This morning, I somehow managed to whack myself in the face with a stair gate. That’s quite some achievement, I’m sure you’ll agree. I feel I should explain how. I needed to use the plug socket on the landing at the top of the stairs. Tired and aching from yesterday’s game of five-a-side, I took …
Month: October 2018
Limiting screen time is a big challenge for today’s parents. This is easier said than done though. According to new research by Persil, children spend two years and three months in front of screens by the age of seven. Even more alarmingly, the study of British and Irish parents found that time spent on screens …
I love my kids and would throw myself into the path of danger to protect them. Already, you know there’s a caveat coming up imminently. And here it is. I’m truly sick of them getting in our bed! Saying ‘them’ may seem somewhat uncharitable towards the older two as they’re a lot less to blame …
Here’s a competition that Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler fans won’t want to miss! Freckle Productions’ adaptation of Stick Man is returning for its eighth annual West End season. To celebrate this as well as the tenth anniversary of the much-loved book, I have a fantastic prize bundle up for grabs. Playing at London’s Leicester Square …
Earlier this year, I wrote a post about homework in primary schools. I was concerned that my older son was getting too much of it and concluded that a balance needed to be struck. Since then, however, my thoughts have changed a little. With no letup in the amount set and with his younger brother …
I can’t believe we’re in late October. The weather we’ve had this week has been amazing! Yesterday we had to drop off oldest at a friend’s birthday party. As it was near a favourite countryside route, we decided to go for an impromptu walk. Lovely it was, too. The younger two got plenty of fresh …
In my eight years of writing this blog, I’ve published regular rants about the media’s representation of dads. And while I genuinely think that we’re in the early stages of a cultural shift in thinking, it’s agonisingly slow. Two news stories about dads caught my eye this week. They were opposite viewpoints of something very …
We went to Rhymetime this morning. Or ‘Mimetime’ as it shall henceforth be known. Why? Well, youngest seems to think she’s on an episode of Top of the Pops somewhere in the mid-1980s. She used to merrily sing along, but now just either keeps her mouth shut or pretends to sing. We have no idea why. …
My parents are moving house soon and we’re really going to miss the place. They’ve lived there for 25 years, so it has been a happy home enjoyed by several generations. Yesterday, we went for the final barbecue in their lovely big garden and, of course, to enjoy the surroundings too. Youngest didn’t need much …
Last week, oldest came back from school wearing his autumn/winter PE kit. To cut a long story short, it was his class assembly, there were morning and afternoon performances as the hall is now too small for the increased intake the council has enforced on the school and the kids needed to be dressed in …