An innocent school email sent an icy clawfinger of fear into my heart this week; there’s a maths breakfast taking place, do parents want to come? In a word, NO. No way, I’m busy, I’m washing my hair, I’m running for the hills as we speak. Contending with the school run is enough but now…
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Straight hair, curly hair…should I care?
Read moreHair confession time, mine is secretly very curly. This is something that not a lot of people seem to know about me, including my own father-in-law. But it’s true; my real hair doppelgängers are Original Orphan Annie and Bonnie Langford, circa the 1980s (we’d make a brilliant girl group). I think growing up you always…
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How to win at playgroup, a ten point plan
Read moreWhere do you stand on playgroup? Like the park, teething and absolutely no sleep it’s one of the recurring features of early parenting life that’s as old as time. It’s also the marmite of the baby and toddler world. You really do either love it or hate it. Or hate and love it. Or hate…
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Help! What happened to my taste in music?
Read moreLast week a friend sent me an email, offering a spare gig ticket she had. Which was lovely… …but I had NO IDEA who the artist in question was. None. I had to look up their current hit on Spotify, but even then, I was clueless. I had never heard of them, let alone heard them…
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24 things I don’t have time for as a mum (and three things I do)
Read moreThey say the days are long but the years are short when they are a parent, but what they DON’T say is that despite some days actually being longer than time itself, you never have time for anything. (Who are they exactly, and why are they always saying these annoying things?) The myth of the…
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Six parenting skills I have yet to master
Read moreParenting, to coin a phrase from Liam Neeson in Taken, requires a very particular set of skills, ones you hone over your long parenting career. And although it’s less about hunting down the baddies at gunpoint and more about snack fetching and toddler grappling, the skill syllabus for mum life is constantly changing. As soon…
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Useful advice for second-time mums
Read moreWhat is the best and most useful advice for second-time mums? It struck me after writing advice for my friend the first-time mum that second-time mums probably need it more; especially when the main type of comment you get when you are pregnant for the second time is ‘YOU’LL have your hands full, won’t you?’ Accompanied by…
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