The Desperate State of Shopping with No Money

So today I was so desperate to get out of the house that I sat in Starbucks for an hour sipping a latte. A LATTE.  This is very bad on the money-saving front.  That £2.25 would have bought three days worth of food in the halal shop.  At least I didn’t buy any cake.  This…

How to avoid using dangerous substances such as Calpol

So I am trying to write this while Piglet naps on my chest (look at me!  Multi-tasking uber-mother!) He had his first set of immunisations this morning.  This was relatively stress free.  Apparently some women are so distressed by the sight of a huge (relative to size of baby) needle being stuck in their baby’s…

The Single Mother’s Guide to Saving Money

Today Piglet and I decided to brave a trip to Westfield. Well, I decided to brave it.  Piglet didn’t have much choice.  I’m sure that had he been given a choice, he would have chosen not to be whizzed around in the pram looking for the family room (where there were apparently some fabled pods…

Many Babies Look Like Piglet: Is This More Than Just Coincidence?

NEWSFLASH!  NEWSFLASH! Piglet has twenty-one brothers and sisters. Or something like that. Obvs. this is not my doing.  I barely have Piglet, let alone twenty-one other hidden children squirrelled away somewhere. The reason I know this is because I registered Piglet’s birth with the sperm bank, and although they have so far not managed to…

One of the Few Ways My Life is (Still) Similar to Sex and the City

What does one do with a seven week old baby? In Piglet’s case, the answer is sit him in his bouncy chair with a comforter and a mobile for company (not a mobile as in phone, obviously.  Not letting him loose on that just yet.  Or like, ever.  Watch me eat my words on that…

Piglet, Seven Weeks, Shows Obscene Lack of Interest in Becoming Serious Intellectual

Piglet is asleep and I am seizing a moment to write. He is asleep in his baby bouncer.  I am not convinced that this is the best place for me to implement my new bedtime routine, but I am frankly too scared to put him in his cot in the bedroom in case Something Terrible…

Multiple Attempts to Write This Blog All End in Abject Failure

Almost seven weeks in, and I think I’m doing a pretty good job. Piglet is wearing a vest personally designed by one of my friends (i.e. drawn on) at my baby shower, and having a “kick about” on the floor, something that my mother, a.k.a. the “Wind Whisperer,” recommends so that he can “get his…

Subsistence Parenting

Yes I admit it.  Guilty as charged. Yes I did put the baby in the car seat to sleep while I had my lunch.  And we weren’t in a car.  And (voice drops to a barely audible whisper) I didn’t even fasten the straps. Surely God will strike me down with a lightning bolt.  Or…

Piglet: On First Name Terms with the NHS

Well yesterday’s post (the Secret Weapon, by the way, was about to be revealed as a baby sling.  Regrettably it turned out not to be such a vote-winner later that evening, when Piglet bawled non-stop for ten minutes in it, and I took it off, thinking maybe it was too tight and crushing his little…

He’s Wailing, He’s Wailing Again…

Well, he is here.  And you know who I mean by “He.” The promised messiah. In fact, it’s not far off.  I have started singing Away in a Manger to him at night and switching the name “Jesus” for His name.  To all extents and purposes, he will henceforth be known as Piglet, the moniker…