Tag: tash bell

Family life, Features

Help! I’m trapped in lockdown with a professional team-building coach

Sick of being cooped up together at home? Maybe it’s time for you to draw up a family charter. My husband, Mat, and I can’t be the only parents who started lockdown with best intentions. Hunkering down with our children (Poppy, 14, Stanley, 12, and Rose, 10) we’d play Yahtzee; make papier-mâché; pickle things. Well, that was the plan. Four weeks in, we’re shuffling from bed … Continue reading Help! I’m trapped in lockdown with a professional team-building coach

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Family life, Features

B+ for effort: how has your family scored on the big lockdown test?

So, how has it been for you? While it’s too soon to start talking about lockdown as a thing of the past, life is showing signs of returning to some form of normality. We may not out of the woods yet by any means, but it’s starting to feel like the right moment to assess how we’ve all been coping so far. With last Monday … Continue reading B+ for effort: how has your family scored on the big lockdown test?

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Family life, Features

The 20 questions that will save your relationship

Everyone in a long-term relationship knows there’s a price to be paid for security. All-night sex sessions are traded for a good night’s sleep, and “lovey-dovey” chats cede to logistical briefings. (When did you last have a conversation that didn’t end with: “You forgot to buy BIN BAGS?!”) As the years pass, it’s too easy for partners to take each other for granted – and … Continue reading The 20 questions that will save your relationship

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Family life, Features

Is it time to stop sleeping with your partner?

The other night, I was roused from sleep, not by an amorous husband, but my six-year-old daughter weeing on me. It wasn’t her fault – she was under the weather – more pertinently, I was in her bed again. Driven from the marital bed by my husband’s snoring – and my own fitful insomnia – I frequently shack up in the spare room, and when … Continue reading Is it time to stop sleeping with your partner?

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Family life, Features

Is it time you gave yourself a marriage audit?

Every month, we scan our bank statement; every year we scrabble to file our tax returns – but isn’t there a far more important audit we’re missing? In any long-term relationship, there is an unspoken list of checks and balances. If too many grievances start to land in the debit column, a marriage can start to go under. Why not mine? On paper, granted, things … Continue reading Is it time you gave yourself a marriage audit?

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