Successfully catering for children – particularly in these circumstances we are in, where it is 3 meals a day, 7 days a week – is not about details. It’s not about lists or giving them this vegetable or that amount of rice. It’s about a state of mind. Specifically your state of mind. The state of mind of the child… View Post
I mean, I always spend a lot of time in my kitchen but “a lot of time” has jumped to “prison time” in recent weeks. It’s fine, I like my kitchen. And when this is over I am going to call a joiner and get them in to treat the kitchen to a new load of smart shelves because the… View Post
It’s not that I’m bored especially, it’s just the relentlessness of it all. It’s all the meals, so many meals. And yet at lunchtime I make Giles get his own and the kids only ever have some variation of hummus, pita, cheese, bread, cucumber, carrots, hummus… but it all makes a mess that needs to be cleared up. Maybe it’s… View Post
The day the government announced that all schools in the UK were to be shut because of the coronavirus was for me, as I’m sure it was for many other people, the starting pistol on a massive drinkathon. I mean fucking hell. Is this really happening? It can’t be, can it? Is it? Is it really… is this really happening?… View Post
So here we are, in this new place. Although you and I are still here, in this old place. But I find that in that new place, which is also here but not specifically here, there are new patterns. The most significant one is that where once we used to be a get-out-in-the-morning family, we are now a go-out-in-the-afternoon family. This… View Post
This is really the embodiment of the true fact that a burger – any burger – is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not really about the burger, it’s about the combination of dill, gherkin, French’s mustard, mayo and tomato ketchup. And lettuce. It will make it all totally delicious – and when I say delicious what I… View Post
I don’t know about your children, but my children don’t really want to eat potatoes. Chips, yes – potatoes? No. Kitty will eat mash and baked potatoes but Sam will only tolerate chips and during this… thing … I’d like to find a way of getting them both to eat potatoes in the same format. And I think the answer… View Post
How are we all, then? I woke up pretty depressed, I don’t mind confessing. Even though all things considered I have it incredibly easy. I’ve only got two children at home, we’ve got a garden, the sun in shining, we are still in employment. But I woke up this morning and for the first time since the children were really… View Post
Well…. GOD, guys. Just… god. Selfishly, I am just praying for our school to stay open. I am outwardly subscribing to the view that if you shut the schools a) all the kids will just meet up elsewhere and exchange germs anyway b) people who cannot take time off work to look after their kids will send their children to… View Post