Topical Issues

We did it

We did it.  It all brought us here.  My little boy sat through a cumulative 4.5 hours of educational psychology assessments involving EQ, IQ and an educational battery (thank you Ritalin).  We made it through a parent interview and a feedback without 1 tear shed.  For the first time ever, I wasn’t blindsided or surprised […]

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The Blame Game

Once you know that your child has some sort of difficulty or challenge, no assessment or evaluation will ever feel the same way again.  You will never see it in the same light as you did before and you will now experience emotions on a spectrum ranging from anxious anticipation to utter dread.  You will […]

Topical Issues

For the Mothers

Those who find it easy; and those who don’t. Those who stay at home; and those who go to work. The marathon-running moms; and the Netflix binge watching moms. Those who breast fed; who bottle fed; who did whatever it took. Those who went home with their baby; and those who are NICU veterans. Those […]

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I Want to Stay Here

Me: “N!  Guess what we are doing on Sunday?  We are going to a farm to have a picnic and you can ride a horse!” N: “I don’t want to go”. Me: “But they have a trampoline!” N: “I don’t want to go to the farm” Me: “You can feed the horses and brush them” […]

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Medication Meditation

One of the toughest decisions I anticipated us being faced with so far, is whether and when to start N on Ritalin, Concerta or something similar.  Now that he is almost 5 years old, the decision was thrust upon us 2 weeks ago at our annual appointment with the Developmental Paediatrician.  I am not a […]

Topical Issues

It Takes a Village

To raise a child it definitely does take a village, but what does that village look like?  One of my greatest realisations has been that each of our villages looks different.  The composition of the village depends on many factors: family structure and dynamics, financial means, the needs of your child, the number of children […]

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The Plan

Type A.  Perfectionist.  Planner.  Control freak.  I am and have always been all of those things.  From conception to delivery (and further), of all the things I had worried about, those that actually happened had never even occurred to me. While it was a part of my long-term plan to become a mother, it was […]

Topical Issues

The (Heavy) Mental Load

The mental load is something that I have read and thought about quite a lot since becoming a mother.  This term “mental load” refers to everything that mothers have to remember and juggle in their minds; all the work that goes unseen. For example – scheduling medical and dental check-ups, booking haircuts, organising wardrobes as […]