"The summer holidays are too long" "I took parental leave for August and I'm dreading going back to work" "The kids are up the walls and could do with some structure now in September" "I hate having to get her up to bring her to the childminder every morning when there's no school" "He's too old for the crèche now ...
School settling for my junior infant is still a challenge, and I'm exhausted thinking about it and trying to manage it, so like last week, I'm posting about something positive instead. This week the positive thing is work - it's not that the work itself is different but the time in which I do the work ...
I like things to have a theme; I like to be able to look back and easily sum things up in three words or a couple of sentences. Like the golden autumn when everything was shiny and sparkling and brilliant. Followed by literal and metaphorical November rain. Or the summer holiday with inauspicious beginnings that turned ...
Date: September 1st 2015 Mood: Wild elation Source of mood: Three kids in school and preschool for the first time, meaning I could start working mornings instead of only nights. Guilt levels about feelings of elation: Surprisingly mild. Date: September 5th 2015 Mood: Spirit utterly broken Source of mood: Realisation that 45 car journeys a week might just kill me Guilt levels ...
White faces because Factor 50 never quite rubs in. Short-sleeves on the school run. Homework in the garden. Lunch in the garden. Dinner in the garden. A tidy kitchen because we've almost entirely relocated to the garden. Ice-cream every day - and twice on Sunday. There's nothing quite like the drop-everything wonder of an Irish summer. The summer ...
A year ago today, I walked out of my beloved office for the last time, switching from a 17 year career in financial services to the unknown world of freelance writing from home. I say 'beloved' without a hint of sarcasm - I loved my office very much. It was a slightly odd shape, but the ...
It's been eight weeks of school-runs. Eight weeks of yellow-box waves and headlight nods. Eight weeks of leaf kicking and breath taking. Eight weeks of russet and orange and yellow journeys. An up and down start to a whole new phase; finding feet. It's the most beautiful autumn I've ever witnessed. I don't know if it's because ...
Three kids. Two locations. Two drop-off times. Three pick-up times. I do the math. Over and over. It's nine separate car journeys a day. Forty-five car journeys a week. I am broken. We're only two weeks into the school-year and my new work from home life, and I am broken. Almost literally. My knees hurt. My ...
As the countdown to summer holidays rolled on last month, one cohort of parents in particular were bracing themselves with an odd mixture of relief and outright fear. On the one hand, it's great to have no more school-runs, no more homework, and a break for the kids. But for WAHMs, who work while the kids ...
It's a full two months since I finished up in the IFSC so it seems like as good a time as any for an update on life as a WAHM. Highlights Summer holidays - I feel like I've discovered a secret world of amazingness. The heady mix of no office and no school-run has been going on ...