MumAtWork's Blog

I have heard numerous reports from stay-at-home mums that they’re treated like pariahs in the playground. They're apparently made to feel like they’re incapable of holding an intelligent conversation or contributing in any real way to a ‘worthy’ discussion because the chose to stay at home and raise their children. I can sympathise wholeheartedly with this plight despite being a...

My son has been experiencing night terrors for approximately three months and I’ll be honest, I think I’m more horrified by the episodes than anyone else. It’s like living with a ticking time bomb who has the potential to wake up and scream bloody murder at any stage between 8pm and 7.30 in the morning. My heart flutters like a bird trapped in a cage and beads of sweat break out at the nape...

My six-year-old daughter Grace has recently joined a drama class. Many of the exercises encouraged by her teacher involve imitating classmates and mimicking the actions of various people in an effort to show children how simple it is to slip into someone else’s shoes. Unfortunately for me, this particular exercise has leaked into our family life and Grace has taken to imitating my words and...

Dear Mum, I’ve written you numerous cards over the years, I’ve left scrawled notes around the house and I’ve sent countless texts, but have I ever actually sat down, put pen to paper and written you a proper letter? Have I ever taken the time to truly thank you? Yes, I’ve called a hurried ‘ta’ over my shoulder as I let the house as a teen and mumbled a ‘thank you’ into your ear as...

Neither Grace nor Joshua would go to sleep on Sunday night. Instead of feeling like the mother of a toddler and a six-year-old, I felt like the mum of two wailing newborns and honestly, I didn’t know what to do. It was like we were the only three people on the face of the planet not sleeping at that moment. With my husband away for the weekend, I didn’t even have the luxury of performing the...

Saturday felt like one of those days where nothing I did for my children was enough and it was also one of those days when I questioned everything about motherhood: What was the point of it? Here I am bending over backwards for these children and I’m still not measuring up - do they hate me? How can I be getting it to so wrong? It was a rare Saturday where I didn’t have a work deadline to...

I have a photo of my children on my desk in work. Joshua is struggling to get out of his tricycle and Grace is crouched beside him laughing uproariously at his discomfort. I never thought I‘d be the type of woman who kept a photo of her children perched beside her computer screen, but I soon realised it was a done thing in my particular office. I definitely didn’t want to be the only mum that...

I’ve spent a long time envisioning girlie days I’d have with my daughter once she hit her teens. Boy-free days where we’d shop, have lunch and catch up with each other. I say ‘catch up’ because I hear teens don’t spend much time at home and as my job necessitates a lot of travel, I presumed the days in question would need to be arranged via PA or something. But what do I know? I’ve...

My three-year-old son was unwell last week. He toddled into the kitchen on Sunday evening as I was burning pasta, looked at me and promptly vomited all over his sister’s school bag. Swooping forward and rushing to the bathroom with him, I thought to myself: “Oh God, not this week.” And then I almost buckled at the knees with guilt. My son was clearly unwell, he was puking like his father...

We all have things that made our heart pound, our palms sweat and our knees weaken. For my 3-year-old son, it’s the appearance of a comb and the words ‘It will just take two minutes’. For me? Well, it used be the announcement that my regular hairdresser was on holidays and I’d be put in the not-so-capable hands of Jackie, the trainee, but now it’s the appearance of the letter that...