Graeme

It was going to be an exhausting day. I didn’t have to be psychic to know that. We were going to the local show, and I would be looking after the boys by myself. They were going to run riot and I was responsible for making sure they didn’t destroy the place on the way through. If that wasn’t a recipe for disaster, then I was a failure as a parent. Or, maybe it was because I’m a failure as a parent that it was a recipe for disaster. Either way, it wasn’t going to be a day to look forward to. Jan

I hate my wife. “Happy anniversary!” Janine said, as she pulled a present and card out of the wardrobe and tossed them gently onto the bed next to me. Hating your wife on your fifteenth wedding anniversary is not normally the done thing. I would have to say it probably rates very low on the Political Correctness scale. That is, unless the two of you had agreed not to buy each other presents, and you’d adhered to that bargain, while she hadn’t. In that case, every male in the universe will unde

“Look Nanny!” Colin thrust the jar containing his tooth under her nose. “Wow! That’s a really amazing tooth!” Janine’s mother is a master at being the enthusiastic grandmother. She’d been given advance notice that we’d be dropping in on the way to swimming, as Colin was keen to show off the first tooth he’d lost. She was playing her role to the hilt. “Hi, Nicole,” I said when Colin was distracted for a few seconds. Janine’s parents had insisted that I call them by their first names since I f

There are many firsts in a person’s life: their first day of school, their first kiss, their first love, their first car, their first drink (hopefully not at the same time as their first car), their first house. However, recent experiences lead me to believe that all of these pale into insignificance when compared to the complete and unbridled joy experienced when you first lose a tooth. It started at 5:30am on a Saturday morning. Since I’d been out the night before with some friends, I was lo

I was already in a bad mood when the phone rang. I'd just received my third car insurance renewal notice, which had been paid a couple of weeks ago, but the stupid computer system at the insurance company didn’t seem to realise this. “Hi, I'm Mary from the XYZ mortgage company. Can you spare thirty seconds to answer a survey?” Well that one was easy. Normally when I receive a phone call from a telemarketing company, and that was clearly what this was, I usually just answer that sorry, I'm not

“Colin and I had a fight at the bakery today,” Janine said, while dishing up some food for herself. “Mummy!” Colin whispered urgently. “Don’t tell Daddy about that!” I raised my eyebrows at both of them while chewing on my dinner. Colin turned to me. “I had a bad day today,” he announced sadly. “What happened, Colin?” I asked politely. I put my knife and fork down to listen. We’ve been trying to teach the boys manners at the dinner table, and that means trying to set a good example. Why, I’

School holidays have arrived. The time when parents have to not only manage to do everything they normally do, but also entertain a tribe of adorable, hyper-active, loving, demanding kids. As with all parents, we tell ourselves it is only two weeks until Colin goes back to school for term four. I, at least, get to go to work during the week, but Janine is only working two days a week. Or, more accurately, she earns money working two days a week, and earns hugs, kisses and grey hairs working the

It’s a father’s worst nightmare: forgetting a birthday. I was horrified to discover that I’d done exactly that. “Daddy, William’s sad because no one has given him any presents and today’s his birthday.” I looked at Colin, puzzled. While it’s possible that there’s something that Janine hasn’t told me, I was sure that I only had two sons: Colin and Andrew. I quickly considered the animals. The horses had recently had their birthday, which they share with every other horse in the world, and I kn

It all started the night before. We were at my sister’s house for our monthly family get-together. As Janine’s birthday had been during the previous month, we were obliged to attend. The boys enjoyed going to my sister’s house, anyway, as there were lots of toys there that they only saw once a month, at best. Dinner had been quite successful. The boys ate their usual big dinner – a single sausage roll each. Given the attraction of new toys, eating always comes a poor second in their list of pr

It was a week before my wife’s birthday. I took the boys into town to buy their mother birthday presents and cards, while their mum went off to do the weekly grocery shopping. With my recent experiences of Mother’s Day behind me, I knew this was a task fraught with peril, but I gamely stepped up to the plate and headed out the door. Of course, the alternative was to put up with a year of forlorn looks from Janine (she’s too polite to constantly complain). The boys wouldn’t be so kind to me, as

Good luck and best wishes!

