Parenting

Why girls SHOULD be concerned about their appearance

Recently, I’ve overhauled my make-up bag. I’ve never been that big on cosmetics, and apart from a brief rebellious flirtation with blue mascara in the school toilets in Year 9, I’ve worn pretty much the same look for nearly 4 decades. But I have a twelve year old daughter, and she has an Instagram account. She knows exactly how to create the perfect eyebrow, and took me to task over my own straggly excuses until I gave in, and allowed her to do me a makeover. She was right. But I feel strangely uncomfortable. Strong women everywhere tell me that …

Read more

Last-minute Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day gift inspiration

Have you sorted your Mother’s Day gift yet? If not, don’t panic; you’re not alone, and I have a suggestion for you. Apparently, more than half a million Brits leave it until an hour before midday on the Sunday to shop for Mother’s Day gifts! As someone who has been victim of a ‘whatever’s at the petrol station’ present, I’m urging you not to leave it that late, but even if you do, help is at hand. Mother’s Day gift inspiration Supermarket giant Tesco have some research that suggests that 22 per cent of us have no idea what to …

Read more

Parenting: Why Teenage isn’t a number

Where to see bluebells in Hertfordshire

“She’s SUCH a Teenager!!” I’m betting every parent knows where that came from, even if their oldest child is only three. There’s even a term for it – threenager. Every exasperated mother who’s ever manhandled an obstinate toddler into a pushchair, or been struck speechless by her seven-year-old’s ability to hit a raw nerve understands the fear of what might come next. If she’s like this now, how bad is it going to be when she’s a teenager..? What exactly is a teenager? The thing is, teenaged isn’t really an age – it’s a process. Parenting society has come to use the word …

Read more

Why cheesy holidays are good for your soul

Family travel tips - find a good water park

A long time ago, I used to write in the voice of my child. A bizarre concept, I admit, but it made me laugh, and preserved my memories. It made other people laugh too. Either that or they all commented because they were building their own fledgling blogs, just as I was, and needed the visits! I like to think it was the former. Anyway, I was cleaning up my draft posts – organising the loft, as it were – and I came across this. I think she was around 6 years old. It made me smile. So indulge me, …

Read more

Minecraft or Minefield? Essential Help with Parental Controls

Parental Controls – Simplified It’s a nightmare, isn’t it? Knowing what your kids are doing online, and more importantly, knowing that they’re safe. Our children have grown up intuitively knowing how to operate devices, seeing them as sources of fun, interaction with friends, and even – as they get older – educational tools. They’re not scared of them, they’re not nonplussed by technology, and so it stands to reason that they’re not worried about living their lives online. But for parents – many of whom have had to learn alongside their children, and with media horror stories in mind – …

Read more

Travel: how to reduce the pain of coming home from a holiday.

Is there anything worse than the blues you get when you come home from a holiday? You’ve had a week of sun, or excitement, with great friends, or much-needed down time with your family. And then you get home. And you’re left with just a huge pile of washing, a dead pot plant, and a cold shower. If you’ve travelled long-haul it’s even worse. You’ve had to attempt sleep sitting up, with someone else practically in your lap, and the person behind using your seat back to haul his not insignificant ass up and down all night long. Beauty sleep, …

Read more

Turning 50, Feeling Hotter

The time has come for expensive jeans, and comfy shoes. I took my daughter to our local catwalk show last month. As I gazed at the models – all local girls, some of them mums I knew from the playground – something clicked in my mind. All ordinary women, looking amazing in interesting clothes, holding their heads high, knowing they looked good. Wearing gorgeous throw-on knits, skinny jeans, sparkling pantsuits, and exquisite blouses. Yes, blouses. Time was, a blouse was a thing you wore to tea with your grandmother, not an article of chic glamour, but times have changed, and …

Read more

Keep Bodies Real, for the Sake of our Girls – Sponsored by Dove

When she was 7, my daughter came home and asked me if she could shave her legs. My heart sank, because I knew we were on the brink of a lifetime of concerns about her appearance. She had been teased at school, and in an afternoon, she’d gone from not caring two figs about her legs – beyond how fast they could carry her round the playground – to wanting them to conform to someone else’s expectations. Over the next few years, a whole bunch of other perceived flaws found their way into her awareness of herself, from moles to …

Read more

An Open Letter to Type 1 Teens

Type 1 diabetes is as much a psychological condition as it is a physical one. In this letter to type 1 teens, a grieving mum tells other sufferers what she can no longer tell her son.

