children

The real horrors of Halloween

October 16, 2019 By Ellen

It’s become traditional that I rant about Christmas starting too soon – which it does – but have you noticed how Hallowe’en is doing the same. There’s a house along the road with a pumpkin on the step already – almost a fortnight too early. How ripe is that going to be by the big […]

14 years at the school gates: what I have learned so far….

September 13, 2018 By Ellen

Update: This was written a couple of years ago – now the baby is in P5 (still cute though). My baby, he’s all grown up. It doesn’t seem a minute since… Yada yada yada. You know the stuff – uttered by runny-mascaraed mothers waving children off to school before returning to their bleak and […]

Christmas: How to cope when it isn’t your turn to have the kids

December 30, 2017 By Ellen

I wrote this a couple of Christmases ago and I was reminded of it when I saw another mum chum going through similar this year. Every other year Boys One and Two spend Christmas with their dad. We’ve been doing it this way for 15 years now. So that’s around seven December 25ths I’ve spent […]

Things women are supposed to like but don’t really

March 9, 2017 By Ellen

My son – I’ll bet you don’t give a hoot Years ago I had a boyfriend whose mother used to feed me ice cream, gallons of it. I learned to greet each huge bowl of vanilla with convincing enthusiasm as I slurped it down. I can’t remember where it started, but she believed I adored […]

What is the big deal about Minecraft?

December 9, 2016 By Ellen

You know all that sage advice about knowing what your kids are doing online and having open dialogue so they’ll tell you stuff. You know? That. I’ve been trying so hard, but have to hang my head and confess to failure. The thing is, my boys are into Minecraft. It’s a computer game apparently. And […]