Do you ever do something because it's the right thing to do, and afterwards wish you'd taken an easier, less selfless route, as your well-intentioned plans backfire all around you? I don't mean big life choices like whether or not to take a year out to work for Doctors without Borders (à la every US medical ...
Working from home: no to mascara and high heels, yes to school runs and meals with kids, and best of all reduced guilt.... Lots of people work in jobs that are not suitable for working from home, and plenty of other people are not allowed to by employers. But if you have children, and have ever considered seeking to work from home ...
My husband and I don't do weekend lie-ins on alternate days, though I know lots of people who do. For us it just hasn't worked well for lots of reasons, not in the least because I'm a very light sleeper, so it's not a given that my lie-in would include much actual sleeping. Especially when the ...
Breach of trust, on every level. Like thousands of people who watched Prime Time last night, I’ve spent the morning trying to focus on work but my mind keeps going back to the images of children being slammed down on mattresses, tiny toddlers being punished despite being far too young, a little girl being cursed at ...
As a mother to three children under six, most of my adult conversations every day are with other parents, most of whom have kids in childcare. Over the last few days, a recurring topic is the news story about RTE's Prime Time sending undercover researchers into two Dublin creches, and gathering video footage of children allegedly being mistreated. See ...
It’s lunchtime and I’m under my desk having a snooze. Well not really, but that’s where I’d love to be right now, as I scribble these notes and drink my third cappuccino. My baby was up all night, and I’m beyond exhausted. OK he’s not technically a baby anymore, and it wasn’t quite all night, just 1am ...
This is not a light, self-deprecating, jokey post - I really lost it with my five year old today, and I'm feeling bad about it. I shouted at her, marched her up the stairs, and told her that she wasn't going to the party that she was invited to this afternoon. Of course within minutes, or ...
On Saturday morning, as happens in houses all over the country on weekend mornings, my three kids bundled into our bed, at various times ranging from 5am to the somewhat more civilised 8 o'clock. The baby was snuggled into me, and Clara, my five year old was cuddled up with her dad. Emmie, my middle child, ...
It started on Monday morning when rushing around getting ready for work, I tripped over a basket of clean washing (it was clean, somehow that matters) and sprained my finger. Just my little finger on my left hand, but oh my, the pain, and oh goodness, the ramifications. I couldn't type so work was extraordinarily unproductive ...
I should have been in bed, it was heading towards midnight on Sunday, and I was due up at 4am to head to the airport for a work trip. As usual I was feeling 90% apprehensive - worrying about leaving the kids, anxious that the baby would wake during the night and not understand why I'm not there, certain that ...