By some strange twist of genetics, my two eldest boys have started to display an interest in drama. I’ve no idea who this comes from; the closest I ever got to a starring role was playing the chicken in our primary school version of The Wizard of Oz (remember him? No, me neither). And while it’s not for a mother to assess how talented or otherwise their child is (at least not publicly, unless you want to be unbearable), I genuinely hadn’t given it much thought, except to be g

Being a child involves learning some harsh lessons sometimes. And there were a few in our household this week. It began with the seven-year-old receiving the news via email that he hadn’t got through to the next round of the BBC’s 500 Words short story competition. It didn’t matter that he’d been up against 123,400 other children. It didn’t matter that Chris Evans wrote to him personally (kind of) to say: ‘PLEASE don’t give up writing.’ Like all the others who’d entered, he’d

Taking a child for their first trip to the cinema is always an experience. I use that term in the same way you might describe going to the dentist: It has to be done but you know it might be painful and end up costing more than you were counting on. As my youngest son is now three we decided that half term was the ideal opportunity. After all, as soon as the kids break up, there’s always some animated extravaganza that movie bosses know you’ll find impossible to resist after

I was having a lie in the other morning – if 6.45 counts as that – when I picked up my phone and saw a video someone had posted. It was on a blog called 'Babyfitgym’ and featured a woman with her little boy, who looked a few months old and very cute too. His mum was in full active gear – leggings and the kind of unforgiving crop top that most of us cease wearing when we’re seven. She was in the midst of a work out, one she made look ridiculously easy. Though it can’t have bee