Staying connected with your grown-up children
No matter how old your kids are, they'll always need your parental support, as Brooke explains...
Half-term haze
Imogen is suffering from half-term haze....
Lunchbowl Network
With Lunchbowl Network, 33p goes a long way… What can possibly be more fundamental to life than food on the table each day and clean water to drink? In the UK most of us take both of those for granted, and try to forget that in some parts of the world, there are children who […]
National fertility awareness week: domestic surrogacy
The types of surrogacy in the UK...
National fertility awareness week: donor conception
When embarking on creating a new family, or adding to your family, there are many things to consider. Here are the facts on donor conception...
Does a parent need permission to relocate with a child?
Does a parent need permission to relocate with a child? Your rights to relocate with a child on separation...
Friday night again!
It’s a funny thing, I think, when the chap you lived with for twenty-one years, had two children with and who was once your closest companion, can stalk past you venomously, without a word. So another busy, less than average week, punctuated with my sister’s wedding in sight of Wembley Stadium, me holding the bouquet […]
Healthy activities for you and your children
As a smart parent, you’ll know how important it is to keep your children active and healthy. There are more things for our children to do than ever before. Unfortunately, many of them provide little or no exercise. From watching cable television, to playing computer games, or interacting with friends on social media, the things […]
The never-ending chaos of motherhood
The Chaos of Motherhood: Another blissful 24 hours! 12.45am Gloriously asleep, it’s a hot night, I’m tired and then, really like a dream, two figures appear on the threshold of my room: daughter and boyfriend, who stays with us. They’re in their ‘jamas holding hands and requesting Raid, the noxious insect killer spray. I stir, […]
Empty Nest Syndrome: it’s real and painful
In less than three weeks our daughter and only child will be home for the summer having completed her first year of university. To say we are counting the minutes until she’s back would not be an exaggeration – it has been a tough year of transition both for her and us. Empty nest syndrome […]
Home educators: busting the myths
When I tell people I’m a home educator, one of two things usually happens. Either the horrified person steps back with an audible gasp, or they ask conspiratorially whether it’s legal and look around as if expecting Michael Gove to jump out ready to drag me off to prison. The latter doesn’t bother me. In […]
Notes from the Auvergne: women, work and parenting
After recently reading Carolyn Lazarus’ article in The Daily Mail, it made me reflect about various things surrounding women, work and parenting. When I got married back in 1998 we both had, what I would call, decent jobs. I didn’t have the same high flying career as Carolyn, but whilst mine was office-based, my husbands’ required frequent […]
Grandparents: the novice grandmother prepares for the plunge
Unlike many grandparents – unlike I.’s other grandparents, who live in Cardiff – we and Esther live in the same town. So when I heard she was pregnant, I was able to promise her I’d take the baby for a day a week whenever she needed it. Would I entrust a small child to me? […]
Mothers leaving work rather than behave like men
Middle-class working mothers are leaving work because they are unwilling to behave like men, according to a research paper co-written by a University of Leicester management expert and a senior television producer. Mothers in professional and managerial jobs are expected to stay late or get in early even if they have negotiated reduced working hours, […]
The pain of separation
The sensation of strength. Feeling the fierceness of their protection, the tenderness of their hold. The warmth of skin that is not your own. The wonder and the miracle of each freckle, each eyelash like hair that brushes you. The feeling in your heart and your stomach and your mind. The belonging. The melting and […]