It was 2006. I was updating my CV for the first time in a long time. And I was stuck. Not on “Current role” or “Experience” or “Referees” – the bit I was stuck on was “Hobbies”. I typed “Reading”. It was true, but not all that exciting. I typed “Cooking” – an overstatement but […]

11 years ago

“And did you sit in or just get takeaway coffee?” I asked my friend, who was telling me about a newly opened café. “Oh, takeaway. Like, they had tablecloths,” she replied. We nodded knowingly, as we watched our children in the playground. Bringing three small kids to a coffee shop takes guts at the best […]

11 years ago

From the tours and talks to the endless questions about baby-room ratios, routines and rates; eight years ago, my husband and I were spending a considerable amount of time being shown around local crèches. It was like house-hunting all over again, but much scarier. Would this place be good enough for our child? Would she learn, […]

11 years ago

I went on holidays recently, and I did what lots of people do – I put photos up on Facebook. It’s the modern version of the postcard isn’t it – “Having a lovely time, wish you were here!” So here’s the Facebook version of my holiday, as told through the photos I posted on social […]

11 years ago

Working nine to five, as immortalised in Dolly’s words, is the default setting for office-workers everywhere. And indeed, when most of us finish school or college and dip a toe into the world of grown-up work, it’s an all-day, all-week gig. If there’s no reason to look for anything less than full-time work, we accept the […]

11 years ago

“In keeping with the working mother guilt thing, I feel guilty about it”

11 years ago

“It just won’t turn on at all,” I said to the unfamiliar IT manager – he hadn’t been there when I’d finished up nine months earlier. “I held the power button down for ages, but nothing.” “Why did you hold it down though?” he asked. “You just press it once, lightly, and the PC will […]

11 years ago

Over the years, I’ve had the conversation time and again. “Did you ever think of working from home one day a week?” I’d ask the fraught friend who was having trouble balancing work and kids. The answers varied but the theme didn’t. “No, I’d never be able to concentrate at home,” or “I wouldn’t have […]

11 years ago

After-school activities and Summer camps – a great way for kids to nurture talent and have fun, or a tiring, expensive and unnecessary waste of time? There’s one school of thought that says these activities fall squarely in the realm of pushy parents. Children are signed up for different classes every day of the week, […]

11 years ago

“School days are the best days of your life,” is what we were told when we were kids, and indeed, I do have great memories of being in class, playing in yard, and going to friends’ houses on Friday afternoons. But what I didn’t love was homework. Whether it was a rainy Tuesday in January […]

11 years ago

“For mothers in the workplace, it’s death by a thousand cuts”

11 years ago

I can’t wait for the school year to come to an end. Not because I’m desperately looking forward to spending my summer days in (cold, windy) playgrounds, and not because I’ll ever get a lie-in. The reason I’m excited about summer, is because I’ll have two whole months’ break from making school lunches. Eight long […]

11 years ago

“I’m about to face my biggest working-mother challenge yet”

11 years ago

“She’ll learn about civil partnerships in a future history class”

12 years ago

Turn working mum guilt into invaluable work ethic inspiration for your little ones

12 years ago

Our Office Mum diarist investigates

12 years ago

“She’s a multi-tasker; she’s super-organised; she takes it in her stride.”

12 years ago