Blog List

So it’s over. Did you make it through unscathed? It’s been a long time since Christmas fell in a way that resulted in a large portion of the working population having two full weeks’ holiday, just as it did in 2014 It seemed like a great scenario on the 19 th December - can you remember back that far? That was before you opened the first of many bottles of Glühwein; before you even started...

My seven-year-old tells me I am always going out and the last outing I can remember included Tesco and the bank! My son tells me I look lovely when I dress up for a rare event I need to attend and I suddenly realise how mundane I look every other day. My daughter asks me what time exactly I will be home and then says, “that’s ages!” as if I am asking her to fend for herself. I drag the bags...

When I became pregnant for the first time, I was beyond excited. I bought every maternity magazine available and read parenting books from cover to cover. I even HIGHLIGHTED passages in the books. Yes, reader, I really did. I dreamt about creating the perfect nursery. I was going to be a brilliant mum, the mum I had always dreamed of. Hooray! Fast forward nine months, and the reality was entirely...

With the New Year upon us, lots of people are talking about changes they want to make in their lives; careers, bodies and even homes. There are so many promising changes that can be made, but after some thought, I decided I would just continue being ‘me’. As I reached this decision I contemplated what exactly being ‘me’ entails. My conclusion was drawn when my younger brother told me he...

This morning I watched my three year old son get so excited when he received postcards from his ‘friend’ Darcy in Australia. As I read them to him he was engrossed in learning all about the new things Darcy got up to. So what’s so special about Darcy? Darcy is a cuddly Dingo and a friend of my brother in Australia. My brother has been living there since September 2007 and the last time he...

I’ve gotten to the age where my New Year’s resolutions are the same every year. Each January, I dust off last year’s list, which was recycled from the previous year, and make a fifth or sixth attempt at the usual suspects: quitting bad habits, starting good habits and cutting down on moderately poor habits. Yes, it’s a bit dull but I’m not prepared to take drastic measures like resolve...

The first week of 2015 is already gone, and with it any chance that I will make a New Year’s resolution this year. Like most mothers, I don’t really get a kick out of failure and to me, there can be few surer routes to misery than drawing up a neat list of lofty goals, still giddy on stolen selection boxes and sparkling wine. With shovelfuls of mince pies and Roses under my belt, it’s...

Oh, how I dread the 6 th of January. F ormally known as the Feast of the Epiphany or Women’s Little Christmas - a day where women get to spend time with other women - this time of the year has become our annual post-Christmas clean up. Well, rather my post-Christmas clean-up. Yes, everyone’s around to put up the festive decorations but they seem to vanish when it’s time for them to come...

Social media was awash with memes, slogans and posts on Sunday night which lamented both the passing of Christmas and the inevitable return to work and school. If you saw these uploads and didn’t experience the classic sinking feeling that you should expect to feel when contemplating the return to normality, don’t worry, you’re not alone. I bit my tongue on Saturday when friends and family...

So it looks like Kerry Katona has come under fire once again (honestly, that woman probably carries a fire extinguisher like the rest of us carry handbags) for appearing to ‘publicly shame’ her 13-year-old daughter, Molly McFadden, on Twitter. Kerry took to social media to chastise her teen daughter for not keeping a tidy bedroom, but her 21 st century approach to the issue has not gone down...