Tag Archives: parenthood

Double digits and the next decade

This spring has been a biggie chez nous. As the daffodils tentatively turned their golden trumpets to the (occasional) sun, I was marking 10 years since leaving a long career at the BBC. And as is always the case with the passage of time, it’s been hard to believe that a whole decade has flown

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Teacher don’t preach

Teachers need some education. And I’m not talking the 3 Rs. I’m talking talking. Please Miss, and Mister, gonnae no’ keep talking to parents like they are single celled amoeba. Gonna please not bother with the hectoring, the condescension, the superiority syndrome and the preachy patter. It’s not big, and it certainly ain’t clever coming

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Missing in action

It swept over me this week. That sinking feeling. You know the kind, the gnawing sense that something’s really, really wrong. I’m not talking about losing the car keys or misplacing my specs, tho’ such activities may indeed occasionally upset the equilibrium of the Word Up world. No, I’m talking discombobulation, with bells on. But

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Sick as a parrot

Sole trading? It’s enough to make me sick. Picture the scene. It’s half an hour before you’re due to head off to deliver some work for a client, when the words that strike fear and loathing into the very soul of every sole trader or small business come calling. No, not “hello, this is HMRC,

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A summer survival strategy

Two days into the school summer holidays, and my nerves are in tatters already… I’ve been fretting for weeks about how exactly I am going to carry on at the commercial coalface whilst the Word Up Wean is mumping, moaning, and generally getting under my feet whilst school’s out for summer. See, I’m not one

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In (faint) praise of partisan parents

Annoy Your Kids. Surely one of the most important inclusions on any parent’s job description? However, it’s a bit rich for me to cast aspersions on anyone else’s parenting skills, seeing as I often rate pretty damn low on the Word Up Wean’s goodwill to all mumkind scale. So please forgive me when I moan

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Offspring versus enterprise

What is it about women and wee yins? Or to be more maternally and entrepreneurially correct, why is that women in business tend to make so many apologies for being a mother? Let’s set out my own stall right from the off – in my business I’m not in the business of saying sorry for the

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Business and the battle of the bairns

Blimey. What a week with the Word Up weans. The manic juggling and plate spinning involved with daily domestic duties and working parenthood is, I’m sure, no different in the Word Up empire than it is for any family, anywhere. But some weeks sure do make you want to run off into the sunset, screaming.

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bbc business business start up children clients commerce confidence COVID-19 enterprise entrepreneur entrepreneurial family Glasgow mental health pandemic parenthood poverty radio Scotland Scottish self employment small business sole trader startup work life balance

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