It’s been on my radar screen for a while to take the children to the zoo. Something of a tradition at this time of year, I’d been waiting for a free day. Tuesday this week was the day I’d earmarked,
Just like a teenager: embracing language that connects
“Just like a woman.” Someone actually said this abhorrent phrase to me this week. It’s 2016 and apparently he thought it was acceptable to make a completely sexist remark to me, right in front of my children. His shoulders shook
“When I was your age…” — connecting with our children through empathic memory
I promise, I’m really not a bad cook. In fact, I love cooking. For the past two weeks I have been clearing out old copies of a cookery magazine, which I have been collecting for 17 years. Yes, seventeen. (The
Gliding through the sky: parenting now-ness & perspective
“Kee!” I heard it, thought: “buzzard,” and accordingly lifted my head to see it. There it was: a tail like a tomahawk, light patches on the undersides of its broad wings. Gliding through the cloudless sky in the way
Moments and moments
My daughter and I have started playing a new game in the swimming pool. The opponents face each other and each person crosses their forearms and grabs the others’ wrists. While treading water, the players wrestle in a bid to
Mothermorphosis
“Hey, are you going to reunion this year?” A message from my childhood friend caught me by surprise. Apparently it has been 20 years since we graduated from high school and the reunion is in July. I have never been
Make a wish
Linking up with Amanda at Habit of Being – November prompt-a-day 29 November’s prompt My eldest child is a maker. An idea possesses her, and with a single-mindedness I can only admire, she decides what she is going to create, and she
The Work of Parenting
My sister-in-law hates Chiff Chaffs. These little migratory birds arrive in the UK in April or May, perching in the tops of trees, calling out a repetitive CHIFF CHAFF CHIFF CHAFF sound that seems to go on and on. She
The Quiet Revolutionary
He wanted another one. He’d been collecting those little Smurf figurines, and he knew that we’d stopped at a shop where he could get another one. As his mother explained that she didn’t plan on buying him one today, he
The mother-child bond
One of the most astonishing things about become a mother for the first time was the feeling that I would never again be a unitary being. Holding my baby in my arms, looking into the tar-black pools of her eyes,
