It seems the Christmas letters, so popular in America for years have become increasingly used by people across the pond. An annual round robin to anyone on the Christmas card list to tell (brag) about your life in the past year. Little Johnny got into the best university; Sheila had her 11th child (without pain … [Read more…]
Before having children, I would never sing in public. Maybe you would have caught me on the karaoke after a couple of vodkas but even that was rare. With children, though, sometimes only singing will do. For instance, pushing the trolly around the supermarket can sometimes get boring. You know you only have an allotted … [Read more…]
Over the next week, I am going to talk about the unspoken things of parenthood. The things they don’t tell you in magazines. This is my first. The Mummy Club. Becoming a parent for the first time is many things. Scary, tiring, exciting and most of all amazing. There is however one aspect of … [Read more…]
So it’s National Breastfeeding Week and boy are the claws out. What is it between breast feeders and bottle feeders that can stir such emotion? Guilt? Jealousy? Smugness? Forget breastfeeding itself being a taboo subject it’s the question hovering over every mother’s lips at social gatherings and baby groups. Did you/do you breastfeed? It seems … [Read more…]
So, a report in today’s Daily Mail (July 31st) says a study has revealed that stay at home mothers are happiest. It says: “They tend not to suffer from boredom, frustration or feelings of worthlessness, according to the research on Britain’s wellbeing. Full-time mothers gave the value of their lives a score of eight out … [Read more…]
I was staggered to hear the question on Sky News minutes after Kate and William brought the lovely baby George out to the waiting world. Why has the Duchess of Cambridge still got a baby bump? They had some half-wits on bleating about how her uterus hadn’t shrunk back to its normal size yet. IT … [Read more…]
When I was in labour I didn’t want anyone to know. My parents, my husband’s parents and, obviously, my husband knew but that was it. I didn’t want the stress of anyone texting asking stupid things like: ‘any signs yet?’ or people posting on my Facebook account: ‘hope it’s not too painful.’ Birth is such … [Read more…]
Before we lived on the farm, it was easy to think of myself as a farmer’s wife but until you are actually there, you are not. Yes you are used to the unsociable hours, not being able to take holidays and washing clothes caked in anything from mud and muck to blood, but until you … [Read more…]
After the chicken carnage, I thought long and hard about what to do. Should I replace them, was it worth the heartbreak? If it hadn’t been for Hilda’s survival, I think I probably wouldn’t have bothered getting any more but chickens are flock animals and she was sad on her own. My first two replacements … [Read more…]
It was a Thursday morning like any other. My day off, (I work Mon-Wed) 7am, Elizabeth and I were in the kitchen thinking about breakfast and Ged had been out in the yard for a while. He came in and said: “brace yourself, I’ve got some bad news.” The cows were calving so I just … [Read more…]
