From the category archives:

Mothering without a licence

This is how they grow up, quietly and quickly and right under your watchful eye

10 February 2011 Mothering without a licence

I am standing at the fence as I do every day, waiting for the bell to ring and the tsunami of energetic children to come spilling out of the school. I brace myself, as I do every day, for Simon’s enthusiastic hug that will one day knock me clear off my feet. Tristan too still [...]

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Simon and the Sparrows

29 November 2010 Mothering without a licence

I‘d heard through the parent council that the boys’ school had a special music instructor, but I didn’t know much about it other than he was in the school each Friday, and that he spent time with each of the classes. The boys talked about the tick-marks they got for good behaviour, and some of [...]

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Brothers in the school yard

12 November 2010 Mothering without a licence

So here’s an interesting situation that I did not see coming. The boys have been discouraged from playing together in the school yard. Apparently, a Grade 1 student is not supposed to play with a Grade 3 student at recess, even if they are siblings. In their old school, we would have been facing a [...]

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Taming table manners

9 November 2010 Mothering without a licence

This blog post was inspired by a conversation on Twitter. Canadian Family asked its followers “On a scale of 1-10 (10=very), how important is it to you that your kids have good table manners?” I replied that while I rate the importance of table manners at a 10+, I rate my actual accomplishment at instilling [...]

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The first day of school

7 September 2010 Ah, me boys

Although it had been raining all morning, when we loaded ourselves into the car for the new commute to the boys’ new school in Manotick the sun was thinking of peeking through the clouds. The boys were boisterous — even more so than usual — and their excitement about the new school swelled up and [...]

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On censorship and potty talk

15 June 2010 Life in Ottawa

How can you not roll your eyes at this story? Apparently, Ottawa author Kevin Bolger, who wrote a kids’ book with the snicker-worthy title of Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger, was stopped a few minutes into his reading at an Ottawa elementary school yesterday and pulled aside by the principal, who then canceled the rest [...]

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The blog post that wasn’t

29 April 2010 Mothering without a licence

I have a lot of blog posts in my head, a few in my drafts folder, and one scrawled on a receipt from the post office and stuffed into my wallet. And you won’t be treated to any of them tonight because I’ve decided that rather than stay here with my nose pressed to the [...]

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Compelling parenting issue of the day

7 April 2010 Mothering without a licence

Okay, bloggy peeps, here’s your compelling parenting issue of the day. This one is on my mind as I cycle through the boxes of boy’s clothes that I have stashed in big blue plastic bins in the closet, each carefully labeled with season and size: Hand-me-down underwear? Yay or nay?

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On Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

27 March 2010 Life, the Universe and Everything

I admit, although I’d heard of Jamie Oliver before yesterday, I had only the vaguest idea who he was. A friend of mine cooked up some of his recipes for a dinner party once, and I was impressed. But I’d heard he called feeding your kids junk food child abuse, and I was not impressed. [...]

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Maternal ADD

18 March 2010 Mothering without a licence

I‘ve been trying to figure out if this is just one of those things you have to accept when you’re a mother of three boisterous little boys, or if it’s something I can control. Lately, I have noticed that I am perpetually unable to complete a single task uninterrupted. I open the browser window and [...]

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