Notes on Motherhood

The problem with motherhood

Yesterday I was paid for an article I wrote about parenting. It was a good moment. Although I have been writing for nearly two years it was validation of my writing efforts to receive money for writing more or less what I write here every week (For free! What a bargain for you all!). Which [...]

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Stay at home, mom!

My annual postgrad alumni invitation has once again arrived with a thud in my inbox. It always feels heavy, even though it is an e-mail, because you can sense the gravitas with which my college issues the summons. And it does feel like a summons rather than an invitation. These days I receive it with [...]

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Blog book tour: Ayun Halliday – Mama Lama Ding Dong

I am honoured to be hosting today’s stop on Ayun Halliday’s blog book tour of her book Mama Lama Ding Dong: A Mother’s Tale from the Trenches (known in the US as The Big Rumpus). Mama Lama Ding Dong is a memoir of motherhood, Ayun’s account of life with her two small children, spirited toddler [...]

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Isolated parenting

On Monday I watched a programme called “Having a Baby Ruined my Life“. I would normally avoid programmes like this because having a baby didn’t ruin my life – although it made it bloody hard at times – and any programme broadcast on Channel Five is generally rubbish. But as I watched I found myself [...]

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Taking the concept of sharing to a new level

One of the things that motherhood has changed about me, which I no longer think about much, is how I feel about my body. When I was a teenager at boarding school, we had communal showers and bathrooms. To anyone who had any hang-ups about their body, saying it was a bit grim would be [...]

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I want it all

In my attempts to overcome my postpartum depression (yes, I’m on that topic again, just for a change) I have considered at length why some mothers appear to accept their lot regarding raising children and simply get on with it, why some mothers love (almost) every minute of having children and why other mothers, like [...]

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