It’s been a surreal few weeks during the coronavirus lockdownAn inability to tackle the boy’s untamed tresses bring him joy, and gratitude it appearsMon May 25 2020 - 06:01
Coronavirus: I want the facts, but I need hope to get through thisI fear my trouble sleeping may be a result of absorbing too much bad newsMon May 18 2020 - 06:01
Children have had little choice but to take the lockdown on the chin and are making huge sacrificesTo miss rites of passage that come with the final months in primary and secondary school is very difficultMon May 11 2020 - 06:01
Children’s charity makes appeal for funds to keep it moving forwardBUMBLEance was set up by Tony and Mary Heffernan, whose children Saoirse and Liam both died from Batten diseaseTue May 05 2020 - 11:30
Lockdown is hard on the kids – even the adult onesMy children haven’t seen their grandparents for months at this stageMon May 04 2020 - 06:01
Parenting during lockdown: ‘Surviving continues to be the name of the game’In any given day, there are 3 million questions to answer, 6,328 rows to break up and one restriction-complying walkTue Apr 28 2020 - 06:01
Patience can wear thin with all this family timeWe’re past pretending we have it under control. It’s a jungle out there – and the kids are feralMon Apr 20 2020 - 06:01
Coronavirus: Please don’t make my children feel unwelcome in your shopLots of us have to bring them with us. And tensions are high enough alreadyTue Apr 14 2020 - 06:01
Coronavirus lockdown reveals the very best of us, as well as our ‘shadow side’The pandemic can bring our nearest and dearest too close for comfortSun Apr 12 2020 - 06:01
It’s day #268 in the Big Mother household and I can’t moveLaughter erupts as the kids watch me collapse while trying ‘PE with Joe Wicks’Mon Apr 06 2020 - 06:01
Coronavirus: All rules go out the window as ‘needs must’ takes overWith all of us at home, we’re all going to need to mind each other through this uncertain timeTue Mar 24 2020 - 06:01
Don’t tell my children, but I speak to strangers online on a daily basisAs real-life meet-ups with adults take a back seat, online relationships have been a lifelineMon Mar 09 2020 - 06:01
‘We were going to pay off the mortgage, enjoy life. Then my wife had a catastrophic stroke’Life as a carer: John Bergin cares for his wife, who had a catastrophic stroke which affected 50% of her brainThu Mar 05 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: ‘If we really love somebody, we can do anything for them’Marcin Filak cares for his wife, who has locked-in syndrome, and their two childrenWed Mar 04 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: When a child’s diagnosis means ‘a disease for life’‘We knew we’d need to inject her daily – I never realised the extent of the management’Thu Feb 27 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: ‘You are always on high alert’‘I wouldn’t necessarily say you cope with it. For me it’s just about getting through the day’Wed Feb 26 2020 - 06:01
Trying to find a holiday for my brood is making me despairI wasn’t quite prepared for the recoiling in horror when innocent enquiries were made about our optionsMon Feb 24 2020 - 06:01
Carrying out acts of kindness is a type of homework I can get behindAn end to primary school homework would allow families to spend more time togetherWed Feb 12 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: ‘Crumlin hospital don’t ring you on Saturday morning for no good reason’With her daughter seriously ill, Ciara Reid left work. The family now face mounting financial costsThu Feb 06 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: ‘It doesn’t feel natural that you become your mam’s mam’Martina Murphy discusses the challenges of caring for both her son and motherWed Feb 05 2020 - 06:01
I have no desire to watch Love Island with my teenagers‘The mammy in me feels a need to constantly point out the wrongs and rights of it all to my offspring’Fri Jan 31 2020 - 06:01
Mother had to fundraise to get palliative care for her dying six-year-old daughterMother of child who needs 24-hour care says she feels ‘let down by the system’Thu Jan 30 2020 - 05:01
‘Some of us dream of being in hospital as it would give us a break from caring’Mother tells of difficulties she faces as a lone parent caring for her severely disabled sonWed Jan 29 2020 - 06:01
Life as a carer: ‘If something happens to me, what will happen to my girls?’Lynn McDonald on the relentless challenges when your child has a life-limiting conditionMon Jan 27 2020 - 06:00
What parent actually has a couple of minutes to spare?A child’s sadness that the most wonderful time of year is over has a familiar ring to itMon Jan 13 2020 - 06:01
Making new memories with my family is my main New Year’s resolutionTime seems to have passed in the blink of an eye and I wonder if I’ve made enough memoriesWed Jan 01 2020 - 06:01
My most memorable birthday? The one when my son nearly diedI have my friend’s quick-thinking mother to thank that he’s still here todayTue Dec 10 2019 - 06:01
How three families teach their children Christmas isn’t all about material thingsGiving to charity, fundraising, volunteering – all help children understand kindnessFri Dec 06 2019 - 06:01
Childhood obesity: How parents can learn to say noSocioeconomic factors and retailer tricks make it a tricky – but not impossible – puzzle to solveWed Nov 27 2019 - 06:01
Having the sex talk with my sons: ‘You mean people do that on purpose?’Chatting with your children about sex and growing up shouldn’t be an ordealMon Nov 25 2019 - 11:30
We need to redefine ‘having it all’ because there’s a fast one being pulledIt’s as if school attendance removes the need for childcare instead of posing a very different logistical nightmareWed Nov 13 2019 - 06:01
‘A few days before, life was perfect and the next thing I was planning his funeral’When Lisa Coulhoun’s husband Christopher died suddenly aged 33, her grief was compounded by the platitudes of well-meaning peopleTue Nov 12 2019 - 06:01
Stephen Teap: ‘The only way I can describe grief is like a tsunami of emotion’Stephen Teap's wife Irene died in the wake of the CervicalCheck scandal.Tue Nov 12 2019 - 06:01
‘People asked did she leave a note? What did she say? That is unbelievably intrusive’Helena Tubridy’s daughter Karla died at age 17Mon Nov 11 2019 - 06:01
The Irish school that doesn't believe in homeworkOne Dublin primary school’s ‘no-homework policy’ has been a resounding successWed Nov 06 2019 - 06:01
My father died at 39. I named my daughter in honour of him‘You see friends with their own two parents and you think: why haven’t we got that?’Tue Oct 29 2019 - 06:01
‘Grief chips at you making you feel like a bystander to your life’Adelle Kenny lost her mother Geraldine to a form of terminal brain cancerTue Oct 29 2019 - 06:00
The politics of kids’ birthday parties and entertaining the parentsTo stay or not to stay – that is the question. Please don’t, is the answer from meMon Oct 28 2019 - 06:01
‘Grief doesn’t have a clock. Grief only stops when you die’Missed milestones are extremely difficult for the Heffernans since losing their children to a rare disorderTue Oct 22 2019 - 06:01
‘We got the words, I’m sorry, there’s no heartbeat. I just started screaming hysterically’Anne-Marie Murtagh lost her son, Patrick, at full term and even though she went on to have two more children, the trauma and grief are still rawTue Oct 22 2019 - 06:01
I appear to have acquired a new dog and I’m not even sure I like herLife has a funny way of throwing curveballs at you, sometimes in front of the car you’re drivingMon Oct 14 2019 - 06:01
‘I kind of felt I’d failed’: When pregnancy goes wrongFor some parents-to-be, pregnancy and childbirth complications can leave them feeling overwhelmed and traumatisedThu Oct 10 2019 - 06:01
‘I despise homework more and more with each passing year’Childhood is short and evenings should be for learning life skills and family timeMon Sept 30 2019 - 06:01
The lonely, isolated and challenging lives of many parentsThree mothers and a father give their accounts of what parenthood can really feel likeThu Sept 19 2019 - 17:01
Seven children later, I am still judged as a mother, mainly by other mothersI thought I was immune to criticism until, two weeks ago, my daughter caught mumpsMon Sept 16 2019 - 06:01
‘My phone is like an extension of my arm – always available, always nearby’The adults in our house need to start obeying the strict rules we impose on the kidsMon Sept 02 2019 - 06:01
Teach girls to box. Send boys to gymnasticsGive your children a diversity of skills by opening your mind about their optionsThu Aug 22 2019 - 06:01
We had no family holiday this year. Here’s what we did insteadI can’t believe the holidays are drawing to a close. I dread the return to normalityMon Aug 19 2019 - 06:01
‘That’s not fair’: With my large family, mum-guilt is the biggest chore of allI’ve been a parent for 18 years and my battle with mum-guilt is raging as fiercely as everMon Aug 05 2019 - 06:00
Why does Ireland have the lowest breastfeeding rate in Europe?‘Breastfeeding is the biological norm for our species. Breastmilk is ... a dynamic substance’Wed Jul 31 2019 - 07:01
