GrainneMcCool's Blog

My eldest son is now 24 years of age, so I’ve been attending ‘Parent’s Day’ for the past 19 years. Each one has been an eye opener and on each occasion I learned something new about my boys. As a mother we always think we know best. No one else could possibly know our children better than us. Or could they? As I discovered all those years ago, they certainly could. Their teacher gets to...
Last updated: 28/10/2015 by GrainneMcCool
Being ‘just a mum’ is one of the best jobs in the world. I did this job for many years, so I understand exactly what this 24-hour day role includes; however, as I got older and returned to full time education I also realised that there was so much more to me than just my role as ‘Mum’. I discovered that I had lost my identity along the way and allowed myself to become just ‘Mum’. It...
Last updated: 07/10/2015 by GrainneMcCool
I paid a visit to a friend just last weekend, which turned into a counselling session in many ways. Having my children nearing the end of the teenage years, she is just starting the school years. With a daughter of 10 and son of just seven, her school childrearing days are really just getting under way. She wanted to ask my advice on her daughter’s new friend. When she told me why, it brought me...
Last updated: 23/09/2015 by GrainneMcCool
Social media has been awash with ‘first day at school’ photos recently and it made my heart smile to see so many lovely happy faces setting off on this new journey in life. It’s one that starts out at four or five years of age and continues into the early twenties and nothing prepares us for that first day saying ‘goodbye’ to our little treasures. It’s been a few years (quite a few...
Last updated: 08/09/2015 by GrainneMcCool
Surely when Son No. 2 is 21 and about to embark on his final year in college, my tribulations with himself are over. He’s now an independent adult, isn’t he? Well, that’s what I’d thought until just recently. He works on the weekends and during the holidays and provides for himself now in every respect. But then the L plate went up in my wee Polo. Oh dear, I had no idea what lay ahead and...
Last updated: 24/08/2015 by GrainneMcCool
As children grow up, we help them with the hurdles and obstacles that life places in their way. With babies and toddlers, these are literally just stumbling blocks like Lego pieces and dodgy stones, etc. But as they get older it’s the real-life stumbling blocks and hurdles that are much harder to help them get over. Having three boys, I always knew that the teenage years would be hard. As a...
Last updated: 07/08/2015 by GrainneMcCool
We are smack bang in the middle of the summer holidays once again and true to schedule, we cannot rely upon the Irish weather to accommodate us at all! But schools and colleges are out, so let’s just enjoy. The rain can pour, the wind can howl, but routine has gone out the window. I’ll settle for that! As we approach the forthcoming Bank Holiday weekend at the start of August, I can feel a...
Last updated: 22/07/2015 by GrainneMcCool
I have always put a lot of value on friendships. My best friends in adulthood now, are those friendships I formed as a young girl at school. There were times when it was hard as I thought they were making the wrong choices, but I sat back and allowed them to make their own decisions. I’ve always instilled this importance of friendship in my boys as they grew up. It was just over two years ago...
Last updated: 07/07/2015 by GrainneMcCool
I was in Dublin recently on a working holiday and during my lunch break each day, I took a walk through the city and visited my favourite coffee haunts. I’d taken this trip to prepare a Creative Writing Summer Camp for children, so at all times my mind was focused on children and the development of the imagination. I was seeking ideas on how I could inspire young children to use their...
Last updated: 23/06/2015 by GrainneMcCool
Someone said to me recently that a teacher has the easiest job in the world. I’ve never agreed with this assumption as I know just how much work is involved in teaching outside the classroom. At the present time we are bang-smack in the middle of the Leaving Cert exams; the most stressful time a young person will go through academically. It’s a time when their whole future depends on the...
Last updated: 08/06/2015 by GrainneMcCool
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