There are times when you receive a wake-up call; when life tells you to take another look at what is really important. We’ve just had one of those wake-up calls. The Saturday morning had started out simply enough. Andrew woke up at 6am. That was unusual, but since he went to bed at 4pm the day before, it wasn’t unexpected. We don’t know what his grandparents do when they look after him and his brother, but whatever it is, they are always exhausted at the end of it. He joined Janine and I in ou

“I don’t... wanna... die.” The tortured words were forced out between ragged gasps as Andrew struggled for each breath. Janine and I stared in horror at each other before returning our attention to the four-year-old on my lap. It was just after midnight, and Andrew was having what appeared to be a severe asthma attack. It had started maybe thirty minutes before. After trying unsuccessfully to give him Ventolin while he was in his bed, I had picked him up and carried him out to the couch in th

I enjoy writing. It is a hobby that keeps me amused, and one that I love, albeit one that I haven’t been doing for long. My wife, Janine, encourages me and is always the first to read anything I write. This arrangement has worked out quite productive, albeit with a small complication: Janine does not like the word “albeit”. I have tried to argue with her that it is a perfectly legitimate word, albeit one that is a little archaic. She does not accept this, but argues that it is so old, it prob

I have just completed one of the most arduous, torturous, frustrating and challenging tasks known to man: Mother’s Day with a four- and six-year-old. The challenge started on the day before. With my usual flair for planning things well in advance, I waited until the Saturday morning to have a discussion with Andrew. Colin had already bought a Mother’s Day present at school, as well as making something in his class. Andrew, naturally enough, didn’t have anything to give his mum. So, while Jani

08:30am Monday morning and I'm back at work after two weeks off. Not fun....

I still like the Beatles, but not all of their songs. I've got some Beatles CDs and I've played them to my boys and they preferred the older songs. The later songs were not as impressive to them (or to me). There are still gems there, but, yes, there are some duds, too.

I think my family hates me. Colin, my eldest boy, received a new bike for his fifth birthday. Up until then, he had been riding a tiny little bike with training wheels. This new bike was twice the size – the salesman said he’d be able to grow into it. It also didn’t have training wheels, as my wife and I felt that it was time for him to learn to ride without them. That also allowed us to hand the smaller bike down to Andrew, Colin’s three-year-old younger brother. Initially, it was moderately

Snippets of my family life from 2005 to 2010 While the following stories are basically true, allowing for a moderate degree of poetic license, all the names have been changed to protect the guilty. Oh, okay. Allow for a large degree of poetic license.

I haven't chimed in until now because I don't have the cultural knowledge required to help with your specific situation, and everyone else has covered the generics However, I wanted to say that even though I've known I'm gay from at least the age of 15 (and probably a bit earlier than that), I didn't accept it until I was 40. The one single factor that allowed me to accept that I'm gay was the Internet. Without it, I'd probably still be a closeted and unhappy man. If the support available on the Internet has been available when I was your age, I would like to think I would have accepted myself a lot earlier. As it is, it wasn't until I was 40 that I truly became happy. Okay, I went through a few months of hell after coming out to my wife, but even people who haven't been told I'm gay commented about how much happier I was after that point. It was noticeable to everyone. As wildone said above, 400lb had been lifted from my shoulders. So there's no need to apologise. Many of us have been through the things you're going through in one form or another, and we understand the importance of support. You don't need to thank us for it -- we offer it freely and happily because we want others to avoid the mistakes and problems that we encountered, and to share the things that worked for us.

Jake Tyler pulled away from Kevin and stood up. “No, this is wrong.” “What’s wrong?” Kevin asked. Things weren’t going the way he had expected. Since Dave’s “disappearance” two and a half months earlier, the creature currently known as Kevin Landers had been working to seduce Jake. It had been easy at first; Jake had been more than willing to comfort Kevin after the loss of his friend. Kevin found Jake to be an honourable guy and considered him to be an excellent candidate to be his next vict

Kevin Landers recognized the black, curly-haired head of his friend, who was slumped at the corner desk. He walked over to find out what was going on. “Something wrong, Dave?” Dave Miller raised his tanned face. “Oh, hey, Kevin. I was just reminiscing about an old friend. Today’s the anniversary of his disappearance.” Kevin grabbed a nearby chair and rolled it over next to Dave. “That would’ve been just before you moved to Sydney. Is that right?” Dave had been quiet and reserved when he’d sta

Dave's a young man with a mysterious disappearance in his past. Kevin wants to find out what's going on, but will he find more than he bargained for?

Thank you The story got its name because there's a political party here in Australia call Family First. They believe in political policies that promote families... unless that family happens to involve a same-sex couple. That annoyed me enough that I had to write a story about what putting families first really means.

“You’re going to get it when Dad gets home, you know that,” Jessica said, sounding both pleased and annoyed as she glared at Paul from the entrance to his bedroom. “Mum told me she was going shopping – she clearly needed some retail therapy to get over the shock. You have no idea what you’ve done to this family.” “Leave me alone.” Paul stuck a pillow over his head, trying to block out his sister’s voice. “I should hate you,” Jessica said calmly. “The word’s going to get out at school and every