Category: My Family

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Unconditional love: why I didn’t bury my son under the patio

Paul2Oh, I considered it, of course. More than once.

Who couldn’t love my adorable son, Paul, playing with his puppet in a sunlit garden? That was the easy part.

Sadly, unconditional love doesn’t work that way.

I loved him before he was born.

And I loved him as a snuggly baby, as a cute toddler, as a happy and curious child, as an intelligent and fun-loving young teenager… and it was still a piece of cake.

And I still loved my son when he became a cruel and bitter monster from the depths of hell.

‘Going through a phase,‘ I think they call it. ‘Having issues.’

No, no, no, that really doesn’t cover it.

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Bearing up under the strain: does losing your looks really matter?

teddyThis is Sally Jones. He’s the best teddy in the world.

He used to be beautiful, with proper glass eyes and honey-coloured fur. I dropped him a few times and his eyes broke, and I kissed and hugged him so much that his fur is all worn away.

He’s had a few torn areas over the years and lost a lot of his sawdust filling. I tried to repair him with lumps of cotton wool, but I wasn’t very good at sewing.

Then he had an unfortunate meeting under the bed with my rabbit, Snowdrop, who decided that Sally was delicious before I leapt in to rescue him.

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Spoiler Alert: What my son taught me about the truth of Father Christmas

canstockphoto5027843When my son Graham was 7 years old, I told him the truth about Father Christmas.

He was just about to start junior school in September, and I didn’t want him to look a fool in front of the older kids who were certain to disillusion him that year, anyway.

Graham said I was mean and cruel, and I’d ruined the magic of Christmas for him forever.

And maybe I had. I wished I hadn’t done it – or at least not that year. He wasn’t ready to learn the truth. He’d enjoyed believing in a wonderful magic person who brought lovely presents secretly in the night – who wouldn’t want that to be true? Couldn’t I have left him in his happy delusion a bit longer?

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I’m glad that my Dad wasn’t a war hero

poppyMy Dad won a medal in the war. He didn’t actually get it until 50 years later, but hey.

The island of Malta was awarded the George Cross, but the servicemen who suffered the horrendous bombardment and desperate privations of the Siege of Malta never received a campaign medal.

Eventually in 1992 the Government of Malta produced a long-deserved medal for these veterans, the Malta George Cross Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Medal. My parents decided to attend the official presentation on Malta and enjoy a holiday there.

Unfortunately their host’s English wasn’t too good, and he thought Dad had won the George Cross! Beaming with pride, he introduced Dad to his friends as a great World War II hero.

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Do you have a microwave mentality or can you remember a friendly dog for 40 years?

frustrationIt’s been suggested that middle-aged people have an attention span of 20 minutes, but young people today can concentrate for just 5 minutes – the so-called ‘microwave mentality’.

I’d be inclined to doubt these findings. Ever seen a youngster lose interest in a computer game after just five minutes and decide to do their homework instead? Or switch off the TV five minutes into their favourite programme to do a bit of tidying? Me neither.

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