Tag: children
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Why Won’t Our Kids Let Us Mold Them Into Who We Want Them To Be?
“You will find as your children grow up that as a rule, your children are a bitter disappointment – their greatest object being to do precisely what their parents do not wish and have anxiously tried to prevent.” “Often when children have been less watched and less taken care of – the better they turn…
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The Naughty List And Outsourcing Parenting At Christmas
Anyway, according to my hairdresser, who planted the grapevine and is obviously the fount of all knowledge around here, there are now several Christmas apps where parents/kids can connect with Santa before Christmas. You input all your kid’s information into your phone – nickname, age, shoe size etc – so that Facebook nets all their personal…
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Empty Nesting: I Know I Will Miss Them, But Will I…Really?
As we approach freedom the next stage of parenting with mounting trepidation, I do question whether I’m ready. I adore both my kids and I will miss those rare moments of family harmony when the four of us sit around the table, laughing and joking together and I can almost forgive them for drinking my…
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Who Stopped Halloween?
To say that Halloween was a bit of a let down this evening would be an understatement. We’ve been deprived of the middle-aged enjoyment of watching other people’s kids behave appallingly under the influence of sugar over these past few years because we lived in the apartment, and a crazy part of me had missed…
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The Hardest Part Of Parenting Is Agreeing How To Parent
When we were in London a few months ago, we listened to LBC, a talk radio station where current news topics are raised and listeners call in to voice their opinions. One of the topics was about the LGBT community and how universities are providing halls of residence strictly for LGBT students in a bid…
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12 Awful Things I Don’t Miss About Having A Child At School
The first term of the academic year is winding to a close, fortunately in tandem with the time the kids start to become really feral from the intense pressure of having to concentrate for a whole ten weeks. And I imagine that while some mums are dreading the next two weeks of holiday, some will…
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How Much Is Too Much At Christmas?
There’s been a lot of talk in the media this week about how much we should spend on our kids at Christmas, after a women in the UK made headline news for ‘pressie-bragging’. Decorated Christmas tree on white background It’s a tricky topic and one that is bound to make those of us who indulge…
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Hot Parenting Tip: The Timing Game
When Kurt was a little boy and struggled to entertain himself, sometimes the old man, in one of those last-ditched, desperate parental attempts to get five minutes peace, would resort to what we called the ‘timing game’. I’m sure most of you parents will have resorted to this type of game with your kids at…
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Don’t Let Your Children Define You
I reach the other other end of another decade next week, which has given me pause for reflection. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/566419105 I entered this last decade with a new life in Australia, but ‘life’ as such is rarely defined by the country you inhabit, rather the people you inhabit it with. Inevitably, my most recent decade has…
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Feeling Clucky In Middle Age
My sister is pregnant at the moment. Mother’s Love (Photo credit: Fabio Trifoni) When I first received the news and the very special photo of ‘the bump’ that arrived in my inbox, and is soon to evolve into a new niece or nephew, they had a peculiar effect on me. One that I wasn’t expecting.…
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The Importance Of Chasing Your Dreams
This is a short story about fate or luck – you decide. There was once a boy who was seen by society as ‘different’. He was a lovely little boy but as he grew up his parents soon realised that his executive functioning wasn’t quite the same as other children his age – he was very…
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Mother’s Guilt and The Mindfuck Caused by Parenting
Anyone worked out ‘parenting’ yet? When you do, you will inbox me, won’t you? The great thing about these summer holidays is that they have given me lots of time to reflect, focus, over-analyse and privately condemn my parenting skills. Again. Family relationships have been tested and redefined this holiday. Indian Drum by Agelakis at…
Louisa Simmonds 