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 ...
So I’ve learned two important things since writing the below post last April – it’s a story about tripping over a laundry basket and spraining my finger, being unable to drive and therefore taking a bus to work. This gave me some unexpected time for browsing Facebook and Twitter on my phone, leading to a severe ...
Today we went to a birthday party - all five of us. My eldest has been giving out about this upcoming birthday party for the last two weeks, saying she wouldn't know anyone, she'd be older than all the other kids (the birthday girl is a friend of my four year old), she'd have nothing to ...
So. Hosting children's birthday parties. I can't possibly be the only person who finds this extremely stressful? When chatting about this to other parents, I sense that they don't find this quite the ordeal that I do. Or perhaps some are better than I am at hiding the fear? I feel slightly...embarrassed about the amount of anxiety ...
Today is my birthday, and I arrived home from work to an eerily silent house. As I looked around in mild confusion, two excited girls, one bemused little boy and one smiling childminder jumped out from behind the counter and yelled "surprise!" There was a cake on the table - this is a picture of the beautiful cake ...
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 ...
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, ...