Youngest is six now so we’re well and truly beyond the baby years. She and her brothers – who are 10 and almost 12 respectively – are all pretty independent. So you’d think that the evidence of the early days is in short supply. But you’d be wrong! It struck me recently that there are …
Spring has sprung and it seems like the weather is becoming a little more settled. So it’s an ideal time to make the most of it and go for a nice family walk. Yeah, about that… Because parenting is often a matter of balancing expectations and reality. And, in this instance, it’s always my own …
I’m really proud that my kids are so unassuming. We’ve always lived within our means – which were meagre when I was a full-time blogger – and they seem to have learned from that. They don’t take much for granted and have never been particularly materialistic. Long may this continue. There’s a strange flipside, however. …
We went on our first proper family day trip in two years at the weekend. We’ve had the odd afternoon out locally, of course, but this was the first time we’d been on a full day out since before the pandemic. As the nine-year-old is about to become the ten-year-old and nobody has had a …
A few weeks ago, we had parents’ evenings for all three kids. And they all got glowing reviews from their teachers, which was nice. It seems that my belief that all of them are geniuses may not be completely unfounded. But then something else happened. A few days later, they spent the night at my …
Happy World Book Day. Or commiserations on World Book Day, depending on where you stand. I’m somewhere in the middle. I love books and it’s only right that the importance of literacy is both celebrated and promoted. It’s a nice distraction from all the awful things happening right now too. But, bloody hell, it’s hard …
Like most kids, my three love looking through the Guinness Book of Records and get it every year without fail. I used the word ‘fail’ in the previous sentence somewhat unconsciously as I’ve actually been party to two unsuccessful world record attempts myself. For the non-record, one was for the largest gathering of people dressed up …
This time last year, I began my annual roundup post with a comment about how awful 2020 was. Well, 2021 clearly asked its predecessor to hold its beer, didn’t it? Another fundamentally crap year, all said. But it’s always important to look back at the highlights so here’s my yearly review of the blog posts …
It was my birthday last week. It’s not a day in the calendar I have great affection for as, believe it or not from someone who chooses to share snippets of his life online, I really don’t like the attention. This year is different, however. You see, this year I turned 42. If you haven’t …
I had a bit of a scare last week. Actually, to be more accurate, my family had a bit of a scare and it was because of me. I fainted, landing on the hardest floor in the house. This had never happened to me before – certainly not in adult life anyway – but I …