We have had a few difficult days. If I’m honest, they’ve turned into difficult weeks. My Instagram feed doesn’t show it, because my phone isn’t the first thing I reach for, in those moments of despair. I reach for you. Even if you’re kicking and screaming, even if you beg me not to, even if… Read More
Today is my 7th wedding anniversary. To mark this day, here are seven reasons why I think I my husband is practically perfect in every way. One He is the very best father I could have hoped my children would have: endlessly patient, hands-on, loving, kind. A perfect example of what a good human being… Read More
An academy is a state-funded school which is independent from local authority. They are run by academy trusts and have several ‘freedoms’ that non-academy schools do not. They have the ability to buy in services privately that were previously provided, and overseen, by the local authority. They are responsible for their own term times and,… Read More
April the 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day and marks the beginning of Autism Awareness Week. Despite what Klout claims, I am not an expert on autism. I am not an expert at being a mum or parenting either – my children are three and one and I have so much further to go on… Read More
This isn’t a debate or a discussion. It’s not a judgement or an argument or an example that you should follow or learn by. It’s not a Jamie Oliver Campaign. It is just my experience. Experience should be shared because motherhood is difficult and confusing and is it only through sharing that it can feel… Read More
I recently returned to my profession of twelve years after my second period of maternity leave: English teaching. I am the mother of two tiny people, a girl, aged one and a boy, aged three. Parenthood is a job that requires us to give up almost all of our time and energy for the well-being… Read More
The language of disability can be difficult. Have you ever worried about how to refer to someone with one? Due to the anxiety that you might offend, have you, perhaps, avoided talking about it at all? I know I have. In recent post of mine ‘An apology to my autistic students’ , was received very well. In… Read More
In the dead, lonely hollow of midnight, my baby girl is screaming. She is feverish and blistered, baking in my arms. I pace and rock and shush…but still the screams come. She has been awake for hours, will be for hours more. At fourteen months, the nights she wakes and cries still outnumber the nights… Read More
It’s a small thing. So small. We had just returned from the shops and you were bundled up warm in your winter coat. I helped you take it off and off you skipped, into the living room. I continued to unpack the shopping and it was a few minutes before I followed you. And there… Read More
Half-term Revel in the sudden silence of peach-pink skies. Swim, hazy-eyed, through the vibrant globes of water-coloured evenings. Curl around the fluent curve of shoulder-blades, And drift in the warm, buzzing hollow of lavish sleep. Wine-soaked nights brim with the clinking of expectant glasses. The glowing piano spills out its sound in pools of… Read More
Frantically cleaning snotty eyes with baby wipes in the nursery car park. A dose of Calpol to reduce a slight temperature before you send them for the day. That little white lie that transforms a 36-hour vomit-free period, into 48. It’s the childcare hustle and, chances are, if you are a working parent to preschool… Read More
I am sorry. I am a good human being – a good teacher, I think. I listen, I learn, I strive to be better. I know it is a great responsibility to shape young minds, young opinions. I thought I knew what it means to teach a pupil with autism. But experience has given me something… Read More