Mother's Pride

Archie (our dog) is not terribly good at entertaining himself. ‘Go and play with the cats!’ I say, but we both know that as playmates, they...

‘Bonnie’ I began, ‘as it’s the last day of the holidays, please start one of your five pieces of homework, or write something of your choic...

A week ago I banned myself from rushing, stressing or shouting at the children ever again ; I was forbidden, by some outside force, from cha...

Maddy likes a noisy, shrieking kind of party. So this year we squished a giant inflatable slide into our postage stamp garden, and she invi...

I am not good at comforting an injured child, not good at all. The thud of the banged knee followed by over-long, exaggerated boo-hooing le...

I have not had a good weekend with technology. First, the blogspot, so gaily named, had it in for me. It has been unhelpful for some time, ...

A blood-curdling scream. ‘AAAAAH!! ‘SHE BIT ME! MUMMY WHERE ARE YOU?!’ I thanked the Lord I was at the top of the house so I could say I h...

‘Mummy! I’ve done loads of development work but no refining !!’ It was Josie. It was the Art. I clapped my hand to my mouth and did my...

The school’s Easter Egg Competition is a creative, fun and frantic affair where children decorate a single egg or a whole scene of eggs (tha...

The Easter holidays have arrived, and it’s time to decide whether I can hack having the children at home squabbling over Archie for free, or...

Bonnie had her violin exam on Monday so the preceding weekend was always going to be especially joyful. ‘Bonnie’ I said, ‘as your actual ex...

I am keen on Puppy Training, I mean very keen. I’m the swotty one who went to the first class without the dog so’s I could take notes. Y...

Alan has a great little time management model which categorises activity into four types: there’s (1) important-urgent (your hair’s on fire!...

We’ve bought a puppy. Visitors are queuing up to hold the little bundle of fluff, followed closely by me, the dettol and the paper towels. ...

The conversation bit of a proper dinner party fills me with dread: ‘Compare and contrast the Egyptian and Libyan revolutions – start NOW!’ ...

I am forty-five and I am a tripaholic. There’s this evil voice bent on destroying my karma that intones ‘take them to the National Gallery ...

In theory, I should be doing ‘my’ Deep Cleaning until the ice-cream season starts again. This is terribly bad news, obviously; the spectre o...

Heating is something that Alan and I love to scrap about, along with whether background music is absolutely essential throughout your waking...

This media-dominated world is driving our girls to be body-conscious – sexualised – before they’ve even hit their teens. It said so on the ...

HALLELUJAH!! With Secondary School just a few months off, Alfie has come in with the Big One; he is reading Harry Potter !!! His impressive...

The Historic Palaces Family Membership that I took out with such pride last Spring has been seriously under-used!!! Only one visit to each...

If we're talking mother-daughter relationships, there is definitely room for improvement when it comes to Bonnie and me. A few minutes o...

After throwing a truly sensational New Year’s Eve dinner party of left-overs for my oldest friends, Alan went off to visit his parents on Ne...

There goes Christmas for another year - done! (but not dusted). A combination of ice and illness has now transformed us into a clutch of ac...

I think we are coming to the end of an era. Bonnie marched up to me on Christmas Eve and fixed me with a glare somewhere between scorn, vic...

The serial Christmas Show-watching has drawn to a close. My highlights of the week: 1. Street-dancers, Secondary School Show - bums 'n...