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Honest Motherhood: A Whole Summer

By the time this column comes out, we’ll have just over a week of school left. I am both counting down to the holidays, and a tad apprehensive of the numerous “What are we doing today?” queries to come. Leo remains in nursery throughout the summer, before starting school in September. I know, I can’t believe it either. It doesn’t feel like too long ago I was writing a column about giving birth to…

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Honest Motherhood: Adventures in Devon

It’s 2pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon and I’m in my usual writing spot at the dining room table, listening out for my soon-to-be four year old to come bouncing through the door. He will soon return from a friend’s 4th birthday party at a local play café, which Joel took him to, so I could squeeze a rare gym session in. Yes, it is 25 degrees and gorgeous outside and I spent my precious child-free…

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Honest Motherhood: Endings and Beginnings

By the time this column comes out, both of my children will be in school. This fact alone is not particularly remarkable, but bear with me. My children are starting their prospective school years at opposite ends of the primary school continuum, which is a lot for one mother to stomach emotionally. The differing timelines mean the tears will come for different reasons.  (And already have). Maia…

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Honest Motherhood: A Big Old Thank You

Normally right about now I’d be launching into some tale about being late for the school-run or recounting the details of a trip I’d been on, alone or with the children. But I’ve got something a little different this week as we say goodbye to our favourite newspaper editor, Phil Creighton. What I have; is a big old thank you.  My daughter Maia was five years old when I started writing columns…

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Honest Motherhood: Adventures in Lancaster

Maia and I took the train up to Lancaster last weekend for a post-birthday adventure, to visit my cousins. As I booked the trains earlier this year, amid train-strikes and other disruptions, I thought “Everything will be fine by May..May is months away.” And everything was fine. Until someone thought it’d be fun to cut the signalling cables somewhere between Birmingham and…

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Honest Motherhood: Beach Day

We took the children to the beach yesterday for what has become our annual May Beach Day. The sun came out, we’d both had particularly busy work-weeks, so decided to abandon our to-do lists on Sunday and escape to the sea.  Picnic prepped, towels counted, children fed and watered, we drove down to our usual spot, each choosing a song for the Spotify queue. It’s surprisingly hard to think of your…

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Honest Motherhood: Hola Barcelona

I did that thing again where I leave my family and fly off to a random city alone. This time Barcelona. It had been top of the list for a while but I kept knocking it down, telling myself it’d be better to go to this particular city when I “had more money”. Then I realised this could take a while. And I’m not particularly patient. Budget Barcelona..so be it!  My first night in Barcelona involved…

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Honest Motherhood: Happy Easter

I feel as though I blinked and it’s 2024, then I blinked again and it’s April 2024. Two more blinks and it’ll be Christmas. No thank you.  We’ve had several adventures over the Easter holidays, the first being a trip to London with my cousins to see Matilda the musical. We went for dinner at Imad’s Syrian Kitchen (Imad wasn’t there, Maia asked, we’d just missed him) and delighted in Mutuma…

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Honest Motherhood: Mothers Who Write

When one mother rings the siren of “help needed, come quickly!”, another mother will, undoubtedly, answer that call. (It just happens, every day, like clockwork, all over the world.) In this case, I was on the receiving end of the call, (I’m 99% of the time on the other end) and was particularly happy to help.  Sally McIlhone, writer and founder of Every Other Mother (the baby and child-friendly…

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8 Ways To Get Your Creativity Flowing

“You’re ready. Start making stuff.”― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist 1.) READ WIDELY : Explore books, articles, blogs, and publications on a variety of topics. 2.) BECOME AN IDEAS FACTORY: Make daily ideas lists.  They could be “ten business ideas”, “ten book ideas”, “ten ideas for a board game” . The topic could be anything. The point is to make a habit of getting your creativity muscle…

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Honest Motherhood: Adventures in Bristol 

A few weeks ago Maia and I took the train to Bristol to spend the weekend with my cousins. (The same cousins we went to see Lizzo with in Manchester last year. They’re good at getting us to various U.K cities I’d never previously seen much of.)  I’d been to Bristol twice before, once to visit my friend Beth, who took me to a glorious art fair then on a mini-tour of an area near the river, and…

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8 Reasons to Start Journalling

I’m a big advocate for journalling. I think it can be very powerful. I’ve written in a diary since before I can remember, (maybe five?) though not always consistently. I go through phases. It’s every day for months, not at all, or sporadically.  I need it. I need it regularly, like exercise or tap water. Journalling helps me breathe.   I prefer to journal in the morning, when I’m fresh,…

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Honest Motherhood: Half-Term Flu

At the time of writing it is half-term, and I’d love to say we’re having a fun-packed week with various adventures, but this is not the case, as I am ill in bed with something resembling mild flu. I now carry a toilet roll wherever I go, as required by my runny nose. (We don’t stock boxes of tissues, do people still do that?)  “I can’t remember the last time my nose was this runny!” I said on…

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Book of the Week: Four Thousand Weeks - Time Management for Mortals

“What you pay attention to will define, for you, what your reality is.” – Oliver Burkeman  I adored this book.  I’ve been putting off writing about it because I just want to quote the entire thing. I found it to be this beautiful blend of philosophy and psychology. Heartwarming, inspiring and uplifting but also practical, with concrete words of wisdom.I very much did not want a book on…

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A Vision Board Workshop with Life Fulfilment Coach Rebecca Hogan

“Envision the life you’d love to live and bring it into your reality.” “Make a vision board” had been on my list for about two years. Vision boards were popping up everywhere; books, podcasts, my Instagram feed. I knew it was something I wanted to do, I’m a visual person and loved the idea of getting my dreams and goals down on paper in such a fun and creative away. Fast forward to last night,…

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Honest Motherhood: Every Other Mother

“I really hope this doesn’t read like a TED talk, if it does, I’m really sorry!” I said to an audience of mothers and babies. I was stood behind a microphone, on stage at the Cockpit Theatre in London, ready to share some of my writing.  Let’s rewind a few months, to a brief Instagram exchange, followed by a Zoom call with the lovely writer Sally McIlhone, founder of Every Other Mother, “a new…

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Honest Motherhood: Don’t Rush a Toddler  

“YOU’RE DOING GREAT!” “SO ARE YOU!” I shouted back to my neighbour this afternoon, after we’d exchanged tales of our grumpy post-school/nursery children.  There’s nothing like another woman cheering you on from across the street. We could all do with a “You’re doing great!” every once in a while.  It had been a challenging afternoon, for the smallest of reasons. Mainly Leo’s steadfast and highly…