entering in to. His socialisation, so to speak. I say prepared, I mean aware, aware and slightly worried about it. My lad, my lovely, naive, curious, beautiful lad with all his silliness and ghosts of toddler […]

1st February 2012

Tick Tock


family & parenting

I was going to write a letter to my son on starting school and Oh, my little one, there is so very much to say. About how wonderful you are and how my dreams for you reach high and wide (in that I know your strengths and gifts and delicious potential). And then how they, […]

23rd September 2011

No windows to see our London…


family & parenting

So as Spider-boy’s first day of school approaches I have a lot planned. In my usual overdrive I am very keen to have some fun with him, to enjoy our last hurrah of Mummy and Spider-boy time. We hatched a plan: to go riding on an open-topped bus tour of London. It’s hard to tell […]

18th September 2011

Split seconds


family & parenting

A lot can happen in a second. So the phone rings, when I am in my office. ‘Is that Spider-boy’s mother?’ says a voice I don’t know. She has used his full name and her tone is neutral. I pause. Just for a second. Catching a bit of breath in the back of my throat. […]

26th July 2011

Good News


family & parenting

Here’s some good news. With background. When I was 7 months pregnant with Spider-boy, a colleague and friend took me to the side. She had her first son in his pram and she wanted to give me a warning. She said that though lots of people would tell me that giving birth was the happiest […]

10th June 2011