Back in April 2017, when I'd been freelancing for two years, I started this post. I think the fact that it's taken me over a year to actually finish it probably sums up freelancing life better than anything else I could say below. But anyway, just over three years into freelancing, here's what works, what doesn't work, and whether ...
Author: me
What is a Doula and why might you use one?
Most prospective parents are familiar with what’s involved in preparing for a birth – attending antenatal classes, packing a hospital bag, perhaps writing a birth plan, and certainly bidding a wistful farewell to sleep. But something that’s less well known - although growing in popularity - is using a birth doula. So what exactly is ...
Screen-time etiquette – what if we substituted paper?
Clothes Maketh This Woman
"You just end up buying things for them, you never shop for yourself anymore," said a friend of mine, when I was expecting my first baby. And indeed, lots of other people have echoed that since. Many's the mum who has had a rare child-free shopping trip, only to find herself shopping for her kids. I ...
4 things I learned about parenting from cream crackers
As I surveyed the entire contents of my shopping bag yesterday - two packets of similar-but-not-the-same crackers and nothing else at all - it struck me that this scene, and the lead-up to it, quite aptly summed up my parenting. It started when we realised we were out of cream crackers, and I had to go to ...
London Calling
Fixing the morning I broke
Do you ever have mornings where everything goes wrong? Where you come downstairs and last night's saucepan is still on the hob and it's not anyone's fault because we were all out late at different events and activities, but still, it's irritating? And the kids are late getting up and late getting down for breakfast, ...
The Mothership Returns
"How was your summer and how does she like the new teacher and how is he settling back in?" The voices change but the questions are the same. "They're tired this week, I'm tired this week, how is it only Monday?" Stopping at the corner for a conversation worth an hour - condensed into ten minutes. Machine gun chat, ...
Homework, Day 1
Having your cake and eating it
"The summer holidays are too long" "I took parental leave for August and I'm dreading going back to work" "The kids are up the walls and could do with some structure now in September" "I hate having to get her up to bring her to the childminder every morning when there's no school" "He's too old for the crèche now ...