I clash with my daughter. She's six. And I'm not six. I'm not proud of clashing with someone half my size and thirty-ish years younger than me. But, as we are fond of saying here, it is what it is. And the reason we clash? Because we are the same. I am her and she is ...
The barefaced selfies that are sweeping through Facebook and Twitter have generated much debate - some have questioned the whole idea, citing vanity as an objection, but it has raised hundreds of thousands of euro for the Irish Cancer Society so it's hard to see how it can be bad thing. If in doubt, read ...
"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 ...
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 ...
Don't be a martyr. Don't be a mammy-martyr or a worker-bee-martyr or any other kind. It didn't end well for Joan of Arc and it won't end well for you. I don't know if it's an Irish thing or a woman thing or a mother thing, or maybe a little bit of all of these, but ...
It's been a tricky week - the type of week we all have from time to time, that makes you take stock of what's important - family, friends, health (and erm, sunshine, in case the weather gods are paying attention) My mood matched the thunder and rain that we've had all week, and the best thing ...
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There was a funny moment this morning when I was getting breakfast for the kids - well ironic more than funny. The two girls were busy at the table making necklaces by threading beads onto string, and deep in concentration, they were ignoring my requests for help. I was rushing as I was due to start work ...
School's out for summer, and for parents all over the country it's a significant milestone in any year. For our family, until now, this time of year meant just two things: lighter traffic in the morning and holidays jumping to twice the price. But for the first time, we experienced end-of-term properly as my junior infant finished her ...
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 ...
Mommy-wars. Or since we're in Ireland, let's say Mammy-wars. I can't stand the term, but it's the widely-used name for the phenomenon of mothers judging mothers on every element of parenting, originally coined to refer to mothers working outside the home versus stay-at-home mothers. Newspapers love the SAHM/ mothers working outside the home debate, as do radio shows, ...