AoifeOCarroll's Blog

Summer can be long for teenagers too young to get jobs. And it can be interminable for their parents, particularly if their parents work from home. So my decision to bring the middle child out hiking once a week was inspired not only by a desire to get him away from his various screens and out in the fresh air, but also by a purely selfish need to preserve my own sanity. Now, perhaps you are one...

As I write, the Leaving Certer is delightedly chucking stacks of English notes into the recycling bin, and by June 15 th , I will have to make a special trip to the dump to dispose of the remains of 13 years of schooling. After just two papers, however, he has already announced that he is “bored with exams”. Boredom, fear, exhaustion, worry, relief, panic — these are just some of the...

My eldest son graduated from school this week. My eldest son graduated from school this week. No, it doesn't matter how many times I write or say those words, I just cannot get my head around the fact that my first baby is about to leave his uniform balled up on the floor for the last time. His school days are behind him forever. There was a special Mass in the school on Tuesday night, and I...

It's May – although I'm writing this wrapped in a fleece – and that means the start of the children's outdoor party season. With communions and summer birthdays to celebrate, expect the air to be filled with the sound of inflating bouncy castles as crowds of sugar-happy kids take to the great outdoors. I think the post-exam party my Leaving Certer has planned will be fuelled by...

I don't think anybody would fall off their chair in surprise on hearing that parenting as a single mother can be a challenge. When you're used to sharing at least the same roof as the children's father, chaos ensues when they leave. After a while, however, you cobble together your own version of ‘normal’ family life. Eight years later, I have been a single parent for almost as long...

I was having lunch last Sunday in a hotel in Killarney, so it was no surprise to see girls in T-shirts and leggings munching toasties with their parents. If I told you that this hotel happens to be within skipping distance of the hotel where the All-Ireland Dancing Championships were being held, you probably would not be surprised to hear that several of those girls also happened to be wearing...

The Leaving Certer was moping around the kitchen, wearing his abandoned spaniel expression, so I immediately assumed that he was panicking about his exams and went into supportive-mother mode. “Is everything okay? I'm here if you want to talk about anything, you know that.” Leaving Certer responded to my concerned enquiries with unconvincing assurances that he was fine, okay, and grand...

Last Thursday, I was called into the boss' office to be informed that my position was being made redundant. There followed the usual “It's not you, it's us” platitudes about organisational change and pressures from investors, but the only thought that pounded in my head, flashing in giant warning letters in my mind's eye, was: “How am I going to tell the kids?” This is not...

There are times when my kids leave me with the unavoidable impression that one of their main aims in life is to make mine as difficult as possible. You may have had similar experiences yourself. Your teen announces he needs a set square for technical graphics (formerly known as mechanical drawing), and you enquire as to the date this equipment is required, only to be told that said set square...

I was burrowing into one of my assorted pairs of tartan pyjamas (I say “pairs” only because there is a top and a bottom; these never match) the other evening when I remembered one of the few great things about the wintry days of darkest January: I don't have to look at my body. I go from multi-layered daywear to all-encompassing night attire with just a quick hot shower in between. No time...