The Cityparents Blog
Since Cityparents was founded in late 2012, we've published a weekly blog sharing the real life experiences and perspectives of individual members balancing work and parenthood.
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Ruban's blog: Falling down
I lay crumpled in my seat, my head buried in my lap, blocking out all visual evidence of what had just taken place. However, my ears were open and what I could not see, I could hear. Unravelling myse... Read More
Jon's Blog: We're all going on a summer holiday
It feels like the summer holiday has taken up more than its usual share of time and energy this year. In some ways that's good – it took very little time last year because we couldn&#... Read More
Brendan's blog: Being a Dad at 18 months
It's been an eventful year and a bit since becoming a new dad, and the fun and new experiences that this brings for everyone involved. Each month has brought a new experience as my son's... Read More
Ruban's blog: A Hybrid World: Looking forward to going back ...
As the thought of being crushed to death in those tube-shaped sweatboxes loom large on the horizon for many of us as offices open their glass doors again, I started to reflect on what the latest vers... Read More
Jon's blog: Meh?
There's something about the word "meh" that just tickles me. It's so comprehensively dismissive for such a short word, and the sound it makes captures the feeling behind it so... Read More
Jon's blog: So this is Christmas...
As John Lennon famously remarked: "So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and new one just begun". These words have resonated with me more this year than... Read More
Jonathan's blog: Prem Pt 3 - How parents work with children ...
Our daughter Isabella was born in May 2019. She was due at the end of August. My previous two blogs charted how my wife and I struggled through the shock of having a very premature baby, before we we... Read More
Jon's Blog : Happily Ever After?
How's your summer been so far? I'm guessing it's not been quite like you anticipated when you planned it earlier this year, or even last year. We were looking forward to a sun... Read More
Jon's Blog: A Lion Looking at a Stool
I have lots of useless trivia in my head (names of the Bond films in order and who played Bond in each, check), but one anecdote has recently come back to mind. Years ago, I heard that lion tam... Read More
Dan's blog: Learning to Love the Lockdown
Over the last few weeks, all of us have been adjusting to the new reality of working from home, social distancing, and the like. I thank my lucky stars that my boy is not yet of school age, so at lea... Read More
Freddy's blog: Role models
We’re coming up for 5 years of parenthood and 10 years of being a couple. Or can you add the age of the second child to the first and say you’ve been a parent for 6 1/2 years? Then when w... Read More
Jon's Blog: Change is here to stay
It wasn't quite a New Year's resolution as I don't tend to go in for those (why not try to tweak things as you go along?). But I had thought to myself that I should try and be usefu... Read More
Jonathan's blog: Prem - part II
Life with a pretermer baby was hard enough. When our baby daughter Isabella arrived at an exceptionally early 24 weeks, as I described in my previous blog post, I had to adapt quickly to the new norm... Read More
Dan's blog: Baffled by boxes
Christmas is a magical time of year for children, when the Big Man in Red wriggles down the chimney to deliver presents to good little boys and girls. I have fond memories of shooting downstairs on C... Read More
Freddy's blog: Make the most of it
A new phase of family life will begin in a couple of weeks when my wife goes back to work part-time after maternity leave. With over 13 months off, she’s made the most of it (a line from Elmer ... Read More
Jonathan's blog: Prem
When your wife is pregnant, as a prospective father there are million and one things rushing through your anxiety ridden brain. A preterm baby is not one of them. Dealing with this level of trauma wh... Read More
Jon's Blog: Happy Part-timeiversary
Last August, I decided to go part-time, dropping down to a four-day week. A number of the females in our team have being doing that for some time now, and our team leader is very supportive, so... Read More
Dan's blog: Routine
I’m sure that many of you reading this have some kind of routine established with your children – set times of day when you get them up, have food, get them ready for school (or similar),... Read More
Michael's blog: “Are you going to have a second?”
It’s a balmy summer evening and I’m lying on my acupuncturist’s couch in leafy suburban London. I’ve got needles stuck in me and tears running down my face. We’ve just h... Read More
Freddy's blog: Sunscreen
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘19 - that’s the preschool class - if I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
We’re in the south of France, w... Read More
James' blog: Moving in-house
For a number of reasons, it became apparent last year that I wasn’t going to progress in my then-current role. When I had originally applied for the position my employer had been sceptica... Read More
Freddy's blog: Being a boy-boy
World Book Day and lots of our children will have gone to school dressed up as their favourite characters. I say lots because my wife overheard someone in the supermarket who was unsure if her daught... Read More
James's blog: Finding time for children to be children...
Last year I attended a career development course provided by my (then) employer. One session in particular on the course struck a note with me. The session took as its starting point the ... Read More
Freddy's blog: Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought
I write from work, where I’m under pressure after taking responsibility for a major project that has been failing because nobody understands it (and I don’t either) as well as on the usua... Read More
James's blog: We are all superheroes
A few weeks ago I was walking my daughter to school when someone stuck in the voluminous local traffic wound down their window to shout something to us. At the time, my daughter was on my shoulders a... Read More
Freddy's blog: The second coming
The second time definitely feels different. My wife and I are just under two months away from the birth of our second daughter. Our first is coming up for 3 and a half and is looking forward to welco... Read More
Lawrence's blog: The Roomba...
Like many, by the time our children are all in bed our house looks like a complete bombsite. From the barrage of toys that despite best efforts cannot be contained to one room and are spread througho... Read More
James's blog: Progression
We have just returned from an early summer holiday in the UK. As seems to be the norm for our family holidays, my wife and I took the opportunity of some downtime to reassess our lifestyles and... Read More
Lawrence's blog: Living for the weekend - 3 years on
Back in 2015, I wrote my first blog for Cityparents. It centred on my ambitions for a random weekend which, like for most, had a focus on seeing more of my partner and my then 2 year old daughter, re... Read More
Freddy's blog: Chocolate
Chocolate is not a special treat. Why? Because special things and treats are what we really want. We all know we shouldn’t have too much chocolate, especiall... Read More