DOES CHARITY MATTER? (Part 1) Should we care about the way we talk to each other as adults – and to our children – when it comes to the subject of ‘charity’ and ‘giving’? When our schools send requests for a few quid so that our kid can dress up as a certain bear/sport a […]
Bicycles … Yorkshire … Africa?
Me. Fresh as a daisy! Yeah, right. Back from sub-saharan Africa … a houseswap … a work-related project … and a ‘holiday’ (employing inverted commas here because is it *ever* a holiday when accompanied by humans under the age of 21 who happen to be your own, delightful offspring?) So much to report on and […]
Word Play
SCENARIO ONE Child (aged 9): Mum – why can’t I read the book that you wrote? Me: You know damn we…er I mean… you know why, sweetie. It’s got some swear words in it. Child: What? Like, you’re worried I’m going to go and repeat them to my teacher or something? Me: (wearily) Yes. Something […]
WUDE WORDS FOR WORLD BOOK DAY
Everyone in our house enjoys World Book Day. Even more so this year! The 5 year old’s school requested him to dress up as a character from his favourite book (disappointing me somewhat…I was hoping that he wanted to go as something rather literary, rather serious – such as Aslan the Lion, but no….bloody Spiderman. […]
All we want for Valentine’s Day is…
Since my daughter reached the ripe old age of 9, I’ve been doing my best to fully empower her and to facilitate a greater sense of independence (which can also read as ‘get her out of my way every now and then so that I can crack on with my own stuff.’) One way of […]
A Flat Head? EJ Howard, writing and the waterways…
One of our local librarians managed to push aside the fear of her own redundancy in order to try and engage with me. There I was. Wild eyed and raddled mother of second, newborn baby. Desperate for something both entertaining and intelligent to get me through the wee small hours of brain and boobie-overdrive boredom… […]