On 22 July this year, Connor lost his life to type 1 diabetes. He was a normal teenaged boy, with everything to live for. But he had diabetes, an incurable condition that is relentless in its need to be managed, every hour of every day, for life. It is a difficult physical condition, yet what you very rarely see is the emotionally exhausting psychological burden of living with type 1, that is every bit as tough as the medical. In the weeks following Connor’s death, Nicky, his mother, wrote this letter in the hopes that if just one young person read …

Read more

Daddy’s Girl: How a Father’s Support can Help a Girl Achieve her Dreams

Do you have a Daddy’s girl? Does she twist him round her little finger, engaging her best smiles just for him? Does it drive you mad that he can never say no, or manage any semblance of discipline when his daughter is around? Well read on, to find out why that may not be such bad thing. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the classic father daughter bond between my girl and my husband. It’s a common theme in parenting, the adoration that fathers have for their girls, the ability girls. The two of them are regularly in cahoots over …

Read more

How not to Worry about School

Starting school. Changing school. Changing classes. Applying for school. Starting secondary school. Starting to twitch yet? As parents, the process of getting your child through the education system can seem daunting, and that’s before you even start thinking about all the different stages. Will they make friends? Will their teacher be good? Will they be bullied? Will they get homework, and how much? What on earth are SATs and why is everyone so stressed about them? And don’t even get me started on the secondary school transfer process! Before our eldest started school, we were fortunate enough to be surrounded …

Read more

Dads and Daughters – Finding a Shared Passion

When she was born, I held her briefly. I cuddled her for a while as the midwife tried to do my stitches. It was too tricky and they decided I needed pain relief – it was going to take a while. I had done all that work on gas and air, and now I needed an epidural! They wrapped her up, got him to dress her, and wheeled me off to surgery. My husband was left for the next two hours with our first baby daughter, alone. So began that classic bond. A daddy’s girl, she would light up when …

Read more

Parenting: Watch More TV to End Bedtime Battles

Bedtime battles have to be one of the most frustrating aspects of parenting, don’t they? You put up with sleepless newborn nights, assuming that routine will come, and you’ll get your evenings back. And for most, it does. Until your baby wises up and realises that he has influence. From that moment on, you’re doomed. The nightly debate as your sleepy child kicks into his energy reserves for a final sprint sucks the life from you, even as your dinner sits cooling in front of Game of Thrones, stuck on live pause. Sky TV asked me to take a look …

Read more

The Best Summer Ever

Two years ago my then 9-year-old bounced out of school on the last day of the year, full of excitement for the holidays, and pronounced that it was going to be the best summer ever. For various reasons, it wasn’t, and the memory of that hopeful, thwarted statement has haunted me ever since. I’ve waited quietly for the best summer ever to tip up and lay that ghost to rest, biding my time, and watching my children as they unwind after a long school year. This summer was the one. This holiday has been the best summer ever. As we …

Read more

Is there enough support for NICU parents?

I was recently contacted by Vicki, a blogger who writes about her experiences of having her son, Elijah in NICU. Elijah was born unexpectedly with a heart defect, and suffered some complications after birth. Vicki and her husband were thrust into the life of NICU parents, and found it difficult to navigate. Here she explains what that time was like, and how she wants to help others who find themselves in a similar situation. Firstly, I have to start by saying these are my opinions, and my observations as a NICU parent. This is my story, and what was and …

Read more

Happier children: let them help decorate their bedrooms!

Unbelievably, there’s not much left of the school summer holidays. If you’ve already taken your holiday, filled your quota of family days out, and are looking for something to keep everyone busy in the last couple of weeks before the new school year begins, you might want to consider bringing forward that decorating project. Brilliant Kids Bedroom Designs Bedroom makeovers are a real rite of passage for children. I remember vividly making the change from neutral nursery to little girl’s pink fairy heaven, complete with princess castle dolls house and twinkly-lit den under her high sleeper. She adored it, but …

Read more

How David Lloyd will Save Me From Myself

I spend all my time at my desk. I drop the kids off at school, flirt with the idea of going for a run, think better of it, and start work. I plan to run before lunch, then take a panic shower every day when I realise I have five minutes until the school run and I’ve been sitting there all day with nothing more and coffee and toast to break my focus. I’m a good mum; I switch off my laptop when the kids get home, and spend some time with them, cook for them, ferry them to their …

Read more

Back to School: 5 School Uniform Mistakes, and how to avoid them

Making sure you get the right school bag is an essential part of uniform shopping

This is how the Bug looks today. It’s hot, they have a non-uniform day, and a water fight on the field, so he’s in his coolest new t-shirt. I love this final week of the summer term, with teachers finishing off admin while kids let off steam and have fun after all the hard work. But nonetheless, mean mother that I am, I made him put on his brand new winter uniform trousers and shoes, just so I could show our readers, and get you thinking about adding school uniform to your summer to-do list. You’re welcome. Common School Uniform …

Read more

Could you hit your child?

Could you ever hit your child?

I should have been holding his hand but I wasn’t. He saw our car, parked on the other side, and ran to climb inside. He didn’t see the van crossing his path. It happened so fast. He ran, brakes screeched, I screamed, he stopped, bewildered. I slapped the back of his legs and then hugged him tight. His face crumpled in hurt and confusion. I remember that moment years ago so clearly, and berate myself for it over and over again. I have never hit either of my children since, and yet toddler parent frustration often left me wondering what …

Read more