Before becoming a dad, I thought time was dependable. A minute lasted a minute, a year took roughly a year, and Tuesday afternoons were longer than Friday evenings. There were exceptions, such as waiting for a takeaway, but the general system worked. Then children arrived and time abandoned all known rules. Fatherhood somehow makes life …
One of the strange things about being a dad is that you never really know which moments are going to stick. You can spend weeks planning a birthday, book an expensive day out, take hundreds of photos on holiday and assume those are the memories your children will carry into adulthood. Some of them probably …
For years, I thought making my children say sorry was one of those basic parenting jobs you simply had to do. One child snatched a toy, shoved a sibling or said something cruel, and I would step in with the standard instruction. “Say sorry.” Sometimes they did. Sometimes they mumbled it into their chest. Sometimes …
I don’t know what I did to make the internet worry about my testosterone, but it is definitely worried. At the moment, adverts for low-testosterone tests and treatment seem to be everywhere. They ask whether I’m tired, irritable, lacking motivation, putting on weight, struggling to concentrate or less interested in sex. In other words, they …
Before we had children, my wife and I could decide to go somewhere and be out of the front door in about ten minutes. Fancy a walk? Sure. Coat on. Keys. Wallet. Done. Now? We can start getting ready at 9am for a trip to the garden centre and somehow still be pulling off the …
You know the scene. You arrive at the school gates and several groups of parents are already deep in conversation. They are laughing, making weekend plans and apparently remembering the names of every child in the class. Meanwhile, you are standing slightly apart, pretending to be fascinated by a notice about lost jumpers. If you …
Not a lot of people know this, but First Choice are actually owned by the TUI Group. They even have the same ATOL number and ABTA membership number (2524 and V5126 if you’re interested). However, from a customer point of view they are not the same thing. For a start, First Choice is an online …
Most big holiday companies now offer some sort of free kids place offer, and while they can seem similar on the surface, there are differences between them. easyJet’s Free Child Places deal is one such offer, and apart from being a great deal for families looking to save money on their holidays, it has a …
Remember life before kids? If you and your other half wanted to get away for a week or two, it was as simple as picking a destination, finding the cheapest time to go, booking time off work, and packing your suitcase. But with kids? You need to navigate term time vs non-term time. School fines …
Who went to the Christmas Pantomime as a kid? I did. My grandparents took me and my sister every year. We would turn up at the theatre in Christmas jumpers, Grandad would buy us each a box of sweets and a drink, and we would scream our little hearts out when the actors did their …