I am officially done with toddlerdom. Finito. Dunzo. The fact that the child has a while left to go doesn’t matter, I am at the stage of needing to check out. He’s three, and I can take no more.
(Hey, this blog isn’t called Naturally-Excellent-Mammy now is it?)
I bought a car in August. I’d passed my theory test nearly two years earlier, then put off that whole learning-to-drive malarkey because of issues with back pain. So I kickstarted this whole right-I’m-doing-it-learning-to-drive thing in June, bought the car in August and applied for my driving test. Fairly simple, right? The six month waiting period was null and void because I’d gotten the licence almost two years before. So aside from the twelve lessons (and the many more besides), I was golden. How difficult can getting a driving licence be? As I’ve discovered, for me, very.
That quote about the best laid plans of mice and men? Someone definitely had spent time with a toddler that week. I’ve got the Monday blues, looking back at all of the things I had wanted to do last week, to do this week, feeling utterly muddled.
If you missed it on Wednesday night, a rather incendiary debate kicked off on Brendan O Connor’s new current affairs show “Cutting Edge”. In response to a rather thought provoking piece from writer Louise O Neill, which spoke about how being a woman did not necessarily mean you wanted kids, Niamh Horan added her two cents. The piece from O Neill had put forward the idea that women who choose not to exercise their womb are thought of as selfish. In response to this, Horan, who is of the same age bracket, commented that in her opinion it is the parents who have their children but leave them in childcare, creches, while they head out to work, who are the selfish ones. It is, she said, the children who are suffering for their mother’s need to “have it all”.
There’s been a lot in the media in the last few days about Jamie Oliver. Having struck a victory over the addictive substance infiltrating young people worldwide (sugar) with the incoming sugar tax in the UK, he wasn’t one to rest on his laurels. While announcing another new addition to the Oliver clan (this will be their fifth child), Jamie Oliver stated in a radio interview that he would look to campaign about the benefits of breastfeeding babies as to hopefully increase the numbers of breastfeeding mothers in the UK. His comments, in particular his description of the task as “easy”, have seen him slated around the various social media outlets and certain publications – he is being demonised for “mansplaining” breastfeeding to women who know better.
But you know, I think he has a point, and his use of the word “easy” isn’t what you should be getting angry about. Read More
You’re likely not coming to my door, given the big gate and the secure apartment block, but sure, I’d like you to know my needs anyway. It seems everyone else is getting a fair whack at letting you know exactly what is on their minds. An election has been called and in less than three weeks, we’ll be standing in primary schools and community centres around the country, scribbling our votes in tiny booths and choosing the fate of our country for up to the next five years. I say up to, because I’m not sure how long it will last given the current composition of what is ahead. So, here we go.
Dear Mary Curtis,
Thank you so much for your comments in today’s paper about your target audience for your new TV channel, UTV Ireland. It does help me to know that it is one I can happily skip over, as there must not be anything for me on there, as I will soon be returning to work, and will not be one of those housebound women laden down with her children who has nothing to do bar watch yet another repeat of Jeremy Kyle, or Loose Women. Apparently my leaving my child means that I’ve got a life I would not have if I stayed at home with him. I’ve managed not to marry the house, unless its something I’ve erased from memory. Oh the party lifestyle afforded to me from my office chair, scoffing at those happily sitting on their couches, watching mindless drivel through the afternoon. Read More
The thermometer outside Sam McCauleys earlier advised me that it was 26 degrees in Cork today, at about 2pm. I think we can officially call this a heatwave. The streets are filled with some rather unfortunate clothing choices, as normal when the sun goes on for longer than three days. It seems that half the female population of the streets I saw today were after running out of summer clothes, and so they opted to either go for the gym wear, or rather unfortunately for some, their clubbing clothes. Playsuits on people who should not be wearing playsuits. Some things just shouldn’t be seen without vodka goggles… Read More
