I do like my children- almost all the time. Every so often, I stop to wonder where I’m going wrong, but not half as much as I did a year or so ago. My big breakthrough was to swap guilt for gratitude. And realise parent-child relationships are supposed to be unique, because we’re individuals. Number two son was never going to sit quietly, colouring his way through childhood. And I was never going to be the kind of mum who looks at a yoghurt pot and immediately thinks of a craft.
As a castaway on Desert Island Discs, Nigella Lawson said she wasn’t a children’s entertainer type of mother- a very freeing thing to hear someone admit publically- but she could hug and dance. It made me think of what I had to offer instead of what I didn’t- hugging, finding the funny side of things and answering questions. My children are the ones who know what to do with a cornflakes box.
With acknowledgements to Janet Gibbs who told me this stuff long before I took it in.
sophie beal 