This post could also have been called "What we did this summer so far", or "Places I lost my youngest child this summer and needed help from strangers to find him" or simply "Brambles cafés we've been too, because they are EVERYWHERE now." We were away for the heatwave and since we've come home from holidays, the ...
Long, long ago, on a campsite far, far away, I met a holiday friend called Claire. She had long brown hair and was from Ireland or England – I wasn’t old enough to distinguish accents. I had spent two days sitting on the steps of our mobile home looking across at her, and she’d spent ...
"You've such a great colour!" said my friend. I was ten years old, and made an "ah not really" gesture, shrugging my shoulders, but secretly thrilled with the comment. Or let's call it a compliment - it doesn't really make sense that it's a compliment - I hadn't actually done anything that required talent - but ...
For five years in a row, we took the ferry to France, then last year, for the first time since having kids, we braved getting on a plane, and we did it again this year. Throughout the journey, I couldn't help comparing flight and ferry in my head, so in case you've only done one ...
If I’d married someone just like me, we’d have gone on holidays to Italy (we did), to a campsite (we did), to drink Prosecco on the deck every night (we did). But being married to that person just like me would have meant quite a different holiday for the kids - no scary slides, no scuba ...
June is mad. So says everyone. Teacher presents and end-of-term nights out and inductions for junior infants. Sports tournaments and school summer fairs - and barbecues every time it stops raining for more than six hours. I woke up this Monday morning and let out a long breath - another manic weekend done, and finally time to ...
My name is Andrea, I'm a yeller, and it's been 163 days since I last shouted at my kids. By no coincidence, it’s precisely 163 days since I had a blow-out shouting match with my six-year-old. She is a chilled out child – my easy one. But unlike her siblings, who are more used to getting in trouble ...
Once upon a time, when I worked a lot more hours than I do now, I felt like I never had quality time with my kids. Each night when they went to bed, I thought about how another day had slipped by without me noticing. I would try to think back to conversations and interactions ...
I've never personally experienced any sexism. Or at least not as far as I can remember, which may mean it has happened, and I've brushed it off as a normal, unremarkable, everyday thing. And that's exactly the point Laura Bates was making when she set up The Everyday Sexism Project in 2012, a platform for women to talk ...
As I lay on my bed yesterday evening, my four-year-old suddenly bounced onto my rib-cage WWE style, and it struck me that parenting involves a fair amount of physical pain. And endurance. And sometimes bravery, while holding back tears. Today is just a regular day, but putting trousers on the wrestler involved being kicked; manhandling him into ...