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The school-run politicians
17th January 2011 | 1 comments | 2 people like this
Soon after the coalition government was formed David Cameron and Nick Clegg announced their intention to delay morning cabinet meetings so they could help with the school run.
Now, six months on, the deputy prime minister has outlined government plans for a “properly flexible” system of shared parental leave in the UK by 2015.This is fine in theory but it highlights just how far removed politicians are from the reality of... -
A modern family Christmas – India Knight’s insightful new novel
2nd December 2010 | 1 comments | 2 people like this
On the last day of November every year I hang a faded purple velvet advent calendar up in the kitchen and fill the 24 pockets with sweets. My daughter’s at university now and at 16 my son thinks advent calendars are babyish, but I’m still doing it. And he’ll gobble up the sweets before he leaves for the school bus every morning.
I’m not particularly keen on tradition most of the... -
Vodka teapots and leaving home
14th September 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
After the agonising wait for exam results and the scramble for university places, thousands of teenagers will be leaving home in the next few weeks.
My 18-year-old daughter is one of them. She’s off to London and is busy packing clothes, books, pots, pans and her prized collection of Vogue magazines into two modest suitcases.In the midst of the chaos, an anxious friend texted her. “How’s your mum coping?” said the... -
Muddling along
3rd August 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Talk about stating the obvious. Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson has declared that no woman can have a high-flying career and be the perfect mother at the same time.
“The only way you can have it all is by delegating the running of the home to other people – which I don’t ever want to do,” she says in an interview with the US edition of Good Housekeeping magazine.I adore Emma Thompson... -
Trickier than it looks
5th May 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Michael Gove’s promise that under a Conservative government teachers would have more power to discipline out-of-control pupils is fine in theory. But if politicians tried teaching they’d soon find it isn’t half as easy as it looks. With reports that some school corridors have become virtual no-go zones while others have brought in their police officers, CCTV and even airport-style scanners to ensure pupils aren't carrying knives, teachers deserve a...
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Pyjama mamas
3rd September 2009 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Mornings have never been my strong point. In term-time I rush out of the house at 7am looking as though I’ve been pulled through a hedge backwards - without a scrap of make-up and my hair sticking up on end. After I’ve dropped my teenage daughter at the bus stop I dash into Sainsbury’s to buy the papers, hoping I don’t scare the cheery man on the till or, horror...
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The house with no name
28th July 2009 | 4 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
The first time I heard about my tumbledown farmhouse in the South of France was when a friend sent an email saying: “Beautiful place. Great potential. South-facing, with its back up against a wooded hillside. Very old farm with heaps of charm.”
Much to my horror, and before I’d even set eyes on the place, my husband sped south on the TGV (train à grande vitesse) and made an offer on...
CONTRIBUTOR
Emma Lee-Potter
Emma Lee-Potter is a journalist and author of four novels. She has two teenage children and spends her spare time worrying about the ramshackle farmhouse she bought in the south of France. The wreck has half a roof, assorted wildlife and an alarming damp problem but her friends assure her it all be perfect by 2020. She writes a weekly blog for Easy Living magazine.
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