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My daughter has lost 8 teeth so far, and until last week my son had lost just the bottom two. They’ve both written letters to their Tooth Fairies and discovered that hers is called Gretel […]

Flexible working means different things to different people. It might mean having different start or finish times to other members of staff, home-working, working fewer hours or fewer days, working more hours in term-time and […]

There are many advantages of working at home. I can make phone calls in my pyjamas, I can have the washing machine going while I’m doing emails, I can go for coffee when I should […]

Pocket money is a source of some confusion for parents. Should we give our children pocket money? When should we start? Should it be given in exchange for household chores, or just handed over? A […]

I’m fairly sure I’ve overdone it on the star charts over the last few years – I just spotted my six-year-old son making an ‘Eat Your Breakfast All Up’ star chart for the brown fluffy […]

I just went upstairs to look at the children. First the boy. He’s 6 and wants to grow up NOW. He’s sleeping hard, worn out after 13 hours of non-stop activity. He’s had bed hair […]

I once read that the word most commonly said (or rasped) by a dying person, at the very end, is “mother“. In any language, mother … or mama, mom, moeder, mana, mater, maman … means […]

A scruffy young electrician came to our house to do some wiring. He told a funny tale or two, thanked me for the cup of tea and knelt down on the floor to stick his […]

Parents who get through the whole Chickenpox palaver deserve a medal of achievement. This nasty, itchy little virus – the unwelcome visitor that barges its way in without an invitation – rugby tackles one child […]

Big sombre stately homes can be as boring to our children as cleaning the bathroom is to us. So next time you decide to take them to one of the many fabulous National Trust estates […]