It’s amazing how much parenting can change you as a person. I’ve learned all kinds of new skills, plus incredible amounts about a vast array of topics. Perhaps the biggest change, however, is one that is there 24 hours a day yet is rarely consciously considered. It seems to have given me a new way …
There’s a particular piece of advice my late Grandad once gave me as a child that has always stayed with me. Namely ‘Don’t count your chickens’. His intended purpose was to help manage my expectations of Tottenham Hotspur and it worked. Since he imparted these wise words, I’ve endured three decades of them snatching defeat …
One thing that never ceases to amaze me about parenting is my ability to forget things. Specifically how to negotiate tricky phases. And, yes, we’re in one of those at the moment. I call this particular tale of parenting woe The Princess and the Peas. You see, youngest seems to have something against vegetables. And, despite …
Last week, parents were nervously waiting to find out their kids’ school places. We were among them and, for me at least, it was strangely nice to worry about something other than coronavirus and its wider implications for a day. Having gone through the process twice before, we were braced for a long wait. It …
Well, where to start, eh? These are unprecedented times, the like of which we only usually expect to encounter in films. There’s so much to worry and feel down about and, by using the phrase ‘silver linings’ in this post, I’m not trying to downplay the severity of the situation we find ourselves in. It’s …
Being a natural-born pedant, I’ve always had a bit of an issue with Alanis Morisette’s song, Ironic. Why? Well, most of the examples of so-called irony cited in it aren’t ironic at all. They can mostly be attributed to misfortune or bad forward planning. Rain on your wedding day, for example, is a statistical likelihood …
It’s done. We finally moved last week so it’s goodbye old house, hello new home. I feel as though we ought to be sad about leaving our old house – after all, we lived there for nearly ten years. It was the first home to all three of our children and I started this blog …
We’re moving house next week. It’s been a long time coming but, after the best part of seven years – on and off – we’re finally about to get the move we’ve been longing for. The last few months have been hectic, to say the least, so there are plenty of things I’m looking forward …
I’ve been in my not-so-new job for six months now and am well versed in the new routine. This includes adapting to working collaboratively again after four years of doing my own thing. I really enjoy working in a team but there is one thing that is still taking a bit of getting used to. …
Ages ago, before youngest was even born, I wrote a post speculating what it would be like to have a daughter after two sons. With the aid of my sister – who’s a doctor of psychology and a mum of both a daughter and son – I came to the conclusion that she would probably …