It’s 8am and my 16-year-old daughter is having a conversation with her friend, as they prepare to set off for school together. We’ve just been discussing birthdays – with my daughter trying to outfox her friend by saying that she was a ‘Spring Baby’ when she’d been born in September (it’s true – she was […]
Bookish But NEVER Boring…
Reporting back from the promise in my previous blog – to expose the kiddywinks to those Public Information films that so many of us were nurtured with in post-war Britain, I have to say that I am rather disappointed. We watched many – and the general consensus was “Freaky! Creepy!” or “well you never took […]
Zip It!
‘Zip It!’ A popular expression in our house. Normally employed for smaller human beings who are gobbing off beyond a reasonable level. But the recent horror of Charlie Hebdo has left me and many other parents that I know, wondering if we now need to be uttering this phrase a bit more at the kids. […]
Neanderthal Nativity
Back in the 70’s me and my big bro’ never participated in all of that nativity biblical re-enactment stuff. This could explain a lot of things for me and mine. Like the fact that as a small child I hated those new-fangled advent calendars that came with crappy choccies behind their little doors. The ones […]
No Tantrums in the Townships
(Part 3) I’ll admit that something I was rather stressed about when returning to Namibia was the way that my kids would behave in public. It doesn’t take a genius to notice that in general, African kids who live in the sub-Saharan countries are less … hyper … shall we say – than kids from […]
Pack ‘Em Off?…
First day back at school. We were all rather gleeful. Three weeks trapped in British homes in British weather over the festive season is a tad too much familial familiarity for anyone. Well, after carrying out the usual school-bag search at tea time. I found a letter. Addressed to me. From the dinner lady (or […]