Sunday 5 July 2009

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Liz Anderson

Liz Suggests


Jobs at Telegraph

Status anxiety

‘Yes,’ I said, punching the air. ‘Daddy got the highest score’ — and other triumphs

Wednesday, 31st October 2007

Toby Young's half-term report

What are the two words guaranteed to fill any parents of young children with terror? School fees? Chicken Pox? Gina Ford? The answer, I’m afraid, is half term.

My daughter, Sasha, only started going to ‘big school’ in September so I wasn’t anticipating too many problems. What I hadn’t factored in is that my wife gave birth to a third child this year, which meant she already had her hands full with a three-month-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old. The fact that our au pair resigned a couple of months ago didn’t help, either. How could I cope?

The answer, said my wife, was to cram in as many activities as possible. In this way, she assured me, the time would pass quite quickly. Unfortunately, after I’d prepared a detailed schedule, Caroline decreed that ‘watching television’ and ‘going to the cinema’ didn’t count as activities. What I had to come up with, apparently, were ‘educational excursions’.

1 | 2 | 3  Next page 

More articles from: Toby Young | this section

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Comments

Post a comment


Your comment:*

Your name:*

Your email address:*
(We won't publish this)

*Required information

Please click the button only once - your comment will not be published immediately


Spectator Book Club

In this section

Real Life

Melissa Kite

Writer’s block

Low Life

Jeremy Clarke

Passing the time of day

High Life

Taki

Give me nostalgia

The Turf

Robin Oakley

Be patient

Dear Mary

Mary Killen

Your problems solved

Related articles

Status Anxiety

Toby Young

‘Hyper-parenting’ may be bad — but look what happened when I tried the alternative

Fathers have become second-class citizens

Toby Young

Toby Young says that Father’s Day is nothing to celebrate: today’s neutered dads have become overworked assistants to their children rather than paternal role models

Status Anxiety

Toby Young

If I run for parliament, it will be to campaign for selective education

You Know It Makes Sense

James Delingpole

The right to swear is integral to being a true conservative

Diary

Neil Tennant

Neil Tennant opens his diary

Spectator recommends

Spectator classifieds

BIG SAND STEEL BAND

IF YOU ARE PLANNING A CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION and looking for some light entertainment, you can now hire London's busiest steel

BOSC LEBAT, Tarn et Garonne.

BOSC LEBAT, SW France. Only 45 minutes from Toulouse Airport with daily flights from most provincial airports avoiding the horrors

ROME CENTRE

PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique