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Mind The Gap. By January Carmalt

  Guest post: January Carmalt examines how mums can leap back into the workforce with confidence after the school-run sabbatical.   Gap years. What do we think of them? No, no—think less setting sail to artificially inseminate indigenous blue-footed boobies of the Galapagos– more pram-pushing, nappy changing, food pureeing and later– forging ever more inventive means to entertain restless children during rain-soaked school holidays. Cast aside self-indulgent naval gazing and imagine instead those career-sacrificing years spent at Tumble Tots, play dates and bake sales.  Ah yes, those gap years. These past decades women have made pioneering strides combining families with…

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The fear factor – a guest post about social anxiety by Katy

We have been invited to a wedding do. Just the evening, but it’s a lovely thought from a cousin I don’t see very often. My mum is one of 5 and her mum was one of 6.  She spent about 5 years of her childhood in the same city as this batch of cousins and stayed close to some of them. So when I was a child I grew up with them and their offspring in my life. These are the people who will be at the wedding do.  They are lovely, loving, warm and funny people and it will…

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The only time I like being called normal. A guest post by Katy.

It happens every 3 years. Through the letterbox plops an ominously official-looking envelope stamped NHS. Every time I greet it with a shudder. A faceless administrator has printed an automatically generated letter informing me I’m invited for a cervical smear. Euch there it is again: the involuntary shudder. I have had 2 children. If you’ve had any of the little treasures yourself you will know that having a stranger’s hand disappear up your flue quickly becomes acceptable, indeed expected, behaviour. I had an 8 day slow labour ending in my baby girl being removed by what can only be described…

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Guest Post: I killed a Man

  I killed a man, years ago. He was a Danish political and environmental activist fighting a one man war against the status quo of globalisation and dirty energy corporate muscle. His name was Jesper Rasmussen. He was, to be totally honest, an idiot. He missed the point constantly, made an arse of himself on a weekly basis and his inability to decipher the subtleties of information frequently had him barking up wrong trees and upsetting people. He was a walking disaster, all told. Yet, people had loved him. One person especially loved him and that person was my husband.…

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Guest Post: Is It Too Late To Have A Dad?

A wonderfully honest guest post from Katy, who is estranged from her father, and wonders if there is any point in reconciliation. The last time I saw my dad plays like home movie footage in my head. I was about 20. My hair was longer and brighter and everything about me was generally perkier. Well, physically at least. Mentally I was in the midst of unravelling, except I didn’t know it at the time. My dad was in a pub around the corner from a wedding I was at and I was told he was there if I wanted to…

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