12 signs my kids have taken over my house

office mum post: laundry

It's messy here. Marker marks on walls, little piles of folded laundry waiting expectantly but in vain for someone to pick them up, a single toddler shoe sitting on the bottom step of the stairs. When exactly did the kids take over the house? The most obvious sign that the kids have taken over the house ...

24 practical tips for working parents: balancing work and home

image: Pixabay

Arriving home from work one evening last week, I realised that there was a big, weetabixy handprint encrusted on the back of my trousers. Just about toddler-hug height. There since before I left the house at 7am; visible all day at work. Morto, as they say. Oh well, no time to sit around hand-wringing; there was ...

Away with the fairies

Picture 1030

You never know what day it is - the first sound I hear every morning is the light patter of your small bare feet, and the first words I hear are "Is it morning? What day is it today mummy?" And if I say that it's Saturday, you sometimes ask "Am I going to pre-school today mummy?" And maybe ...

Beautiful girls

Girl at Mirror - Norman Rockwell (image credit ayay.co.uk)

  "Look at you in your gorgeous dress!" I said to my friend's five-year-old daughter, then remembered, too late, that I'm trying to avoid telling little girls that they're beautiful. This was prompted by a Huff Post article I read a few months ago that suggested asking little girls about a book they've recently read instead of ...

The spanking debate

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  Recently scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I came across this: It had been "liked" by over 1.2 million people at that stage. I was taken aback to see that so many people agreed with the sentiment; agreed that spanking children is a good thing to do. Agreed that teaching children that physically hurting someone or humiliating ...

Office Mum stories: Lucy O’Connor

Lucy and Zoe Cropped

“I began a career break so my new job is stay at home mammy and my hours are now 24/7!” This week, I meet Lucy O’Connor, a mother of three who last June went from working full-time to taking a career break. Lucy has swapped HR management for school-runs, and fits in some writing too, on ...

So, is it easier to be at work or at home with the kids?

My coffee at work doesn

"Work is a break for me" and "Heading home now to the real job" are some of the comments I used to hear from work colleagues who were parents - this was before I had children myself, and really, I didn't believe them. Surely they were just trying to make themselves sound busier, in a ...

Five things I thought I knew about parenting

no soother, honest..

"Take the path of least resistance" was the wise advice from Fiona Kennedy in this week's blog interview. This is certainly the path we took in our house this morning, which is how the two-year-old ended up in our bed at 5.15am watching Mickey Mouse on YouTube. If I'd had chocolate to hand, he'd have had ...

Office Mum stories: Fiona Kennedy

Fiona Kennedy

“lower your standards! Housework can wait.                                                                                     If everyone is fed and in clean clothes you're ...