My friend has just switched jobs. She is a lawyer and decided to accept the offer of a former colleague to join him at his new firm. Things like that happen all the time in the law business. In this case, though, she was not the only one to have been lured away – manyContinue Reading

That Til Schweiger, the German actor and filmmaker of Hollywood renown, is to take over the role of detective in the German cult crime series ‘Tatort’ later this year is already big headline. But not big enough, it seems. Schweiger is causing an even bigger stir among fans of the long-running series – a kindContinue Reading

Before we became parents, my husband and I used to enjoy slipping across European borders for a weekend break. Since our son came along, though, the frequency of these getaways has noticeably shrunk. So it was great to get back on a plane – the three of us, this time – for a weekend tripContinue Reading

The glittery notice posted the past few days on the front door at my son’s daycare centre read ‘We’ll be celebrating a fancy dress party on Monday – please bring your child in a costume’. My inner reveller was instantly aroused – one costume coming up! But my initial euphoria gave way to disillusionment thoughContinue Reading

The only consistent thing about my eight-month old son is his inconsistency. Any time I get to thinking that he has settled into some kind of rhythm, I am proven disastrously wrong almost immediately. Up until recently, for example, he slept blissfully the whole night long. Now he has rediscovered the sleep patterns of aContinue Reading

I remember reading somewhere once that moving house was the second most stressful life event – only the death of a spouse was supposedly worse.  Moving house with a new-born in tow probably slots somewhere between those two. This not just because my son’s braying for food every three or four hours interrupts the taskContinue Reading

I battled for weeks to get my son into a baby swim course, and then when the time came for us to begin he got sick. We only have to wait a week for the next session, but it’s nevertheless a bit exasperating. The €108 bill for a ten-week course is nothing to sniffle at,Continue Reading

My baby already has a lot of possessions for a two-month-old boy: apart from the usual baby-bed, changing table, wagon, rocker, toddler blanket, countless clothes and stuffed animals, he has his own savings account, equity-shares in a bank, a tax identification number and a passport

I feel bad. No, that’s not true – I’m really doing well. I’m beginning to use the moments between nursing my child to read, or to enjoy a hot bath, or to ring up one of my girlfriends. Yesterday my baby boy started using a pacifier, a ‘dummy’ as the British like to call it, andContinue Reading