Tilly could have died, but she didn’t. Angie had to grip on to the last part of the sentence, but this seemed harder for her than anyone else, including Tilly.
Still Life
Ten Rules for Living with Teens
You know me, I like to help where I can, so I’ve made a list of tips and tricks for living with almost-adults:
Adoption – Why I’m Searching for my Birth Mother Now
I was put up for adoption soon after my natural mother gave birth to me when she was seventeen. My adoption was successful and I’m incredibly lucky to have enjoyed a good life. I am happy. I truly believe she did the right thing for me, and hope it was right for her too.... Continue Reading →
WhatsApp With You?
The School WhatsApp group was new to me when my youngest started secondary school and it’s been a revelation. Five months in and I think I’ve got the handle on what’s useful and what’s utterly bonkers about letting a group of disparate parents loose with an unlimited communication tool. As in all walks of life,... Continue Reading →
Chalk and Cheese
How Can my Girls be so Different? (First published in The Motherload Blogzine on 3/11/19) ‘It’s another girl,’ said the male sonographer at our twenty-two-week scan, ‘sorry.’ Ignoring the last comment (that’s a whole other article), I remember being delighted that our second, and definitely last, child was a girl. We already had a three-year-old... Continue Reading →
Naked Ambition
I want to want to take my clothes off There was a beach, I have a body, so I was beach body ready, right? I’m ashamed to admit that, on holiday, that’s not how I felt at all. I’m ashamed because I have two daughters who I should be setting a better example for. The... Continue Reading →
A Modern Day Bottom Drawer
Whilst reading a novel set in the 1920’s, I came across the phrase her bottom drawer and I remembered my Grandma telling me about what a girl should collect for her bottom drawer in preparation for married life. Traditionally a woman would accumulate linen, clothing, cutlery etc. The bottom drawer was either a literal or... Continue Reading →
Should I Let my Child Watch the News?
Following a discussion on the Jeremy Vine show about my ten-year-old daughter’s response to Brexit, a listener called in to say that any anxiety my child felt was my fault for allowing her to watch the news. When I’d stopped defensively stamping my feet and blaming the politicians, I thought about it from the commentator’s... Continue Reading →
Dyslexia and Us
When my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia at six-years-old, I wish I’d known the roller coaster we were embarking on would take us upwards, more often than down. She’s now half way through her GCSE’s and her predicted grades are excellent. It seems like a life-time since we sat with a tearful, bullied child, who... Continue Reading →
23 and Me, The Adoptee
As a contented adoptee, I hesitated when my daughter suggested I did a DNA test. She is ten, and thinks she has a right to know our shared genetic heritage, or, as she put it, ‘I want to know if you’re related to Hitler or a Yorkshirian Warrior.’ She’d decided those were my only options... Continue Reading →
Lisa Timoney Writes 