This is the face of 21st-Century nesting: a steady stream of Amazon boxes full of baby bottles, nappies and sundry accoutrements has been arriving at the door for days. My wife was distracted, studying for a high-pressure medical exam she had to do. Now that it’s done, her mind has turned more fully to the…
You are always in the middle of something critical when you get ‘the call from school’. A surgeon might be about to make that vital incision when his mobile will bring with the news that a kid has a high temperature. A footballer might be about to score the winning goal in the FA Cup…
It was supposed to be like a scene from a 1980s coming-of-age movie: two soft-focus kids being left at camp, looking back wistfully at their parents, as they slowly waved goodbye. Mom holds back the tears, while dad puts a comforting arm around her shoulder, as they watch their kids take a giant step out…
There is always a snake in the grass. A primitive, but crucial, part of the human mind is always alert for dangers. parents immediately discover a heightened sense of awareness of all the dangers that their new baby faces in the world. When we were expecting our first baby, I had a man over with…
I have long been fascinated by islands. I remember, as a boy, taking my father’s small boat out to unpopulated islands off West Cork. I would step ashore like Robinson Crusoe on to a perfect, silent beach. There was always a profound serenity on these little islands, the troubles of the world were at a remove.…
It’s the last stand of the snowmen. As I write, our once-proud snowman, is standing forlorn, misshapen and incongruous, in our green and florid garden. The spring sunshine is blazing down on him like a lethal nuclear blast. I sense that mortality is on his mind. This has been a long winter which, even in…
Toddlers are criminals. At least they would be if they were not below the age of criminal responsibility. If they were held to the same standards as the rest of us, the police would be overwhelmed with reports of toddler-related public disorder, affray, criminal damage, riot and assault. If charged with such crimes, most toddlers…
There is nothing less relaxing than a holiday. That is an axiom all parents of small children should bear in mind when gazing naively at travel brochures. This axiom is all the more burning in its bitter truth if your holiday involves – as ours did last week – travelling through four snow-and-ice-covered countries in…
Monkey see, monkey do. Small children are shaped, more than anything, by example. As life underwent a metamorphosis with the arrival of children, many old habits and hobbies had to go by the wayside. Playing guitar was of the few things that survived into this chaotic new epoch. I found I could continue to play,…
My mother turned 70 last weekend. The coming months are brimful of celebratory events with her vast coterie of friends and family. Yet she was slightly ambivalent about the day itself, perhaps because she has sadly lost some close friends in recent months. In the end, she decided to book a nice hotel in Dublin, and…