It’s World Breastfeeding Week from August 1st to August 7th, and the Irish Parenting Bloggers have decided to do a Blog March to show support. Each of us will publish a post this week based on our own breastfeeding experiences, and linked to this year’s theme: Breastfeeding Support: Close to
So, you need to find a complete stranger to come into your house and be solely responsible for your children while you’re not there. Scary stuff. Looking for a childminder (or nanny to use the more correct term) can be a very daunting challenge. When I was starting to think
A provocative headline from the daily mail: why SHOULD childless women like us do longer hours to cover for working mothers see the article here More than 1,000 comments already, and the pot has well and truly been stirred. But a headline like “Most people work together as best they can
The ferry never changes. The familiar smell of exhausts as engines are switched off and families squeeze between rows of roof-box-topped cars to reach the entry doors. The staff with genuine smiles waiting to greet us and help tiny children clamber up the steep steps. The sense of relief when
It’s been a tricky week – the type of week we all have from time to time, that makes you take stock of what’s important – family, friends, health (and erm, sunshine, in case the weather gods are paying attention) My mood matched the thunder and rain that we’ve had
There was a funny moment this morning when I was getting breakfast for the kids – well ironic more than funny. The two girls were busy at the table making necklaces by threading beads onto string, and deep in concentration, they were ignoring my requests for help. I was rushing
So women are fasting and over-exercising during pregnancy to avoid weight gain – “Pregorexia”, which is a dangerous obsession with staying slim while pregnant, is on the rise, according to a recent article in Grazia. They are desperate to maintain their pre-pregnancy figures as far as possible, and to avoid putting
We’ve just returned home from what has been our best holiday ever. We say that every year of course, and it usually takes a few months and a healthy dose of hindsight to admit that two weeks in a damp mobile home while it rained almost every day was not
This is a picture that I took of my kids having a picnic lunch today, and instinctively thought “I should put this up on Facebook!” I suppose because the kids look happy, they’re having lunch on a picnic rug, and maybe on some level it makes me feel like a
As the best man said “we’ve known each other since we were kids, and I’m very honoured and proud to be standing here today” , we all turned towards his wife, inclining our heads and expressing a silent “awwwww!” . Partly as we were genuinely moved by the best man’s
The bags are packed, the kids are packed and takeaway coffees are in hand – we’re on the road to Rosslare to take the ferry to Roscoff. I’m beyond excited to be going on holidays and not remotely worried (read: reasonably worried) about the potential
School’s out for summer, and for parents all over the country it’s a significant milestone in any year. For our family, until now, this time of year meant just two things: lighter traffic in the morning and holidays jumping to twice the price. But for the first time, we experienced end-of-term properly
A short post about a five-year-old girl who wants to be her own boss from now on – in a week of transcripts, here’s one of our conversation last night: C: Mum, I’ve had enough of you telling me what to do. From now on I’m going to decide everything
So I’ve learned two important things since writing the below post last April – it’s a story about tripping over a laundry basket and spraining my finger, being unable to drive and therefore taking a bus to work. This gave me some unexpected time for browsing Facebook and Twitter on my
Listening to the Anglotapes for the second day today, like most of the country, I’m angry and speechless. We all know the history of what happened, but to actually hear the conversations played out – to hear the lack of forethought, the complete absence of care, the clear intention to
It’s 9pm on a beautiful June evening and I’m typing this post sitting in my garden, drinking a cold beer (this doesn’t have a huge amount to do with the post but I am unlikely to experience this again, so I’m noting it for the record). Last weekend we had Father’s Day, and this
Mommy-wars. Or since we’re in Ireland, let’s say Mammy-wars. I can’t stand the term, but it’s the widely-used name for the phenomenon of mothers judging mothers on every element of parenting, originally coined to refer to mothers working outside the home versus stay-at-home mothers. Newspapers love the SAHM/ mothers working outside the
Today we went to a birthday party – all five of us. My eldest has been giving out about this upcoming birthday party for the last two weeks, saying she wouldn’t know anyone, she’d be older than all the other kids (the birthday girl is a friend of my four year
So. Hosting children’s birthday parties. I can’t possibly be the only person who finds this extremely stressful? When chatting about this to other parents, I sense that they don’t find this quite the ordeal that I do. Or perhaps some are better than I am at hiding the fear? I feel
Today is my birthday, and I arrived home from work to an eerily silent house. As I looked around in mild confusion, two excited girls, one bemused little boy and one smiling childminder jumped out from behind the counter and yelled “surprise!” There was a cake on the table – this is