Womans Best Friend?

It’s funny how sometimes it can be a completely innocent remark, a throw away comment, which can make the world seem right again or alternatively throw you over the edge. A strangers’ greeting, or a gesture from a passer by, and the dynamic of the day can tilt and bend unnervingly. And so it is...

Who stole my daughter?

Just a few short weeks ago I bragged to my friends that my thirteen year old daughter has shown no signs of interest in boys / discos / make up / clothes (particularly of the short and skimpy kind) or anything else which contributes to the average parents’ teenage nightmare.  Not that I’d...

I have a new friend

I have a new friend. Her name is Lynne, and we met on the internet. Ok, so it’s not how I imagined it would be. Of course I’d have preferred if we had met in less contrived circumstances; if we’d clicked chatting in a coffee queue, or bumping into each other at work meetings. Or even...

Balanced Strategies.

You’d have to wonder why it takes a photo of a dead child for us to take an urgent situation seriously.  The focus and attention on the growing number of Syrian refugees is to be welcomed, although I am not sure the attention is going on the real issues here, which actually aren’t about where and how to...

It’s in the blood

My hands are clenched so tight I can feel the nails digging into my sweaty palms. My shoulders are tight and hunched with tension despite the hairs standing on the back of my neck, and my t shirt is stuck to my back.  My throat is dry and sore and my forehead is taut but my heart is pounding with...

Teenagers

Teenagers can be hard work.   I know that’s a ridiculous understatement. It’s like saying the Irish weather is unpredictable, and expecting a clap on the back for such insight.  Having spent a number of years working with teenagers, I should know this better than some, but in the recesses of my mind, I...