So have you entered your daughter in the Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant this weekend? Me neither. Kind of a no-brainer. Kind of not worth writing a blog post really, as there’s nothing to debate, the argument makes itself.And I’ve just read that the Bracken Court in Balbriggan, revealed this week to
Today is my blog’s six month anniversary and by happy coincidence, the nice people at Zinio have given me some free subscriptions to online magazines to give away! happy half birthday! (image credit goodtoknow.co.uk) They have a huge choice of titles available – I’ve picked out just some of them here:Elle, Tatler
When we finished school in 1993, nobody in Ireland had ever queued overnight to buy a house from the plans, Anglo was just another fairly innocuous bank, and Justin Bieber hadn’t been born yet. We said good-bye to one another without the benefit of mobile phone numbers or email addresses
This is how homework goes in our house: Me: Clara please can you come and start your homework Clara: (silence) Me: Please, come on, we need to get started Clara: In a minute mum Multiply this and various other responses by well, a lot, and fast forward to half an
From sandals to boots overnight – summer is a goner. And we’re all fine with that; as a nation we’ve agreed that we can’t complain, because the summer was just so good this year (by nation I mean three real-life conversations plus the general consensus on Twitter) I’m thinking back
“I hate the playground” said the woman as she sat back down on the low wall. “Me too” I replied, shaking my head as I plucked a squirming toddler off the top of the slide. The very nice woman had just leaped up to grab Sam, who had decided that
You stepped silently down the stairs, gliding almost, and quietly joined us in the kitchen. The skirt that grazed your ankles a year ago when you first wore a uniform is now swishing around your knees. You slipped wordlessly into your seat, entirely focused on breakfast to the exclusion of
Two weeks ago, the toddler discovered television. And I am so happy. I know it’s not good for him, I know at twenty months he is too young for TV, but my happiness outweighs any anxiety or guilt I might have about this. For the first time in six years,
This week, the Irish Parenting Bloggers are writing about back-to-school costs, a topic that’s causing frustration for some and fear for many more around the country this week. In our house, we are at the early stages of the school life-cycle; we have just one of our three in school,
My lovely nanny Silvia moved on to a new job in a new career as a writer last week, as mentioned here. The kids sobbed, I sobbed, Silvia cried too on her last day. But happily for us, we found a fantastic new nanny last week – she started on
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you picked it up from Twitter or Facebook – it’s not news that we’re getting most of our, well, news, entertainment, information and of course blog posts, from social media. And this includes parenting information – who do parents talk to when they
Three days, three hashtags: Malala, Slanegirl and RoseofTralee It has been a strange week so far for women in Ireland – a wake-up call on how women are viewed, how women are judged. It also raises a question – what are we looking for in terms of role models
You know it’s back-to-school time when RTE starts to reel us in for The Rose of Tralee. It reminds me of shiny new pencil cases and covering school books and writing my name on everything. Everything. I loved the Rose of Tralee as a child. As an adult, I laughed at it
I worry a lot that I’m not very good at being a parent. I work outside the home because financially I have to, as many mothers do. I also enjoy my job, and wonder sometimes if it’s easy to hide behind the financial obligation – how would I really feel
Today is our childminder’s last day, and the kids are upset. They are reacting in different ways. I asked Emmie, who is four, how she feels about it. “Sad” was her answer. I gave her another big hug and said that I’m sad too. I think she will be OK.
Working mothers are being put on the “mommy track” according to an article in the Independent last week. We have so many terms to learn all the time it’s hard to keep up – for anyone who is not familiar with it, “mommy track” refers to the sidelining
Don’t be a martyr. Don’t be a mammy-martyr or a worker-bee-martyr or any other kind. It didn’t end well for Joan of Arc and it won’t end well for you. I don’t know if it’s an Irish thing or a woman thing or a mother thing, or maybe a little
Tips for finding a childminder she said. Post your questions here she said. And the Gods of Taking Down Smug People thought “ha!” And even though I wasn’t being horribly smug, take me down they did. Within one week of writing a blog post with tips for finding a childminder,
Just before teatime: “Mum can I use the big scissors to cut some paper? please say yes, mum please, just say yes” from my five year-old. My instinctive response was “No, I’m getting the tea ready now, I can’t let you use the scissors on your own” But I stopped
As a follow on to my post for the Irish Parenting Bloggers World Breastfeeding Week blog march 2013 (that’s some title!), I’ve pulled together a set of links for the many groups and websites you can access for advice on and support with breastfeeding: Breastfeeding.ie is a one-stop shop which