I read somewhere that mothers who work full-time spend as much time playing with and reading to their kids as stay-at-home mums. It sounds impossible, doesn’t it? The researchers discovered that the working mothers found the time by doing less housework and spending less time on their personal grooming.
By this measure, I think our kids are doing OK.
I’m not naturally tidy at the best of times. At the moment, the house is a complete shambles. There’s rubbish everywhere and this morning I found a cockroach in the cutlery drawer (please don’t tell Luke). Even though I do the washing, it takes me three days to put it away and it all seems to smell damp. Little Pixie eats any paper she finds on the floor, vomits and then crawls straight for the bathroom and tries to grab the toilet brush. (She also stands up, holds onto the bath and turns on the hot tap, but that’s another story).
A few weeks ago a visiting fashion photographer, Peter Hunt, asked if he could take a photo of me. I hate having my photo taken – I’m self-conscious, I squint and my face always looks red. With practice, I’ve learnt to say yes in the interests of promoting Pinetrees. The photo never seems to make it into the magazine anyway, so it’s really no big deal. This time, though, Peter said: “But you must have someone do your hair – properly. Otherwise, just wear a hat”.
