With a brighter year hopefully ahead, I’m determined to end 2020 on a highIt was a stress-filled year but we’ve arrived at Christmas week relatively unscathedMon Dec 21 2020 - 06:01
Brendan O’Connor: ‘I was sitting there and I was looking at her and I was terrified’Parenting in my shoes: RTÉ Radio 1 presenter on the challenges, worries and joys of fatherhoodTue Dec 15 2020 - 06:01
Seasonal excitement is peaking and I’m leading the charge‘Plans are made to be broken’ may well prove the motto of 2020Mon Dec 07 2020 - 06:01
Dáithí Ó Sé: ‘A baby comes along and you realise what life is really about’Fatherhood a defining moment for Ó Sé, who spends as much time as he can with his sonTue Dec 01 2020 - 06:01
Alison Curtis: My guilt at not going for a second pregnancyParenting in my Shoes: After a traumatic childbirth, the broadcaster knew Joan would be her only childTue Nov 24 2020 - 06:01
‘Get off your phone/laptop/console,’ I roared through 2019. Now I say the oppositeAnything that avoids real-life, in-person contact with the world is now good for kidsMon Nov 23 2020 - 06:01
Toy story with a difference: Amusements for those with extra needsWhen one couple could not find suitable products that would help their child's development, they set up a company to make themThu Nov 19 2020 - 06:01
Seize the day at Christmas because who knows what’s around the cornerIf the pandemic has taught us little else it’s that nothing can be taken for granted again. Priorities have shiftedTue Nov 10 2020 - 06:01
Annual shoebox appeal makes children part of the giving processFamilies can build a box online for children affected by poverty in Africa and east EuropeMon Nov 09 2020 - 06:01
Dil Wickremasinghe: ‘We threw out the rule book for parenting our children’The mental health journalist on Steiner schools and not defining their children by genderTue Nov 03 2020 - 06:01
Ciara Kelly: I was pregnant, unmarried, a junior doctor and I got old-school commentsParenting in my shoes: Broadcaster and doctor says pregnancy never suited herTue Oct 27 2020 - 06:01
The nation’s children have set an example we could learn fromFrom little ones to teenagers, they have accepted the changes and just got on with itMon Oct 26 2020 - 06:01
‘Waiting for your children to die, knowing that it can happen at any time, is crushing’Paula Naughton's three sons suffer from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a catastrophic muscle-wasting diseaseTue Oct 20 2020 - 06:01
Hazel Chu: ‘I would look in the mirror and wish I was different’Parenting in my Shoes: Lord Mayor of Dublin on racism, skin colour and why she stopped speaking to her daughter in ChineseTue Oct 13 2020 - 06:05
This month I will light four candles to remember our four lost babiesOne in four pregnancies ends this way, robbing a pregnancy of its innocenceMon Oct 12 2020 - 06:01
Matt Cooper: ‘I didn’t desire to have a big family, it just sort of happened’Parenting in my shoes: the journalist, broadcaster and father of five gets ‘enormous enjoyment from being with my children’Tue Oct 06 2020 - 06:01
Parentpreneurs: How having children changed our careers and our home-livesParenthood saw these people move from finance to midwifery, farm sales to SNASun Oct 04 2020 - 06:00
Talk of Halloween is a welcome distraction but how will it work this year?To keep the kids’ spirits high, I’ve looked to the future instead of living in the nowMon Sept 28 2020 - 06:01
Eileen Flynn: ‘As a Traveller woman, I was undermined in the maternity hospital’Parenting in my shoes: The Senator hopes her daughter will be part of a more positive, inclusive IrelandTue Sept 22 2020 - 06:01
Biggest change to our school day routine: homework gone for now‘I dared to dream it might happen ... that school books would not come home’Mon Sept 14 2020 - 06:01
Joanna Donnelly: ‘I had seven miscarriages . . . I was absolutely furious all the time’The meteorologist and mother has set up a charity that helps women pay for IVFTue Sept 08 2020 - 06:01
‘For the first time in 19 years, all of my children will be in formal education’There will be no more very first days of school. All is as should be, but it stings a little all the sameMon Sept 07 2020 - 06:01
‘We were absolutely heartbroken’: Munster’s Billy Holland on the death of his babyParenting in my Shoes: The rugby player tells of the pain he and his wife felt when their daughter Emmeline diedTue Sept 01 2020 - 06:01
Victoria Smurfit: ‘Postnatal depression is very real. You feel crazy’Parenting in my Shoes: ‘You’re in survival mode because it’s wrong to be told you can’t fix something for somebody’Wed Aug 26 2020 - 06:01
Schools reopening have me lying awake at night – againJust getting the children to school will require military planning and a lot of luckMon Aug 24 2020 - 06:01
Calling all Victor Meldrews: stop blaming the teensThe thing about sweeping generalisations is that they can rarely be relied uponTue Aug 18 2020 - 06:01
Keith Walsh: ‘My wife and kids would be having the craic, and I felt like an outsider’Parenting in my Shoes: The radio host’s only parenting regret is not starting therapy earlierMon Aug 17 2020 - 06:01
Covid-19: The fallout for families has been immeasurable‘Are you excited to return to school?’ I asked the kids. Their reactions surprised meWed Aug 12 2020 - 06:01
Senator Lynn Ruane: I had a few wild years. Pregnancy calmed me downParenting in my Shoes: ‘I hope the girls continue the journey they’re on. I’m so impressed’Tue Aug 11 2020 - 06:01
Vicky Phelan: ‘I do try and have the conversations to try and prepare them for what’s going to come’From the Irish Times archive: The women’s health advocate on parenthood and how she told her children about her terminal cancer, from our Parenting in My Shoes seriesTue Aug 04 2020 - 06:01
I have a socially unacceptable number of children – and I love itMy eternal broodiness was triggered by a car packing in and my youngest starting schoolSun Jul 26 2020 - 06:01
Destination normal for this year’s family holidayWe had a staycation in the purest sense of the word. It was escapism at its finestTue Jul 21 2020 - 06:01
I’m only starting to realise how much the pandemic affected my childrenThe new normal is plagued with uncertainty and it’s very unsettlingMon Jul 13 2020 - 09:10
My husband had to become my carer after we had our son. I was diagnosed at 26Social Democrats vice-chairwoman Evie Nevin on life with a rare genetic conditionTue Jul 07 2020 - 06:00
It’s our 20th wedding anniversary. I wonder will he rememberSeven children later, we have time to celebrate our anniversary – if he doesn’t forgetMon Jul 06 2020 - 06:00
Covid-19: Post-coronavirus syndrome is ‘absolutely a real thing’What does recovery look like, and why are some people more affected than others?Tue Jun 30 2020 - 06:01
If I was to be graded on my homeschooling efforts it would be an ‘F’Parents were left with an impossible ask yet I can’t help but feel I’ve let my kids downMon Jun 22 2020 - 06:01
The struggle frontline workers face in trying to juggle work and family life‘We’ve now been flying solo for weeks with no outside support. There has been tough times’Wed Jun 10 2020 - 06:01
Missing banter and coffee breaks with colleagues? I amMothers working from home have to grapple with pressures of childcare and intrusionMon Jun 08 2020 - 06:01
The subtle signs that point the way towards haemochromatosisExcess iron retention can lead to symptoms including chronic fatigue and aching jointsTue Jun 02 2020 - 06:01
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
