Three years into freelancing: The good, the bad, and the perfectly fine

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...