Category: Parenting
-
Oh, here I am…Empty nesting is a chance at rediscovery

The kids are out of the house and off to uni and adulthood. My parenting job is done. Suddenly, I feel like a whole new me.
-
The times they are a changing…

This week our eldest child graduated from high school. There are still a set of exams to complete, but formal schooling is done and dusted. It is a momentous milestone in the life of any child. But it’s also a pretty huge “WTF??” for us. You don’t really notice time passing. You just notice the…
-
Project Management 101 – Family Edition.

It’s not just my mental load that’s overwhelming, it’s the trying to do it all too. The physical load. It’s time to project manage my life and house back to order, and teach my teenage housemates to put down their phones and do their share of the work.
-
Future-me called… and current-me better make some changes…

Future-me is not going to be pleased when all she can fit into are pants with elasticated waists. It’s time for Current-me to take some action.
-
Snowy lessons in Christmas.

Christmas Day dawns quite unceremoniously in Cervinia, nestled in the outstretched arms of the Italian Alps. While this quaint ski-town is bedecked with sparking white lights, and the odd decorative reindeer, the shops will be open today and people shall go about their business with, apparently, scant regard to the occasion. This was the first…
-
Growing up – the both of us

Something’s happening in my house, and I’m not sure I like it. I am becoming increasingly irrelevant to my tweeny-child. Irrelevant is perhaps not the right word, but it’s hard to think of one that better captures my feelings. She turns her nose up at suggested activities that were once a mainstay of together time…
-
Navigating guilt: The art of motherhood.

It’s getting to be a bit of a habit, this sneaking off for some adult holiday time sans the kids. Well, not really a habit, but it’s happened twice in 10 months, compared to twice in the past ten years… so naturally the guilt has set in. It didn’t help that, after plans had been…
-
Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber cake… and lessons in letting go and being a better mum

It’s another birthday party in our house today. My son turns 9 (nine! what?), and has requested a lightsaber birthday cake. Not just any lightsaber birthday cake mind you. Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. “You remember what that looks like from the movie, mum?” he asks. Ahh, no. But google does, of course. There are plenty of…