A year ago today, I walked out of my beloved office for the last time, switching from a 17 year career in financial services to the unknown world of freelance writing from home. I say 'beloved' without a hint of sarcasm - I loved my office very much. It was a slightly odd shape, but the ...
As I lay on my bed yesterday evening, my four-year-old suddenly bounced onto my rib-cage WWE style, and it struck me that parenting involves a fair amount of physical pain. And endurance. And sometimes bravery, while holding back tears. Today is just a regular day, but putting trousers on the wrestler involved being kicked; manhandling him into ...
A zit, a coldsore and a bout of hayfever walk into a bar... And that's the end of the joke, because let's face it, a zit, a coldsore and a bout of hayfever in the same place at the same time really isn't funny. Which is exactly how I felt when I woke up last Tuesday ...
This really, really is the best chocolate cake in the world. So much so, it's worth going through the drama of baking with kids, just to eat it. Announce that today’s activity is baking, then bask in the shrieks of joy and pronouncements that you’re the best mum ever. Tell them nobody is baking unless they’re fully ...
Two things happened yesterday within ten minutes that stopped me in my tracks - not in a world news, earth shattering way, just little things that made me stop and think. We were out on the green (that is where I live now) and my eight-year-old was running up and down the road. She wants to get fit, ...
It's the question being asked this week, after research published by the University of California showed that 70% of parents do favour one child over the others. Obviously, if I really did have a favourite child, I wouldn't write it here, in case the other two read it in years to come. (And even if they didn't, ...
Isn't spring just brilliant. Whether you believe it starts on February 1st, March 1s or mid-March (I need guidance on this - my kids are asking every day on which date does summer start) it's all good. Longer evenings, brighter, (theoretically) warmer weather, and a casting of clouts all about - or at least the duvet coat. My two ...
I remember standing in Oasis with my sister in August 2008, looking at a shirt-dress that I really liked. I put it back on the rail. "There's a recession coming," I said to my sister. She had heard the same. We didn't take it too seriously though, how bad could it really be? A month ...
Long, long ago, when I had two-under-two, I wondered if my girls would ever be friends. At twenty months, my eldest was little more than a baby herself when her small sister was born, and she was understandably confused. I remember a work colleague who'd had a second child around the same time talking about ...
“We’ve crunched the numbers and it’s actually going to cost us a fairly substantial amount of money for me to stay in my current job over the next five years but we’re going to try to find a way to finance it as I don’t want to stop working” Anne-Marie McKenna is a software engineer and ...