I’ve always been competitive. It is called the human race, after all. But blow me, can parenting be tough on the defensive. Draw your short swords. Pull on your helmet and sandals. It is all about combat round here. The better he can speak the more Spider-boy fights with us – wrestling with meanings and […]
I often think that what I love most about children is their brutality. A searingly honest take on life, unsullied by any social expectations. My little sisters used to cry and protest when our mother sang them (tuneless but enthusiastic) lullabies. Last weekend I saw my best friend’s glorious meringues dismissed as ‘disgusting’ by her […]
I found Spider-boy at the weekend. I found him, on Saturday, in a shop in Kew Gardens. The wonderful, intoxicating Kew Gardens. He was playing with a giraffe toy and looking at a display of plastic animals with the uncomplicated concentration of a small child perfectly and properly absorbed in a game of his own […]
Parenting is a lot about storytelling. Already there are family stories kicking around our house. They are a messy, good-natured, gleeful mix of ours and other people’s; assorted anecdote scraps ready to be sewn into one brilliant mismatched quilt of funny things toddlers/grandmas/parents/teachers et al have said and done. The beauty of babies, the naivete […]
Bestfriend, she of many previous wise words and catcher of tears, has embraced positive thinking about schoolgate-gate. She arrived with her family for pizzas and plastic car games in the garden last night. As our kids frolicked in the evening sun I realised she was toting a bottle of Champagne. Why? To celebrate getting into […]
So D-day is upon us and we find out today where Spider-boy goes to school. And the likelihood is he will go to a school that on paper is quite poor sounding, but in reality, well, has nice classrooms a good vibe, kids who like it there and is the school nearest his house. I’ve […]
Well, less snails, but I was eating lunch today with some fabulous, self-confessed former spogs (smug parents of girls), talking kids and gender politics. They have a wonderful 4 year old girl and a beautiful one year old boy, we have two lads 3.5 and just over 0. We were speculating not only on how […]
On a more instantaneously cheery note, two things today made me beam with pride. Firstly, spiderboy, my number1 son, was literally spidered today. His face painted red and black at nursery, with his playmates a rainbow of witches, superheroes, butterflies and cows. As I type I am still finding glorious face paint smears on my […]