In beautiful language and with trembling intensity, Susan Cain tells us in this TED talk why the world needs introverts, and why we’re in danger of missing out on what they offer. How’s this for ouchily insightful? There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas. Her bio and introduction to the talk […]
This is the fifth post in a series reflecting on my experience of postnatal depression. Feel free to head also to How It Is #1, How It Is #2, How It Is #3: What to Say and How It Is #4: On A Bad Day, and feel free to pass any of them around, if they’re helpful, using the share […]
Nicholas said to me in 2005, using his sharply-tuned crap-o-meter, that saying ‘I don’t have time for that’ is, consciously or otherwise, code for ‘I don’t want to do it.’ I’ve been hyperaware of the phrase ever since. I think I’d just told him I didn’t have time for getting back into yoga. Oops. Clearly, […]
On Wednesday a judge made a woman unwelcome in his courtroom because she was breastfeeding her 18-week-old baby. Twenty-two per cent of Herald poll respondents are with the judge on this one, and think that what the mother was doing was ‘totally inappropriate.’ There are two big problems with this, and only one is a […]
In honour of Baby E’s first birthday (her Mum inspired the YouTube Party series): If you like to talk to tomatoes If a squash can make you smile If you like to waltz with potatoes Up and down the produce aisle… Have WE got a SHOW for YOU! This is the opening to VeggieTales, the […]
At bedtime at Grandma’s house we’d start by setting the table for breakfast – yes, before we went to bed – with plates and cutlery, toast rack and jam tray.  Then in bed we would say a prayer you may know: Gentle Jesus, meek and mild Look upon a little child Pity mice and plicity […]
Sleeping in 22 different bedrooms in ten months: not bad for a baby, right? Our baby, SBJ, has slept overnight in 22 different places as we’ve been on the move around New Zealand and around the world. More than two thirds of those are instances of gracious hospitality from friends and family – sometimes for […]
My baby is pretty flipping lucky. Born in a well-funded hospital with well-trained staff. Immunised to keep him safe from dangerous diseases. Lots of friends and family able to support him and his parents. Clean, warm clothes, a well-nourished mother to feed him, laundry and sanitation facilities to keep his bottom dry and his gut […]
I was single before I was married. That’s less obvious than it sounds, given the number of people who marry their high school sweethearts or have a number of relationships throughout their twenties and maybe thirties. I did neither. After a flurry of boyfriends in my teens (the internet won’t tell me the real […]
Comets, obviously. Wormholes, red dwarves, Saturn’s rings, the Oort Cloud. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I’ve resorted to a cheap trick to suck you in: this is another kind of SPACE. SPACE is a playgroup programme for first-time parents and their babies run nationwide by the Playcentre movement. Some of the team at the Specialist Maternal Mental […]