Information, judgement and the space in between

By Robyna on February 2, 2016

School’s back. And that means school lunches need to be packed. Like other parents, I am quietly stalking blogs, Facebook pages and Pinterest for inspiration. On my way to finding an alternative to sandwiches, I am finding a fair bit of judgement which is in turn being met with a fair bit of judgement on said judgement. Then there is judgement on calling out the judgment. It’s a bit much when all I wanted was a recipe for some zucchini and carrot muffins.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we make such a big deal of something as innocuous as lunch boxes. Why do we jump to the conclusion that one person’s choice is a judgement on our own? Read more…

The post holiday blues – missing the chaos

By Robyna on January 28, 2016

It’s been a bit quiet around here. The big kid is back at school and the little guy and I have been pottering around, both a little bit at a loss. After weeks of noise and bustle everything has calmed down. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t love every moment of the holidays. There were plenty of times I couldn’t wait for school to start.

But now that it’s here I sort of miss the chaos.

The Stories in the Campground

By Robyna on December 21, 2015

Not so long ago I spent nine days camping by the beach. I didn’t write. I checked social media sporadically. I posted a few photos of the beach and the cute take-away coffee cups that I drove 40 minutes each morning to acquire. Mostly I just hung out with my family and friends.

And as I took a break from writing there were stories all around me. Holiday places are like that. Hotels and airports and camp-grounds, full of people and possibility. All travel is fertile ground for guessing at stories and making your own. Read more…

Oh the places you’ll go after kids – Brisbane’s best picks

By Robyna on December 13, 2015

After you have your first baby, it seems like the number of places you can go dwindles. Cafes with narrow spaces and no room for prams are out. Expensive restaurants are no places for infants. Nightclubs are for other people. Basically anywhere that requires you to be up past 9pm is a long forgotten relic of night times past.

However, there are some awesome places you discover AFTER having kids.

Here’s my Brisbane list..

If mothers groups had an instruction manual

By Robyna on October 28, 2015

Like kids, mothers groups don’t come with an instruction manual. Maybe they should.

Things my kids do that make me feel old

By Robyna on October 19, 2015

I think I am getting old. I have started talking about how I used to walk to school, bare foot through the snow and could only watch the cartoons on Saturday mornings. Clearly the snow is an exaggeration in balmy Brisbane, but the cartoons bit is about right.

There are so many things that my kids do that I would never dreamed of at their age.

For instance… Read more…