7.11.20 Dear Mum, Wow, it’s been two years already… putting together Ikea furniture & booking holidays one day, dead the next. No-one expected it, or maybe you had a hunch something was wrong… we’ll just never know. So, a crazy amount has happened since you rudely left us all to…

Disclaimer: I have seen three statuses on different social media platforms in the last week that have conveyed a deep sadness and sense of loss of self — one person said she sometimes feels she is ‘only keeping going for the kids’. While each has been different in style and…

A reply to the two people who asked me for advice — Dear Chaotically Clever, You will see that I have cheekily renamed you. Because although you mentioned that you were overwhelmed, frustrated, distracted and a ‘bit of a mess’, you also said that you knew you were capable of doing this postgraduate programme you really want to do. If you…

In my first blog on ADHD I explained how an ADHD diagnosis transformed my life. My story is not an unusual one for a late-diagnosed woman. My quest has been to own and embrace my ADHD so that its more challenging sides no longer own me — I’m on a…

Female, parent, PhD and ADHD — and a little bit sweary (#sorrynotsorry) There are a lot of people who don’t ‘really’ believe adult ADHD is real — reader, I married one — but they’re unlikely to be the sort of people who tiptoe into this blog. So forgive me while…

It was a seemingly normal morning in many respects. Having been upset the night before about the recent changes in his life, my eldest was apprehensive about going back to school and claimed to be ill. I agreed that he could have a day off (highly unlike me, alarm bells…

Today is mother’s day. It’s never been something mum or I particularly made a fuss about, though this will be the first year that I haven’t given her a card. My sister and I finally plucked up the courage to visit her at the green burial site this week. It…

I ‘think’ I’ve moved on from the shock and survival stage of grief. I now realise this initial period involved a strange shield of numbness which temporarily held back (as long as it possibly could) the next more profound and painful stage. …

It’s only been two months since mum suddenly died. Possibly the strangest two months of my life so far. The first month or so was a period of survival and numbness. The shock was profound. This was followed by a bizarre Christmas period where, to some extent, I was on…