"So what did you do for St Patrick's Day?" asked our lovely optician on Monday. "Did you go into the parade?" "No..." said the child. "Did you watch it on TV?" "No, Dad was watching the match, so we didn't see it." I jumped in then, quick to clarify that I'd been at a wedding, so my husband had stayed ...
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 ...
"S. Q." *sniffle* "U. I." *sniffle* "R. R. E. L." *full-blown tears* That was my five-year-old one evening recently, doing his spellings for his upcoming test. It was 5.30pm and I really should have stopped at that point, but I figured if he could just get the spellings done, we'd leave the tricky-word revision for another day. I was chatting ...
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, ...
Friday night. We told the kids it was time for bed and switched off the TV. My husband picked up the small boy and swung him around a bit to make him laugh but mostly to carry him up the stairs because it's easier than telling him four hundred times to go up himself. My ...
I've read many "an open letter to" posts in the last few years. Sometimes they're angry, sometimes conciliatory, and sometimes empathetic. In particular, I've read posts about supermarket confrontations - women who have been judged for their parenting, or had some kind of less than pleasant encounter. I wondered when my day would come - ...
I accidentally ate a smidge of banana yesterday, and the kids were in convulsions watching my own near-convulsion when I realised what was in my mouth. Most people have at least one food they can't bear, and for me it's bananas. (Shudder) I'll eat pretty much anything else though, and I was the same as a ...
This week, my radio told me that my kids eat too much sugar, are obese, have far too much screen time, and that I don't let them out to play unsupervised. Ever. Well, not just me - all of us. The entire country of Ireland is filled with parents who are messing up big-time when ...
These are just my own personal essential parenting tools - they're not by any means universal - but without them, I suspect I'd be in some kind of institution at this stage. In no particular order: 1. Kids' TV TV saves my life every evening. Take yesterday for example. There were fourteen children running around my kitchen ...
Like many parents today, what little I know about online games I’ve learned from my kids, and most of what mine have played so far have ranged from clever to educational to downright silly. But one game stopped me in my tracks when my nine-year-old showed it to me recently - it was a plastic ...