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Blame the women, why don’t you
Dating, Life, ParentingI’m angry and sad about Grace Millane, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the rhetoric that inevitably emerges every time a woman is hurt: that she somehow brought it on herself. And I...
We all hurt each other accidentally sometimes
Comics, Life, ParentingI was sitting outside a cafe and I watched as a pram fell over backwards, pulled down by a bag slung over the handle. I heard the sound of the toddler’s head hitting the...
New Degree, New Hair, Who Dis?
Humour, Life, ParentingWhen you’re a student and a solo mother, your budget for personal grooming is comparable to driving to the other side of town for a holiday instead of going to Thailand. Which is why...
How respectful parenting can shrink foxes
Parenting“Mama I had a dream about foxes and it was so scary and that’s why I don’t want to go to sleep!” Kids make up a bunch of excuses for not going to bed....
How Mr. Men and Little Miss Teach Kids To Hate Themselves
Humour, Life, ParentingThere are a lot of books that I enjoyed as a child that dismay me as an adult. But I try not to be a loud too often so I usually just burn them...
Yes I love you, no I don’t want to be touched right now
Life, ParentingBeing a feminist mother of a (white) son sometimes involves a different approach to that of parenting daughters that goes beyond the strange things that happen in their nappies (how naive I was before...
The undeserving poor
Life, Parenting, PoliticsThe first thing that’s relevant for you to know about me is that I’m a beneficiary. It’s such a dirty word, isn’t it? Beneficiary. Conjures up images of the great unwashed, the worn-out mothers...
Home is a place that is still
Life, ParentingThe thing about the urge to run, the crazy cannot-possibly-stay-where-I-am urge to run, is that it immobilises me. Fleeing something hard in my life is no longer an option and so I stay. I...
Here’s what happens when you find out I’m a mother
Dating, ParentingApparently this is what happens when you become a mother: This is hard for most mothers, I think, when our complex identities become overshadowed by this one role. But it’s particularly challenging when you’re...