No hot chocolate today

My husband is a journalist working for an international news agency. He usually comes home after our son goes to bed and has been missing him grow up. So my husband started catching up with our son over hot chocolate on the days he wasn’t working. Just the two of them, after school — to […]

I just need a little time

Our boy has recovered from his mild bout of COVID. He was back at his computer when he raised his head and asked me: Him: Mum can I spend time in central London with my friends next weekend? “No,” screams my heart. You could hear it from six blocks away. “You’re six years old. You […]

Positive Test Results

Our son tested positive for covid at the end of January. He had a runny nose and some body aches, but no fever or cough. We didn’t think much of it until his lateral flow test turned up with two lines — a sign that meant he’d contracted covid. We were extremely worried. Until we […]

Time machine

I’d like to know how to slow time down. Not forever. Just for a little while. Enough to remember the last time he held my hand when we crossed the street. The last time he fell asleep in my arms. The last time I solved all his problems with a hug and a soft kiss […]

A Grim Dark Universe

Him: Mum, how about I show you a Warhammer battle report?
 Me: How about you bring home an A for something first?

A lockdown birthday for our son

My husband bought the cake. Cookies and cream. Our boy’s favourite. Watching the delight on his face was a real pleasure. Not long now before he’s grown and it’s just his father and me. For Debbie’s Six Word Saturday

Love and other failings

I am proud today. I know. I’ve got to watch it. But I couldn’t help the emotion ballooning. Our son didn’t win a medal. He didn’t bring home an A for his homework. BUT Our son’s cello teacher told us that he was a good student and that he had potential. Now that he has […]

Waiting for the music

The double bass he played has gone. He has been concentrating on his cello since he started high school. Our son said he liked it better. It took about a term and a half for us to hire a cello from his new school. It was a touch big for him when he started. I […]

No training wheels

It was December 2012. A few days before Christmas. My husband accepted redundancy from his workplace and was yet to start another job. He had all this time and wanted to spend it teaching his son how to ride a bike without training wheels. This was a father and son project. I was working at […]

Growing up

This is my son’s hand on the right. It once used to fit into my palm. I used to play with his tiny fingers as I cradled him to sleep. Now he’s a teenager. Tall and lanky. Taller than me. Soon he’ll be as tall as his father. They say children are never ours. They […]

Made me laugh

Me: What do you think? I’m thinking of buying a fashionable face mask. Him: Mum, they say only painters’ masks give appropriate protection. Me: Well, it’s to protect other people from our germs too. Him: We’re not sick. Plus they say it doesn’t work when you have facial hair, so that rules you completely out. […]

#GoWuhan: A call for compassion as racism rises with the coronavirus

They say the first reports of an unknown virus behind a number of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in eastern China with a population of more than 11 million, were made on 31 December 2019. Since then the virus has infected close to 40,000 people in mainland China with more than 300 cases reported […]