But what about Australia, Mummy?

As we emerge from covid’s shadow we will find that supporting the most vulnerable, marginalised, and discriminated against is a good place to start in tackling longer-standing but no less existential problems.

Overwhelmed

A few days before Christmas, I went as a parent helper with my daughter’s class to a carol service: shepherding seven-year-olds along frosty pavements, trying to keep their wiggly crocodile in line, shushing them as they waited excitedly in the pews. To be honest, it was the last thing I wanted to do when I …

Cleaning up shit

At 4am this morning I was cleaning up shit. Because that's my job. (Except, as a carer it's a job I'm expected to to do for nothing. Nothing being very slightly less than the insulting carers' allowance that those who can't work alongside caring get. Which is slightly less again than the pitiful minimum wage …

The winter dilemma

It’s that time of year again. The trees are shedding their golden leaves, the clocks have been put back, geese are flying south; the mornings are crisp and the evenings misty. Thoughts turn to Halloween, Bonfire Night, even, dare I say, Christmas … and the winter bugs have started circulating. Beautiful ... but a harbinger …

Trailblazing

So, I realise I bang on about inclusion rather a lot. That makes me both a zealot, and a hypocrite, because my son attends a specialist provision rather than the local primary school that his sisters go to. There are several reasons Benjamin still attends the wonderful, well-equipped, superbly-staffed specialist provision at which he started …

Ignorance is bliss?

On the day that our lives were turned upside-down by an emergency 38-week scan, I remember begging the neurologist to put us in touch with other families with children like our as-yet unborn child. Some part of me knew – despite the medical predictions ("Your baby will never walk, or talk. He won’t be able …

Knowing better

When I was ten years old, I had a best friend. Her name was Helen. She lived ten minutes up the road on a smallholding with ponies (!) and had her own (rickety, damp-smelling) caravan, where we used to spend our afternoons hiding from our little brothers, singing Jason & Kylie songs, trying on lipstick …

Don’t fight it

It’s about sharing the highs and the lows, having a laugh, making friends, sharing a love story.

Too many futures

Why are the parents of disabled children always so tired? There are all the obvious reasons of course: so little sleep, so much paperwork; too many hospital stays, too much wine, cake, and coffee… but there’s one reason that I haven’t seen discussed so often: we spend so much time thinking about the future. How …

Daring to dream

For the past couple of weeks, Benjamin has been in the habit of waking in the early hours of the morning, hot, agitated, dystonic, twitchy. I’ve tried everything I can think of to relieve his discomfort: chest physio, pain relief, muscle relaxants, suctioning, repositioning. I’ve checked his heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen saturations and temperature. …