Pushing Boundaries

Colouring outside the lines. Slipping beyond the boundaries. Leaving schedules shivering in the morning chill as the plane takes off for sunnier places. Forgetting the routine that wraps up the day during the rest of the year. That's the theory anyway. But as soon as we arrived in Spain, I realised boundaries were up for discussion at every turn. We needed ...

Gah

I read an anecdote on Twitter recently about a little boy who asked a face-painter for a butterfly. His mother wouldn't let him have a butterfly - she wanted something more "boyish". The child really wanted the butterfly, but the dad got involved too, and there was no way they were allowing it. It's a sad ...

When is a holiday not a holiday?

Offie Mum - wine - Dun Laoghaire

What’s your ideal holiday? If you had asked me ten years ago, the answer was easy. Reading good books, getting some sun, sleeping in, eating out. Basically relaxing. I didn’t need to go to the warmest beach or the hottest club – my needs were simple. Or so I thought. Until I first tried holidaying ...

Not holding the jackets in Port Aventura

Port Aventura - Office Mum

From the first pain of the first contraction, parenting is interlaced with self-sacrifice and doing all sorts of things you'd never do if you didn't have kids. For me, going to a theme park or fairground (or The Merries as we called them when I was a child) ticks that box, and self-sacrifice is exactly ...