Pen in hand, my ten-year-old son is slowly, methodically writing out his Christmas wish list. For the uninitiated, it is a confusing read – Beyblade Burst Quadstrike, Yo Gi Oh trading cards and a pair of moon shoes from K Mart. I console myself with the thought that it could be worse; I’m not raising…
Motherhood
The one and only. Navigating the feelings of failure in raising an only child.
Having faced the real and agonising possibility of never having a child, the idea of having more than one child was not something I could entertain. It was inconceivable, literally and figuratively. Undergoing IVF, I made bargains with the universe. Give me one baby and I will never ask for anything ever again. I will…
My son gave me a performance review and I did not do well
Last week my son gave me a performance review and I don’t remember reading the bit in the parenting book that said that there would be a time in your life that your child might complain about your parenting techniques. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the receiving end of a performance…
Why we need to talk about the mother guilt load
There is a universal law that exists that states that the end of a school term pretty much sucks. The level of suckiness depends on whether it is term one or term four, but overall, the week leading up to school holidays is long and exhausting and, in my case, rarely my finest work. At…
My seven year old called me an idiot and I feel like I’m failing as a parent
Last week my sweet, kind, spirited and funny little boy called me an idiot. And I felt my heart crack. As he has grown from toddlerhood to boyhood we’ve had our standard supply of tantrums and meltdowns. Typical and normal, a manifestation of big emotions, tiredness, hanger and expected patterns of behaviour for his age…
A friendship manifesto (the revised edition)
Quite a few years ago I wrote a friendship manifesto. I had been thinking of friendships a bit at the time and had just gone to my 30 year school reunion and so I was reflecting on life long friendships and those that I had that were more recent and those that had evolved. Today…