Our amazing nanny is pregnant, and whilst I am really pleased for her, it leaves me with a gap…
Nannies can be a good option for dual-career couples. Having a nanny at your home with a mo... Read More
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Question: What do prayers, AI, and psychological safety have in common?
Answer: The boldness of Commander-in-Chief-Junior. You have to hand it to eight-year old’s who are developing PhDs f... Read More
I moved into my first army quarter just before our eldest was born, bribing myself with a Smeg fridge to prove that, despite now having to live in an epicentre of tedium painted entirely in magnolia,... Read More
Now that the sun is shining (FINALLY) I can feel the summer holidays approaching and more milestones about to fly past. Our summer-born son has almost finished Reception (he will still be ... Read More
A brown man walks into a pub.......is potentially the start of a humorous observation of ethnic mismatches and misunderstandings that would have been acceptable in the 80's, but actually it conti... Read More
We are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary next week. Where did the time go? Being 10 years married makes me feel older than my own age does.
My husband and I were talking in the... Read More
By the time you read this blog, Son will have started his GCSEs, the culmination of three sets of mocks over the past year, endless revision sessions – for the students and the parents! - and e... Read More
We have just returned from a would-be family holiday of a lifetime to Egypt that ended up feeling like more of a trains, planes and automobiles ordeal! It began with severely delayed flights, a... Read More
We were one of thousands of households in the UK, seduced into bringing a puppy into our family during the Covid-19 lockdown; perhaps ‘coerced’ would be a more accurate description. My da... Read More
One Saturday morning we were looking for something to do with the kids and I suggested to my husband that we go check out Mercedes Benz World. It’s not too far from us, I’ve heard good th... Read More
I need to learn from Commander-in-Chief-Junior’s priorities. He woke me up in the middle of the night murmuring something unintelligible about Dracula. When I asked him in the morning what he d... Read More
Like fellow contributor Jill , we often struggle to get through the regular homework set by the school. My daughter claims that homework is not for weekend days at all, which is a good an... Read More
"It's not fair". The soundtrack of our (parenting) lives, the title of my memoirs, the last line on the end credits scene at my funeral.
When you have siblings, life is... Read More
There is a bit of a pinch to turning 40. It’s the age that you think of in your 20s as people having their life organised, and settled, and having disposable income! Now that I am looking down ... Read More
The first thing I noticed, when I walked back into mum’s apartment in Savona, after she passed away last November, was the familiar smell of a home I had not been in for a while. I closed my ey... Read More
As with most things in life, Valentine’s Day has meant something different to me during different periods in my life. I remember the fear as a teenager that I might not receive any cards, along... Read More
I could never have imagined life without my dad and my mother-in-law. My parents lived quite a distance away, and visits were not as frequent as I would have liked. But my dad had been a strong figur... Read More
Why is this such a big deal in grown up age? I’m not going to lie, my social life took a hit during Covid. Everything changed. My community, my routine, my job, my personality… all of it... Read More
My son Logan was born in September 2019 and six months into my maternity leave the UK went into its first ‘Lockdown’. Initially I felt that my ‘special time’ had unfairly been... Read More
Ten years ago, I saw an email from Citymothers seeking applications for a blog they were about to launch. I had three children under the age of eight, childcare we couldn’t afford, a husband ab... Read More
I find myself writing this as I sit on the Elizabeth Line on the way to Heathrow Terminal 5, to board a flight to Qatar where I'll see England take on the might of current world champions France ... Read More
When the first lockdown finished and restaurants finally reopened, myself and my husband booked lunch. When we got there, my husband stopped me at the door and said – “they will ask your ... Read More
Dear Mum, I made lasagne today, just the way you taught me, with lean beef and handfuls of fresh herbs. We ate them for dinner and talked about you. Son and daughter reminisced about visiting you in ... Read More
"It's just a phase" I said last week, hoping to reassure my friend with a newborn baby who was worried about not managing to get dressed before 2pm. It was my wise mum who first s... Read More
Hey, how are you all? Today I am writing from the ‘Half Term Trenches’. I am still alive, amazingly still smiling and my kids haven’t killed each other. How I hear you ask?
I c... Read More
This year I turned 50 and decided to return to work after a long career break. Thank God for HRT!
My peri menopause symptoms probably started subtly over the last few years, but the roller ... Read More
So, I’m approaching a happy age in my kids’ lives when ‘the time has come to put away childish things’. This is ages 10 and 11 in my case. Thank goodness. Happy is ... Read More
How was your summer and return to reality last month? Autumn has well and truly arrived now, and we’re back on the treadmill of school and work.
In my last blog I was continuing th... Read More
As a teenager in the 1980s, I was addicted to Capital Radio, desperate for enough money to buy a pair of Converse, and had a crush on the boy over the road. I dreamt of working with dolphins and ador... Read More