Letters To Mum #2: Perfectly Imperfect

I was at a talk the other day and the speaker cautioned, ‘Don’t wait for perfect’ – that’s the perfect piece of advice right there is it not?

Power Punching Protein Sambo Alternative

An easy, delicious recipe for protein packed alternative to sandwiches that is freezable, and customisable to your kids’ tastes.

Dad Files #5: The Unexpected Arrival

“Has the baby started to crown?” I was thankful that we’d not yet reached the Coronation stage, but the throne room doors were certainly starting to strain.

A Guide To Surviving Kindergarten (For Parents)

One word: Fail! Fail hard, fail fast and here’s why…

Letters To Mum #1

Hey Mum, So this isn’t weird at all right? Writing to your dead mother and sharing it for the world to see? I mean, I could just sit here talking to your ashes that are sitting on the shelf in the original cardboard box, wrapped in an M&S bag, in the wicker basket with theContinue

Taste Bud Training

Our guide on how to teach children to eat well.

Dad Files #4 Trials And Tribulations Of Toilet Training

The first time your child does a poop in a previously agreed location is one of the weirder emotional moments. What could possibly have driven me as a right minded human to record the image of a giant stool nested in a plastic bowl emblazoned with images of Dory. Why am I saying that? IContinue

Dad Files #3 The Night-Time Insurgent

From about fourteen months we were arguably the luckiest parents in the world, particularly during the hours of darkness. Our little guy would have his bath at 7pm then get ready for bed and his bedtime bottle. As he sucked his milk down we’d have a ceremonial run through of Rod Campbell’s Dear Zoo, followedContinue

This Is Us: Mums On The (School) Run

It occurred to me today that there may be two types who turn up for school drop off with wet hair; 1: Got up to run/do yoga/make the 6am barre class/partake in any kind of physical activity – before the kids woke up – returning refreshed, revived and ready to take on the world andContinue

Dad Files #2 First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then…

“When’s the big day?” “Planning any little ones?” “What colour was your poo this morning?” Too much? Relatives, friends and colleagues, even the lady in the local shop seem to have a checklist of lifetime events perfectly mapped out that they expect you to fulfil. They feel they have a duty to buy the rightContinue

Why Are We So Afraid Of The C-Word?

I attended the annual ‘cross country’ at the small human’s school recently…no, that’s not the c-word, though it does still send waves of panic through me whenever I hear it. Firstly, as an English person, I need to be clear…when I was growing up ‘cross country’ involved freezing temperatures, rain, encounters with sheep and if thereContinue

Dad Files #1: The Unexpectant Father

My wife and I were together for 9 years before we tied the knot. I wanted to make sure that we had a fair idea of what we were buying into, and I never really thought of myself as the marrying kind. That’s not to say I was a “player”. Had that been the case,Continue

Confessions of a Lunchbox Spy: Part 1

I admit to helping out at school excursions largely just to spy on other kid’s lunchboxes. It’s not in a judgy way, I just have a genuine curiosity about what people give their kids, and what they will eat. I peer surreptitiously into these capsules of life-sustaining nuggets and picture a parent much like myself, boredContinue

The Wake-up Call – How Sleep Saved My Life

It was the middle of the afternoon, I hadn’t slept for more than thirty minutes at a time in days, barely much more in weeks. I was on the floor, tears making steady, salty tracks down my face, pleading with whoever was watching over us to make it stop, to help my baby sleep or to somehow magically spiritContinue