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Back So Lucky Save as PDF
Chapters (28)
  1. SO LUCKY
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. Acknowledgements
  20. Keep Reading …
  21. Introduction
  22. PIECE ONE
  23. Parenting – WHAT is that smell?
  24. PIECE TWO
  25. Don’t miss the ‘So Lucky’ podcast series
  26. About the Author
  27. Also by Dawn O’Porter
  28. About the Publisher

OK, I’d better go. The kids are clawing at me again, and I want to cook the pie.

Sending love to you and yours, I really hope you’re all OK,

Love Dawn x

Parenting – WHAT is that smell?

So I’ve been thinking about parenting a LOT over these past weeks, I mean, obviously, it’s all I’ve been doing. It’s just Chris and me doing 100 per cent of everything with the kids, the dog and the cat – and we are shocked at the constant stream of piss or shit coming out of at least one of them at any given time. I mean, what the HELL is happening? It’s almost tempting to not feed anyone for an entire day, just to get a break from it.

I never thought I’d be married with two kids, because I was happily on track to be a single cat lady who wrote books in bed. There is rarely a day that goes by that I am not stunned by the life I appear to be living, but the good news is, I like it very much and find being a mother and a wife a largely riveting experience. Well, that is how I felt before the schools shut and I found myself a full-time stay-at-home mum without much warning.

It’s important that I say at this point how much respect I have for full-time stay-at-home mums. One side effect of feminism that really breaks my heart, is how apologetic a lot of women feel they need to be for being just that. It is, quite simply, one of the hardest, most selfless jobs you can do. There is no ‘clock-in at nine, leave at five’. It’s an all-in, 24/7, every fucking day, SORRY, WHAT IS MY NAME AGAIN kind of job, and if there is any part of you that feels judgement towards a woman who is doing it, abandon those thoughts. Full-time mothers (parents, to be fair to the men who do it, of whom there are plenty) work harder than the rest of us. The point of feminism is to make sure that the women who don’t want to do it have an equal amount of opportunity as the men who don’t. It isn’t there to make stay-at-home mothers feel less than – and if you ever witness that, call it out.

I must add that being a working parent is no joke either. There are rarely breaks. You get home from work after a long day and you begin the ‘second shift’ of giving the kids dinner and putting them to bed. And when you have small children, there is no such thing as a relaxing weekend.