It’s been a strange week We landed back in the UK and the heatwave was long gone. I don’t think it’s stopped raining since we got home. I have to admit our holiday didn’t entirely go to plan, which is not unusual for families like ours. We adapt and overcome. We understand fluctuating capacity. We […]
It’s been a strange week Read More »
The thing we don’t say out loud about the school holidays It’s the half term holiday in the UK, and this can look very different in families like ours. I know there’ll be parents reading this who have spent the last few days barely leaving the house. Because everywhere is too busy. Too loud. Too
The thing we don’t say out loud about the school holidays Read More »
When your brain sends you to the wrong cinema I’ve been thinking this week about capacity. The invisible load. All the things we carry that other people – the ones not living our life – don’t necessarily see, or understand, or really get. It made me chuckle when I thought back to some of the
When your brain sends you to the wrong cinema Read More »
I woke up anxious for no reason The Easter holidays are nearly over here. They’ve been full on – the demands, the needs, the constant reading of the room. I’m tired in the way that only this kind of parenting makes you tired. But we’ve had some calmer days too, and I’m holding onto those.
I woke up anxious for no reason Read More »
A different kind of hard I’ve been reflecting that Easter holidays, for a lot of us in this community, are not a break. They’re just a different kind of hard. The structure disappears. The routine that took weeks to build – the one that made mornings just about manageable – gone. And in its place,
A different kind of hard Read More »
When did you last have something to look forward to? I want to tell you something that took me a long time to admit out loud. There was a period, not that long ago, when I stopped looking forward to things. Not dramatically. Not all at once. It crept up on me so quietly that
When did you last have something to look forward to? Read More »
The reality of always being switched on I’ve been thinking a lot this week about hypervigilance. About what it does to us as parents when we are always switched on. From the outside, it can sometimes look like our children are “not listening”, or that we’re too soft, or that we’ve somehow lost control. I
The reality of always being switched on Read More »
The things we don’t say out loud This week, I wanted to talk about something we don’t say out loud very often. The thing we can feel shame around. The thing we worry other people – people who don’t live this life – simply won’t understand. The thing we often soften or rename, because even
The things we don’t say out loud Read More »
January has been a slog – here’s what’s helping me Has January felt like a bit of a slog to you? You’re not alone. I was really hoping that once Christmas was over, things would calm down and I’d finally find some time for me. But with families like ours, it rarely works out that
January has been a slog – here’s what’s helping me Read More »
When you’re trying so hard to carry a life no one understands When I look back at the very early days of trying to get school and professionals to understand what was going on, I can can see how hard I was working just to hold everything together. I was constantly explaining, anticipating, firefighting, trying
When you’re trying so hard to carry a life no one understands Read More »
