In which I grumble and rumble about motherhood
One of my daughters has a thing for being upside down. She is often just a pair of feet on the headrest of the couch. If you say her name, the feet will jig about a bit but there’s not likely to be any further response. It’s as if she’s in her own upside down world. I just tried the upside down on the couch pose and it wasn’t unpleasant […]
Here’s yet another brainy thing to be aware about because dum dum de dum, OCTOBER IS DYSLEXIA AWARENESS MONTH! Woo-hoo!!! (send in that confetti and SFX that people can do on their smart phones and I did once or twice by accident but can’t remember how). So here I am, making you aware. I have necessarily been hyper-aware of dyslexia over the last few years, since it was revealed that […]
(…it’s me. I was wondering if after all this time you’d like to meet; to go over everything…) SORRY for having not been in touch for an extended time. I haven’t even popped in to to leave a little silly ditty or a scrap of pathetic poetry. I do have an excuse, but I can’t reveal yet what it is. Let’s just call it a project (Ah what’s she up […]
Samanta Shweblin is the writer of an acclaimed short novel called Distancia de Rescate, the translation of which (renamed Fever Dream) has recently been longlisted for the Booker. ‘Distancia de Rescate’ translates to ‘Rescue Distance’, a term Samanta invented to describe the variable safe distance between a mother and child. I haven’t read the book yet (I may not ever, it sounds terrifying) but I immediately identify with rescue distance. […]
School goes back tomorrow and I have a serious case of Sunday blues except on a Wednesday. I am grateful that they are back on a Thursday just for two days and then home again for a long weekend. Nothing like easing one back into routine by stuffing up the routine after two days. I mean I can’t possibly pack lunches more than twice in a row just yet. I have […]
When your New Year doesn’t get off to an altogether good start, I think it’s okay to try again on say about the tenth of January. That seems a reasonable frame of time to get settled into a new year. I mean, when we start a new job it takes at least a fortnight to hit your straps. And with New Year’s Eve being such a demanding temptress of a […]
Our annual holiday started in all the best ways. Work completed in time, house sorted, everything packed in advance (well in advance since I got the departure day muddled up and we ended up with an extra day at home. This was an unexpected bonus for my garden because I spent the day getting the mulching finished and feeding all the plants sea-sol as a little extra Spring boost. I’ve […]
I know I have already mentioned the fact that I have re-entered the workforce. But I just glossed over it last time I think without being nearly smug enough. I mean I might as well be a poster girl for The Woman Who Can Have It All. Gainful, enjoyable employment, children, marriage, a house in the country – look at me, living the dream. Except that the country house is our […]
I am worried. I mean I’m always slightly worried, because I’m a mother and worrying is my job. But lately there’s been greater cause for concern and worry. I hate to worry. It seems pointless because the things I worry about are invariably things I can do nothing about and because it ages my brow only further (this is not something I classify as a worry, more a vanity, which […]
I had a tantrum. A tantrum, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is “an uncontrolled outburst of anger and frustration, typically in a young child”. Since I last wrote I have turned 39 so I am not a young child, but still, the rest of that definition sounds like what I had. Or rather, what happened to me, because I don’t think it was a voluntary response. Like a wee […]
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