What Was Your Parent Percentage Last Week?

My guide to having all—hint, it might not look quite how we all expected it to.

After living like a student recently (18 nights out in November, mostly work-related), this week I have leant in particularly hard with the ‘ol parenting. I was an elf in the grotto at our school Christmas fair, I went into class to teach 30 year ones how to sew and helped on a three-hour school trip to the local church. I also made chicken soup from scratch (only I actually ate it, that nightmare is not the point today), darned trouser holes and transformed the chaos of the laundry (Dot Cotton, aka me, had been on leave for most of the month) into a slick operation that Marie Kondo would be envious of. Chrizzy decs are up, gifts purchased and even the wrapping has commenced. Of course, I didn’t leave the house much, aside from riding back and forth to school. There was also a major wind down in writing productivity and sequin-related engagement on Instagram. ‘Growth’ in both stalled.

I constantly get asked by other working parents how I find balance in my life, and I always say very honestly that there is no real balance. I can only be one version of myself at any one point because each version is a full-time gig. In order to ‘do it all’, I do it one at a time.