It’s hard to know why, but some days, despite having a glorious toddler who is great company, a loving husband and a great family, I feel alone, isolated and sad. Perhaps it’s a shade of depression, and if that’s all I’m left with, that’s pretty damn good. On those days, I miss my mum (Hi Mum!). That’s an inside joke. I never call her mum, I have always called her by her first name. And we keep in touch most days on the phone, and we skype. But it’s not …

I always wondered why mothers’ had such a reputation for making their children feel guilty. And now I think I know why. Because you feel guilty ALL the freaking time. After a while it probably becomes second nature and eventually you just become good at it. I’m assuming anyway. I’m not actually at that point yet. I’m at the ALL the freaking time part. For example:
I let her eat a chocolate cupcake before lunch. Actually, if you read my blog, you are probably wondering if I give her anything except …

What could be better than napping? On a hot day like today – napping on the couch in the only air conditioned room is even better.

Although I was a little concerned that this hanging off the edge of the couch bit was a recipe for disaster. A grumpy waker at the best of times, I can only imagine how things would have gone if she’d fallen off and bumped her head. So with a little coaxing I managed to get her to move to a more secure position

You’ll note that …

I was having a lazy parent day today. See? Couldn’t even be bothered to get her dressed!

Actually no, that wasn’t the basis of my laziness – it was nap time. Often I get it a little bit easy at nap time and she falls asleep in her chair after/during lunch. No such luck today and instead of being very ready for sleep at 12:30 she was bouncing off the walls. I could come up with all sorts of reasons why I didn’t want to do the whole sleep rigmarole today. …