As I checked on my almost-two-year old last night, I covered him with a very specific blanket and placed a spare soother right beside his hand. I closed the door rather than leaving it ajar as we usually do. He was wearing two-piece-pyjamas instead of a one-piece sleepsuit, and he had eaten no cheese yesterday. This careful routine ...
An invitation to a charity event in the Disney Store popped into my inbox - their "Share in the Magic" campaign. Children welcome. But on a Wednesday evening. A work-day, a school-night. This would be tricky. But where there's a will there's a way, and where there's Mickey Mouse and a Christmas postbox and three small Disney-loving children, ...
Last Saturday morning was always going to be stressful. My husband was leaving at 7.30am for his annual trip to a Liverpool game with "the lads" (at what age are they no longer "the lads"?) - this in itself was not a problem. I feel that six years into being a parent, I can no ...
I'm very conscious that many of my posts are about parenting failures, domestic disasters, motherhood challenges, and mammy-guilt. I am in danger of appearing to be a terrible mother. So for once, I'm going to write about something lovely, something that went really, really well - our mid-term break. Don't worry - we had the usual mix ...
It's two months now since our nanny upped and left after just four days, with no notice and almost no notification of any kind. We were not impressed (the tears are almost visible here). She will be on the family blacklist FOREVER. I spent the following weeks worrying about work and childcare; trying to come up with ...
My third child is discovering nursery rhymes. For the first time ever, I sang Baa Baa Black Sheep for him this week - he will be two years old soon, so this is not something to boast about. I also showed him Round and Round the Garden for the first time - he loves it. And ...
On Monday I attempted to convert my blog to a new website. This involved googling to get code to copy somewhere deep inside the hidden vaults of the new website. Not an easy task but what's the worst that could happen? If it didn't work, I'd use that nice back arrow at the top of my ...
If you are good at throwing birthday parties, this probably isn't the post for you. In fact, if you're even mildly average, feel free to click back out (really do - you will just find this patronising). If like me, your stomach churns with just a little bit of anxiety every time you think about hosting ...
Autumn equinox, the country bathed in an unexpected heatwave. A day to mark summer's end with one last everything. One last ice-cream, one last outdoor lunch, one last walk on the Dun Laoghaire pier. It was the day of the All-Ireland football final, and Dublin Bay glinted in the sunlight, a deep patriotic blue. Three hungry children determined that ...
Birthdays. They must be perfect. Nobody ever said that that’s a rule, but it is. If you have children, you want them to remember birthdays as their best days ever, don’t you? And realistically, as a parent of small kids, how many days are likely to run smoothly enough to be considered “perfect”? I’m getting a sneaking ...