MichelleMcDonagh's Blog

It was with some trepidation that we went to The Bruiser’s first nativity play on Friday. He came home from playschool a few weeks ago proudly proclaiming that he was playing the role of King Horrid. Seeing the puzzled look on his dad’s face, I explained that his son was playing the role of the maniac King Herod of Judea, who ordered that all boys aged two and under in Bethlehem be put to...

Sitting in a coffee shop on a recent Sunday afternoon, taking advantage of a couple of child-free hours to enjoy the papers, it was brought home to me, not for the first time, how much we as parents shape the adults that our children grow into. The cafe, located in a busy suburban Cork shopping centre, was bustling with Christmas shoppers and the few staff on duty that day were obviously under...

When we brought The Bruiser home from hospital, Princess Firstborn, who was then 18-months-old, was somewhat taken aback to discover that unlike her, he was hiding funny dangly bits under his nappy. Having no experience in this kind of situation, I gently explained that this was her little brother’s “Dinglebell” — don’t ask me where I got the name from but it was the first word that came...

A recent conference on food addiction held in Dublin heard a variety of experts say there was insufficient evidence to suggest that common foods or particular ingredients had addictive qualities. One eminent professor from across the pond made the point that unlike drugs, food does not cause neuralogical changes in the brain and there was no evidence of withdrawal symptoms. As a self confessed...

As kids in 1970s Ireland, our typical Halloween costume was a bin bag with cotton wool or random pieces of coloured paper glued to it. Our face paint was dad’s black shoe polish and a red lipstick stolen from my mother’s makeup bag and we collected out trick or treat booty in plastic St Bernard bags. We all knew the houses where the best goodies were given out and the ones to avoid – those...

When I started at this parenting malarkey five and a half years ago, I devoured tonnes of parenting books and took everything the parenting gurus said as gospel. I remember being horrified when my dad, who is very much of the old school style of parenting, told my precious Firstborn not to be so bold when she committed some routine toddler misdemeanour. She, not at all used to such harsh...