Tag: family

Christmas Spirit

When he realises that the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come have done their work all in one night, and not over the course of three consecutive days, as originally promised, Ebenezer Scrooge is both surprised and delighted.  I love this story, but I always thought that, despite his conversion, at this […]

Live

Youngest Daughter’s attempts to make her dad listen to her took another turn at the weekend. Until she hijacked his Facebook Live lecture the previous week, I’d managed to (mostly) keep her from talking about what was happening on social media. However, the fact that even spilling the beans about what was happening live on […]

Down

Sometimes I think the worst thing about what’s currently happening with E is the fact that, after everything he has already put me though, he is finally leeching the joy out of my life.  Until now, whilst I’ve had bad days, I’ve generally managed to stay upbeat and positive and have usually kept going with my […]

Perfect Storm

Youngest Daughter’s GCSE results marked the beginning of a downward slope for her.  In the days following the results I felt like I was walking a very high tightrope with no safety net.  Everything I said or suggested (or even didn’t say or suggest) would be met with an explosion of rage and a slammed door.  […]

Silence

Whilst E’s withholding money in November (I’ve yet to see what his plans are for December) has caused me personal anguish, the financial stress and worry I’ve felt has been nothing compared to the effect this has had on the children. I’ve tried to not let them see how distressing I’ve found it personally, but, […]

Bully

When I was 15, I was bullied by a group of about ten boys in my year. I was the new girl.  They were a gang that (ridiculously), called themselves The Swarm.  Their MO was to slowly approach and surround their target in the school playground, whilst slowly saying the word ‘swarm’.  Once they’d done […]

Food

When Oldest Daughter was 18 months old, she came down with a nasty bout of gastro-enteritis.  Literally everything she ate went straight through her, causing her huge distress (and causing me a huge amount of washing and carpet cleaning).  The best treatment for this was just to give her minimal, very plain, food and lots […]

Two Sides

“There are always two sides to every story…” I’ve said it myself a few times, and most of the time it’s true.  It’s also an underlying assumption about any relationship breakdown.  As a result of this, even though everyone I’ve spoken to agrees that E’s behaviour has been completely out of order, an unspoken question […]