“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching,” Dickens wrote — but it took an unlucky roll of the genetic dice for me to realise that expectations, specifically the unmet ki... Read More
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As my 17-year-old son offered to scrape the decayed remnants of a dead fox off the boiler room floor in return for cash, I contemplated the upside of one's children growing older.
... Read More
Christmas has always been a happy and important time for me. It has nothing to do with Jesus and certainly not presents, instead it’s a time to celebrate family and enjoy uninterrupted time tog... Read More
In my youth I was obsessed with the type of books and TV shows that depicted rich American families who did not take holidays in the way in which I understood holidays existed but rather they “... Read More
It’s that time of year again, the school summer holidays are just around the corner, there is sun in the sky and many people are preparing themselves for a trip abroad. I was meant to be going ... Read More
Is part of getting older realising that you simply cannot do it all?
I don’t know about you, but when I was younger I may have secretly believed that I was invincible. That I could fall ou... Read More
Boomer knows how to tell the time. Like all dogs, his sense of smell is so keen that he can track the tiny changes in our scent in the air and associate it with a specific time of the day. Like walki... Read More
I lost my grandmother's 1920s diamond pendant. The huge diamond was given to me before my wedding day. I wore it almost every day over the last 17 years on a chain alongside a cheap s... Read More
I was in a meeting when my phone started vibrating and I saw the dreaded words "School Office" flash up. Any parent will recognise the palpable fear that rushes through your body when... Read More
I might be tempting fate here, but I feel like we’ve hit a bit of a Family Sweet Spot. Maybe it’s the autumnal festivities. Maybe it’s the age of the boys. Maybe it’s the more... Read More
The summer is officially over and we can send the kids back to their jailors for a few hours while we attempt to remember the password to our work laptops. And yet it's deathly quiet….too ... Read More
It’s no secret that I am fascinated by language. While at college, a wonderful Professor of Italian had spotted the quiet girl at the back of the class, with her head buried in a poetry book, a... Read More
Like many people with school age children we’ve just returned from our summer holiday. In the past we’ve always stayed in England and saved a break abroad for October half term but ... Read More
The worst thing any parent can do is compare their child to another. It is harming and hurtful. My parents used to compare my siblings and I to our first cousins when we were younger and ... Read More
“I don’t remember it ever raining in the summer when I was a child” I commented to a friend as we sat drinking coffee in hoodies and fluffy socks in what can only be described as a ... Read More
Does life get less enchanting as you get older? Or is it just that you forget where to find the magic?
Childhood lends itself quite well to magic. Everything in the world has the potential for e... Read More
Meanwhile, like Dick Whittington in pursuit of better career opportunities and a more favourable tax regime, it looks like Mr D is moving to Saudi Arabia.
I should have known because Red m... Read More
We moved into our terraced house as a recently married couple. For a long time the sound of our feet on the floorboards echoed against the bare walls of sparsely furnished rooms.
14 years,... Read More
My eldest daughter turns seven this month and I can’t lie its making me feel many things:
Old
Nostalgic
Excited
Apprehensive
She is beyond excited – she... Read More
The last blog I wrote was about the summer holidays ( link ) and I am writing this in early December with chocolate advent calendars already started.
I am sure that like many of you juggling wor... Read More
Growing up as a child, the choral tones of "Holidays are coming" blasting through your home signified the start of the Christmas holidays and yuletide greetings. As a fully grown adult with... Read More
It’s been a busy few years. Actually, I feel like I have not drawn breath since forever, due to a number of things happening one after the other. It started with my mother-in-law’s death ... Read More
Much as I love to go to the theatre, the homework I like to oversee least is drama. First there's the painful line by line repetition, then the addition of exaggerated expression and finall... Read More
It’s that time of year when we book our group family ski holiday. I skied once aged 8 on a school trip, hated it, vowed never to do it again. As an adult in my ... Read More
It’s not the outburst I expected when I unpicked my friend’s four-year-old son from the wall. He knew play was over seeing me stride over after repeated cries to “get off the wall&r... Read More
It’s now the first week of September and by Tuesday we are all back at school and work, for until half term. Uniforms were dug out, PE kits found, shoes tried on - and that was just the a... Read More
School starts back next week, and what had appeared as a long road ahead two months ago, has in fact flown. Here in Ireland, the school term finishes even earlier than it did in London. Those school ... Read More
Daughter has lost her mojo. This time last year she was looking forward to starting college and immersing herself into her subjects of choice: art, graphic design and photography. Fast-forward to tod... Read More
It’s one of those watershed moments: our firstborn is starting secondary school in September, she’s just got a phone and she's starting to go out and about on her own. Keen to encoura... Read More