Author: Isolde

I usually think of myself as a resilient person. Sometimes though, I think resilience is about admitting defeat and asking for help. This is where I am at at the moment. The problem? Working in a job where I didn’t feel I was making a difference to people’s lives, and knowing that I need that. Being a manager without staff, not feeling that I was doing a good job and losing confidence. Feeling that my boss didn’t have any time for me. Job application after job application, interview after interview, each one requiring many hours of preparation. Disappointment following emotional…

Our babies are three, and that means they can go to a three-year old preschool (‘playschool’) and are beginning their long journey to independence. But which playschool to choose? At first it was easy – we thought they were ready for some sort of childcare and contacted some of the centres they have been on the waiting list for since they were a few months old, but these were all full (in fact we had dropped off the list because we didn’t call to confirm our continued interest). There was only one playschool that had places, so no decision was…

It hasn’t been a great month for me, with two or three exceptions. The negatives: some interviews (hard work and time-consuming to prepare) but no job offers; not enjoying work at all; and it gives me no pleasure that our first female Prime Minister, gaining power just over three years ago when our girls were taking their first tiny developmental steps in the special care nursery, has been deposed. Despite achievements like gaining bipartisan agreement to a National Disability Insurance Scheme; improving the equity and funding of education; getting a Mining Tax passed (even if it failed to deliver the…

TV rots the senses in the head! It kills the imagination dead! It clogs and clutters up the mind! It makes a child so dull and blind. He can no longer understand a fantasy, A fairyland! His brain becomes as soft as cheese! His powers of thinking rust and freeze! An excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl, 1964 I have been thinking recently about TV and other screens and when to introduce them to Rhea and Lara. The girls are nearly three now. I wanted to delay their exposure to TV until at least two,…

This year might be a turning point for me, both from a family and a work perspective. In terms of work, it’s time for a new job, and that means increasing my days of work to four days a week instead of three so that I am at least marginally competitive in the labour market. Hopefully I’ll find a job closer to home too, which would make a huge difference to my working week: it currently takes me 45 or 50 minutes to get home and I’d prefer that that was closer to 15 or 20. In the short term…

We missed autumn when we went overseas for our six-and-a-half month indulgence in 2009, and although it was nice to have two springs, I really did miss autumn with its glorious, messy colours, crisp, clear days and thickening cold. Before having the girls we used to make the most of the time off and go away, often to the coast, but this year we found ourselves at home. On Easter Friday we drove to one of the National Parks that ring the city, through the golden grasses tipped with pink, past roads lined with silver and green poplars and across…

This weekend we had planned to take the girls to the Show, but the weather forecast was for wind and showers increasing. Both girls have had colds – throaty coughs, endlessly running noses – for a week. And it was 2.30pm on Sunday, we still hadn’t made it and Lara was still asleep having gone down for her midday nap more than an hour and a half before. Should we go to local café instead and drink warm cappuccinos and baby chinos while listening to the comforting sound of the rain falling rhythmically outside, or ring some friends inviting them…

The last few weeks have been tinder-dry hot and we have closed the awning and wooden blinds against the heat and sun to keep the house cool and dark. News reports of more than a hundred fires burning across two states, a third of them out of control, pepper the days, as much a part of summer as the cricket on TV, and the hot evenings stretch out into the foreshortened nights. In these blistering days we take refuge in our city’s art galleries where the spaces are airy and air-conditioned, and rarely too crowded; and the girls can climb…

2012 has been a year packed full of achievements for Lara and Rhea. Here are some of those I am most proud of: They are considerate of each other. If I give one of them a biscuit, she will always ask for one for her sister. They are also very careful and considerate with babies. It’s lovely to see. Manners. A work in progress. Very cute when they spontaneously say ‘tantoo’ without being asked. Using their hands: they can now draw with crayons, textas and paint and have the fine motor skills to use a fork and spoon and even…

I must admit I have found the girls challenging in the past few months. The ratio of crying and whinging to charming and amusing behaviour has seemed to be all too often not the sort of ratio I was hoping for. I’ll take you through a recent day. 1.58am: I wake to Lara crying. She wants dad but because I’m on duty I go in and hold her hand for a while, explaining that I can’t get dad because he’s asleep and if I leave the room no-one will come back to stay with her. Fifteen minutes or so later…