Just trying to keep my balance…
Once upon a long ago, I used to get the Dart into work every now and then – back in the pre-kid, pre-crèche, pre-car-space days. It was not so much an adventure as a trial by fire back then, and as I wait (12 minutes!) for my rush hour Dart to arrive this morning, I ...
There it is. Where it's not supposed to be. A purple lunchbox on the kitchen table at 9.12am, separated from its owner who must have decided to tidy her schoolbag this morning after everything had been packed already. And I didn't notice. Slippage. "Are we late mum?" she asked me this morning and every morning. We're ...
Long, long ago, when we first moved from the heady heights of our 4th floor apartment in Dublin 2 to a rather more serious semi-detached house in Swords, we discovered the joys of flooring and dishwashers and spending Saturday afternoons looking at bathroom tiles. We were catapulted from city centre easy living to adulting hard, long before adulting ...
I could post an update on how not-swimmingly settling into school is going - I could tell you about all the imaginary conversations I've had with the imaginary play therapists and agony aunts I've had this week, and all the imaginary answers they've given me ("He'll get there, keep doing what you're doing, it's a ...
Well. That was a long week. Somehow back to school has been more challenging than ever - I suppose logically that's how it goes - more kids in school, and more homework because everyone has moved up a class. But I don't think I realised that having three in school would be quite this different ...
I know this is supposed to be an emotional time. My smallest; my baby; my last baby is off to school. I am meant to be in floods of tears. I should have pockets stuffed with tissues. I'm supposed to just about hold it in when I drop him to his classroom, then let it ...
I like things to have a theme; I like to be able to look back and easily sum things up in three words or a couple of sentences. Like the golden autumn when everything was shiny and sparkling and brilliant. Followed by literal and metaphorical November rain. Or the summer holiday with inauspicious beginnings that turned ...
Sometimes I hide my phone from myself for an hour, so that I can concentrate on the kids without being distracted. And I have some reasonably strict self-imposed rules about not browsing mindlessly when they're around. But one major weakness is taking photos - and it's for that purpose more than any other, that my ...
Dublin, August 2016 Dear Universe, I'd like a little word about something. You see, we had this deal - I do the right thing, and you don't punish me. A very straight-forward agreement. But you don't seem to be holding up your side of the bargain these days, and I think we need to thrash it out. Take ...
Long, long ago, on a campsite far, far away, I met a holiday friend called Claire. She had long brown hair and was from Ireland or England – I wasn’t old enough to distinguish accents. I had spent two days sitting on the steps of our mobile home looking across at her, and she’d spent ...