Blog List

N either Grace nor Joshua would go to sleep on Sunday night. Instead of feeling like the mother of a toddler and a six-year-old, I felt like the mum of two wailing newborns and honestly, I didn’t know what to do. It was like we were the only three people on the face of the planet not sleeping at that moment. With my husband away for the weekend, I didn’t even have the luxury of performing the...

Mum-of-one and all round amazing human being, Katie Piper, recently congratulated her daughter on taking her first tentative steps. It reminded me of my daughter Ella’s big achievement in that regard and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t quite share Katie’s enthusiasm. Don’t get me wrong. Yes, I was overjoyed by my daughter’s progress and I was proud beyond belief that Ella had managed...

So, let’s chat about Kim Kardashian and her latest mothering ‘mistake’. I know, I know. We’re all sick of talking about her, and God knows if I hear anything else about her egomaniacal husband I’ll blow a gasket, but I feel her recent move deserves a little consideration. And by consideration, I don’t mean we should mull over it for a moment before condemning her to the fiery hell of...

My 12-year-old daughter Rebecca came home from school the other day in a state of mild distress. Forlorn, morose and appearing in desperate need of a hug, she finally admitted that she felt ‘left out’ by her friends. I doubt there are many women out there who have made it to adulthood and not experienced the twinge of hurt that can accompany this feeling of isolation. Whether it happened in...

Many of us like to think a Bring your Child to Work Day would be the perfect way to balance out our working and family life (although some might relish the time outside of the home – it is definitely a lot less stressful!) But at the European Parliament, every day is a Bring your Child to Work Day, thanks to MEP Licia Ronzulli. When the Italian MEP brought her six-week-old daughter, Vittoria...

While myself and my husband of sixteen years have yet to reach a stage where we designate one evening a month to sex, it’s fairly safe to say that we’re not quite as amorous as we were when we met in our twenties. And I’m going to be honest here, I prefer it. Don’t get me wrong, I fancy my husband every bit as much as I did when I met him 21 years ago, but sex round the clock can be...

Remember when you gave birth and people on the internet immediately started judging your post-baby nutrition plans? Yeah, me neither. And thank God for that because my plan once I delivered Ella was to stay in sweatpants for the foreseeable future and do everything in my power to keep this tiny human alive. That was it. I had no aspirations past giving round-the-clock care to my new arrival and...

The news that the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had issued new guidelines this week regarding alcohol consumption and pregnancy brought a whole host of memories back to me. Guidelines, stipulations, rules and regulations; when I was pregnant with Ella seven years ago I could have repeated each and every statute verbatim. Hell, my partner said I was mumbling them in my sleep and...

My six-year-old daughter Ella has a penchant for the dramatic. She does wonderful impressions, positively revels in the limelight and sees herself treading the boards on Broadway some day. Unfortunately however, she doesn’t leave the theatrics at drama class or performing arts club. Ella is, and I’m sorry if this sounds a little harsh, a drama queen 24/7. While I enjoy her twirling around the...

Saturday felt like one of those days where nothing I did for my children was enough and it was also one of those days when I questioned everything about motherhood: What was the point of it? Here I am bending over backwards for these children and I’m still not measuring up - do they hate me? How can I be getting it to so wrong? It was a rare Saturday where I didn’t have a work deadline to...