They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at […]

Friday morning was a bit crazy in the Household. We were frantically packing for an exciting trip – heading straight from the school gates to the Newcastle Show to spend the night twirling on unlimited rides, eating fairy floss and buying showbags with their cousins. And then the rain came pelting down and the outing […]

Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mum, I never thought much about the first day back at school (other than “Thank god, my childcare bills will no longer hover around the $700-a-week mark.”). My husband usually deposited the kids in the playground while I drove to work. When I came home, they’d tell me all their […]

This blog I wrote about childcare is feeling particularly poignant for me today, on the eve of the kids going back to school and me going back to work. Twelve months on and those judgemental women still make me cross: I was cleaning out the soiled newspaper from the chick cage yesterday when I noticed an opinion column about […]

It was Sprog 2′s “fun sports morning” yesterday. The school sprung it on me with a note earlier in the week. They’d even organised a coffee van to entice “parents and carers wanting something calm after all that cheering”. But it clashed with my hair appointment. I agonised for all of two seconds about cancelling […]

I may have become a little irrationally cross yesterday about running late for an appointment with the reading recovery teacher at the Sprogs’ school. I may have yelled with frustration when Sprog 2 couldn’t do up her seatbelt, forcing me to pull the car over after reversing out of the driveway like a madwoman (yes, […]

Heston Blumenthal’s wacky creations captivated the Sprogs recently, when they saw Heston’s Feasts at their cousins’ house. So Husband racked up an episode of Heston’s Mission Impossible for them the other night. Heston’s challenge was to makeover cinema snacks. Perfect, we thought. Until he started experimenting with 4D theatre and providing squirts of scent to accompany movies. The film he chose was […]

Last week, The Australian reported on a study that found kids who go into childcare at the age of two or three are no worse off emotionally than those kept at home. It said, among other things: “Charles Sturt University’s Linda Harrison told The Australian the analysis was based on a longitudinal study of 5000 Australian children recruited […]

I’m ashamed of myself. I’m praying that Sprog 2 wakes up well this morning. Not because I’m concerned about her health. Well, I am, but it’s not my primary motivation. She has been home for three days with a coldy/flu thing, but today I really need to shove her off to school because I have […]

My pilates teacher loves feng shui - all the yoga mats must be lined up just so – and hates mobile phones. So mine gets turned off during classes. When I switched it back on yesterday, I was inundated with messages from Husband, school and a friend. Sprog 2 was in sick bay. Could I go and pick her up immediately? I was a bit […]