Did you know there are benefits of being raised by a single mum? If you’ve ever googled ‘single mums’ you’d never know it. It makes for depressing reading. The articles written by religious zealots don’t surprise me. What’s more shocking are those articles claiming to be based on research and the opinion pieces in well known publications. Even my limited…
Posts Tagged with single mum
My Divorce Is a Sign of Strength
If we don’t know personally, then we’ve surely all heard how marriage is hard work, especially once children enter the mix. There are so many posts about it; beautiful ones about the struggles and joys of married life,* and others which, quite frankly, border on the offensive – emphasising how nowadays people aren’t cut out for the hard work…
Depression: This Shit Just Got Real
I went to the doctor’s today. Told them I wasn’t coping. Suddenly everything feels very real. “Depression” was bandied around. I haven’t been coping for the last three years, so it’s not like it’s a new thing. But I’ve had to cope, had to carry on regardless. I haven’t been allowed to stop and breath…
Why I Hate Mum Work Travel
I wrote a while back about my love-hate relationship with work travel as a mum. Only now I’ve decided I actually just hate mum work travel. Last night I returned so exhausted every bone in my body ached and I had that fuzzy, not quite there feeling – like my brain was looking through some translucent…
Shooting On Our Estate: A Street Of Two Tales
The other week I returned home to the news that there had been a shooting on our estate. No deaths thankfully, but the kids (and they were kids) in the neighbouring flats were involved. Suddenly the reality of London newspaper headlines were strewn across my street. Only this was a lot more real than any newspaper story…
Wanting Another Child
I’ve talked before about how it breaks me to think I won’t have another child, but what I haven’t talked about is why I feel that way. Like most things in life, it’s a complex set of emotions. Emotions that are trying to pull and push me towards a life that is currently very far from…
Why holidays with the family makes me so ungrateful
My son is probably the best travelled toddler I’ve ever met – in his two and a half years he’s got more air miles than should be legal and is already in double digits of countries visited! I’ve done most of these travels as a single mum so you’d think, by now, I’d be used to the whole…
When Your Baby Becomes A Toddler
When your baby becomes a toddler it takes some serious adjustment. My baby became a toddler a little while ago, it’s just taken me a while to out what its all about! These are some of the changes I’ve been trying to get used to. 1. Sleep goes out the window. Yes I know i’s meant…
Human Connection: That Moment in the Swimming Pool
No matter how long this* goes on for, I am still struck by those moments where I crave human connection more than all else. Those moments when I’m so amazed and astounded by something my son has done that my yearning to share it boils out of me. I turn, scanning the vicinity for another face,…
Single Mums on Tour: Episode One
We had exchanged a few emails and met once in the park at a single mums meet up. At that one meet up, after chatting for about half an hour, she invited me to join her and her toddler son for a few days in a caravan by the beach. Although I ummed and arrhhed a bit,…