When You Don’t Want Your Kids To Make the Same Mistakes As You
Last week, I wrote about how I’d found it hard to let go of my children at puberty—the age when they started wanting autonomy over their lives. Although I spent a long time writing that post, I felt as if I’d barely skimmed the surface....
Negotiating Puberty—Parenting Reflection #3
When I was growing up, I found puberty difficult. I wasn’t keen on the physical changes—I quite liked having a flat chest, hair that didn’t get oily, and armpits that were hairless and didn’t sweat. As a child, I hadn’t felt particularly...
Talking to Teenagers: How I Turned My Relationship With My Daughter Around: Parenting Reflection #2
In a blog post last year, I said I’d write a post about my second daughter and how, through her, I learnt to be a better mother. That was easier said than done, believe me. Once kids reach a certain age, it’s difficult to write about them...
On Not Shaming Kids: Parenting Reflection #1
This isn’t the post I intended for this week, but the original one has turned into an unwieldy epic and I’m still working on it. Our second daughter finished school last year and will turn eighteen next month. This means both of...
What Not to Say to Young Women
Last week, our seventeen-year-old daughter sang at an Eisteddfod. She’s in Year Twelve and hopes to pursue classical singing after school. She always takes care with how she presents herself for a performance, and for this item,...
My Week—Kids, Writing, and Nothing Much to Complain About
1. This week has felt messy, mainly because of kids’ illnesses, all minor, but it’s meant trips to school in the middle of the day to collect them. Having them at home always interrupts my creative flow, even when...
Parenting Lessons Learned in 2014
All the calendars tell me it’s December, but I’m not ready for the end of another year. Time is not just marching on—it’s moving so fast, it’s exceeding the speed limit. I want it to slow down and return to the...
How to Become the Favourite Child
Some of you have already seen these when I posted them on my Facebook page (Louise Allan – Writer if you want to slip over and ‘Like’ my page). For anyone who didn’t see the Facebook posts, here they are. The story is, I gave my...
Bottling the Kids
There’s been a lot going on this year—mostly good, but not all of it. Normally, I cope. Normally, I feel good about the good things, but I’ve had trouble feeling good at all this year, about anything. I think I’ve worked out why: I don’t like...
Letter To My Daughter On Her Leaving Home
I sat on the plane feeling empty and bereft. It took off, up and westward, following the sun. The buildings below quickly became matchboxes, and the clouds drifted in and thickened into a matted carpet so I could no longer see the city below, the city where I’d...