A matter of choice

Like many Mothers getting everyone ready for school isn't my favourite part of the day, more so on a Monday as they are usually even less enthusiastic. Louka is getting on fine at school now but he still protests each morning and needs wrestling into his clothes and tons of encouragement to get out the house,   Leo is generally happy to go to school, he just needs quite a lot of prompting to get moving!

Two weeks ago we were almost ready to leave, the boys were watching Peppa Pig and I asked Leo to turn off the TV at the end of the episode while I went to the bathroom.

Of course I had assumed that at this stage I could leave the room for a moment without war breaking out, but of course I was wrong!

I returned to both boys crying and shouting at each other, Leo holding his face and Louka screaming 'thats why I hate Leo'

It appeared that Louka had taken offence to Leo turning off the TV like I'd requested so he punched him in the mouth - that would be bad enough but he…

Love it or hate it Valentines is now over for another year and the overpriced red heart related crap will leave the shops to make way for creme eggs, bunnies and such like in preparation for Easter. This month, for my column in Daxi magazine I wrote about a previous Valentines day where I tried (and failed) to create the perfect romantic evening, (you can read it online) and it got me thinking as to when my views changed on the day.

Looking back at my teenage years Valentines could be a stressful time (back in the day when we had nothing much to stress about!)  It was almost like a competition, do you have a date?  Will you get anything?  How much does your boyfriend actually love you?  What amazing romantic stories will everyone be sharing at college on the 15th?
Back then was a time of generally uncertain relationships, they came and went more often than you could keep up with and it felt like Valentines was a day to 'prove' you were loved in a time when you could never rea…