Tag Archives: parenthood

Poetry Month 2012. 17: Circus Pony

This is from Heidi Williamson’s debut collection, Electric Shadow, I find its treatment of marriage and children interesting.      Circus Pony      Each evening after school you met      like lovers. You angled offerings      through the tired wire fence –      she accepted as … Continue reading

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Book Sharing Monday: Night Monkey, Day Monkey

Night Monkey, Day Monkey is one of Polly’s library books that she really enjoyed. It was written by Julia Donaldson of Gruffalo fame, and illustrated by Lucy Richards. As per most of Julia Donaldson’s books, it has a lovely accessible … Continue reading

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Kitchen Table Tycoon

Something, I’m not sure what, made me think that borrowing this book from the library was a good idea. Anita Naik’s Kitchen Table Tycoon: How to Make It Work as a Mother and an Entrepreneur sounded to me, at the … Continue reading

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Lent 30: There’s Birds In My Story

Lenontia Flynn’s third collection, Profit and Loss, is in three parts – the first part is based on the idea of rooms or houses holding our histories – specifically family histories, with incredibly personal treatments of her father’s advancing Alzheimers … Continue reading

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Lent 21: Child

I want to share two poems by Sylvia Plath, because I like the optimism in an image they both share. One of them, I’ve actually shared before, here, but I merely linked to it elsewhere. So, now, I will reproduce … Continue reading

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Lent 4: Cathedral

I wish I had remembered, two years ago, that SinĂ©ad Morrissey’s Through the Square Window was written between her first pregnancy and the first two weeks of her second child’s life. Of course, while I’d have particularly appreciated a lot … Continue reading

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Motherhood vs. parenthood: an introduction

This was going to be an exploration of the term “motherhood” in contrast to “parenthood”, using two books (Breeder: Real-Life Stories From the New Generation of Mothers edited by Ariel Gore and Bee Lavender and Shattered: Modern Motherhood and the … Continue reading

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NCT, NHS, breastfeeding promotion & support

The Telegraph reports that the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) are changing their policy from promoting breastfeeding to supporting it. The reason the NCT state for the change is to widen their reach. They say their current clientele is 86% graduates … Continue reading

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Book Sharing Monday: In My Tree

Inspired by Smiling like Sunshine, who this week shared Meet Einstein, I want to share one of Polly’s favourite books. This is In My Tree by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich. It has a little finger puppet through the holes … Continue reading

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Secret sex – the myth of the gender neutral childhood

BBC Breakfast on Monday 23d January* featured a story about Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper, parents of Sasha whose gender had been “kept secret” in order to “avoid stupid stereotypes” and increase the chances of experiencing an actual gender neutral … Continue reading

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