It's fun to have fun but you have to know how
I am a grown woman of 25. Sssh. Go with it. I have my own home, a business, and a driving license. Heck, I'm even in sole charge of a small person for a big chunk of my week. I can plumb in a dishwasher, change a car tyre and set up a wireless network. To all intents and purposes, I'm an independent, functioning adult. But I am utterly unable to deal with confrontation. If someone upsets me I am approximately 10 million times more likely simply to never speak to them again … [Read more...]
So, we had a small - barely worth mentioning - miscommunication in domestic arrangements last weekend. I know. Shocker. On Friday, Flea's Dad was picking her up from school and keeping her until Sunday morning, when he would drop her off at stage school, and I'd collect her in time to take her to a family lunch for my parents' anniversary. Now, I don't often get a Friday night off. So I was a bit excited and had all sorts of plans. There might even have been a plan to go … [Read more...]
I can't remember where I read it - Twitter probably - but there's a theory that you can be a good friend, a good family member and a good worker. But you can't be all three at once. I don't know how scientific it is, but God, it feels true. Lately, though, it feels like I'm not doing a terribly good job at anything other than work. I always feel a bit fraudulent saying I work hard. I mean, I'm not working down a mine, or anything. And I have far too much fun at my job for it to be … [Read more...]
In case you missed the memo, I’m a single parent. I was (briefly) married. And now I’m not. Of course, there’s a story that goes in the middle of those two sentences, but it’s one of those tales that’s oh-so-familiar to many of us, and it certainly isn’t blog fodder. And to an extent – it’s ancient history. I have been divorced since 2007. Five years down the line, my ex and I are very different people. For example, since we split up my ex-husband has completed three … [Read more...]
One of the things I've found most difficult about becoming a parent is how DIFFERENT Flea's experience of childhood is to my own. I grew up in a family of four children. My Dad was a scout leader and our childhood involved lots of camping, building dens in woods, long days on the sand dunes and heading off to explore on our bikes. I played out with my friends from quite a young age - with boundaries, of course, which got more relaxed as I got older. Today, childhood can seem very sanitised … [Read more...]
Last night Flea had her first proper swimming lesson. She's been on the waiting list since we moved here, nearly three years ago, so the lessons were well overdue and I was thrilled to finally get her into a class. Previously, I've taught Flea to swim myself using my own, highly dubious professional methods, which is possibly why we had this conversation while waiting for the class to start: Flea: Mummy, will I have to do diving? Me: Probably not in your first class, poppet, maybe just … [Read more...]
Image credit: Dunechaser Back when I was a kid, I had three older brothers. LEGO was a big fixture in our family and with 7 years between me and the eldest in the family, we accrued a massive LEGO collection, and the big box of bricks was passed down the family. I spent many happy days as a child building stripy houses on flat green boards, weird cars that defied the laws of aerodynamics, space rockets, schools. Sometimes just building towers, turning them into bridges. You could … [Read more...]
It’s no secret that I am a bit partial to a Dawson’s Creek DVD box-set on a winter’s weekend (and if it was, it’s not any more). As a grown-up woman of almost 26*, some people might think this is not an appropriate thing for an adult to be watching but I don’t care – Pacey Witter is friend to woman at any age, in my book. But when it comes to kids, we’re supposed to be a bit more careful about only exposing them to age-inappropriate content. It’s a lovely theory but one that … [Read more...]
I did a double take yesterday when I was tracking a conversation on Twitter to find the original Tweet (about a TV show) had come from one of my niece’s friends – a 9 year old. Seriously? Why would a 9-year-old need a Twitter account? Twitter is fun and great and useful, and my Tweets in particular really are quite marvellous. But Twitter is completely uncensored and home to countless thousands of offensive accounts carrying messages, links and images of pornography, violence, … [Read more...]
Back when I was a whippersnapper, there were certain rites of passage we all went through. Like the time my social worker parents dropped me off at a friend’s 15th birthday party with a four-pack of alcohol beer and a ‘talk’ about how alcohol wasn’t cool, and I could still be uber-cool while drinking Kaliber. Obviously, I drank my way through half a litre of Bacardi, threw up violently for most of the party and the following three days (SO cool, right?) and didn’t touch Bacardi again … [Read more...]
