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Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The Guardian

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Republic of Parenthood Mumsnet has its flaws, but the depth of experience shared on it is extraordinary

I have a confession: I am a secret Mumsnet lurker. It started in the small hours, when my son was tiny. I had ventured on to it a little in pregnancy...

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The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Fostering is getting a shot of much-needed millennial energy – just ask Kiri Pritchard-McLean

What do you do if you always imagined a house full of children, but don’t want to be a biological parent? This was the dilemma facing one of my...

29.04.2024 30

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood I’ve always been untidy. Nothing prepared me, however, for the mess having a child would make

Our flat is a mess. I write this looking at a pile of laundry taller than I am, besides which are two semi-unpacked suitcases and a Fisher-Price...

21.04.2024 40

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood We were excited to get ‘free’ childcare for our son. Then the government said he didn’t exist

It had already been stressful, and then the government said my son didn’t exist. After an initial administrative fiasco, we were all set to claim...

08.04.2024 8

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Adults can see the horror in Gaza, but how best to talk to children about it?

It is always at bedtime that the horror of Gaza hits Naila Khan. “You know the images of those Palestinian parents, where they’re rocking their...

27.03.2024 30

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Michael Sheen as Nye Bevan is a call to arms at the NHS’s moment of maximum peril

Growing up in Gwynedd, it was fairly common to encounter children called Aneurin. The name, meaning possibly “man of honour” or “all golden”,...

14.03.2024 60

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Tears, fancy-dress tyranny and tedious discourse: it can only be World Book Day

I was going to do green eggs and ham. That would be a cool costume, the competitive mother that sometimes lives inside me thought. Thankfully I...

07.03.2024 20

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood How do you grieve for a child who barely lived? A new book has some profound answers

When Tamarin Norwood buried her son, Gabriel, the coffin was so light that it was lowered to the ground with lengths of ribbon that she had chosen...

28.02.2024 7

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Call the midwife! No matter how bad you’ve heard care can be, ‘freebirthing’ is not the answer

“Could you do a poo like this?” There’s a sentence I will never forget. I was in my second trimester and doing a hypnobirthing course. The...

19.02.2024 9

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

I’ve all but stopped clothes shopping on the high street. Here’s why – and how you can too

Something’s happened to high street clothes. I can’t be the only person that has noticed. In the past decade or 15 years, small details that used...

01.02.2024 50

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Arrogant parents and extravagant tantrums: all the world’s a stage in our precious playgrounds

Like many parents of young children, I spend much of my life in playgrounds. We are lucky in that there are six of them within close walking distance...

22.01.2024 20

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

A hospital helped me and my baby at our most vulnerable. I wish I could protect it now

It’s hard to know what to say when you’re asked what childbirth is like. There are as many answers to that question as there are women. Perhaps...

12.01.2024 90

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Moments of hope This was the year I nearly resorted to an elite baby sleep trainer. But there is another way

Sleep, I came to understand this year, is everything. Without sleep, action, change and momentum all feel impossible. Without sleep, you are living...

24.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

If you are childless, and not by choice, how do you get through Christmas?

“Have you seen those baubles – Baby’s First Christmas? If my first pregnancy hadn’t ended in miscarriage, last year would have seen our tree...

15.12.2023 8

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

My advice about the stress zone that is toddler mealtimes: do your best and get by – everything else is just noise

Were I to pitch a cookbook, it would be this: healthy, easy toddler meals that take less than 20 minutes, for busy, tired parents who can’t be...

05.12.2023 10

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Motherhood is exhausting - but this week I was reminded that we’ve come a long, long way

‘Say what you want about millennials, but this is a generation of hands-on dads.” If you’re a parent on Instagram, you have probably seen a...

21.11.2023 20

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood I want my son to wear fun, colourful clothes – but boys’ fashion is so boring

For my sins, I went to Primark this week. I usually try to avoid the high street for ethical reasons, but occasionally I have to buy the bairn some...

11.11.2023 8

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood I resist sharenting on social media. Does that mean my son and I are missing out, or is it just safer?

An old friend asked me recently why I never put my son’s face online. “Can you explain the not showing pics of babies thing to me?” she asked....

04.11.2023 30

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Will my mental health struggles affect my son? I’m starting to see they could help him weather life’s storms

I’ve been having a tough time with my mental health lately. Anxiety and low mood have been compounded by my son’s repeated night wakings, and...

29.10.2023 2

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood My son’s face lit up at Winnie the Pooh – and my misgivings about Disney melted away

P arenthood is replete with madeleines. Not just in the cake form – when I was struggling to breastfeed and trying to up my milk supply, I bought...

01.10.2023 2

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

The 2000s lad culture that Russell Brand epitomised wasn’t funny then. It looks even more hideous with hindsight

“A sad little hello to women in their 30s having an evening of shit Proustian flashbacks to the mid-2000s,” the historian Hannah Rose Woods...

21.09.2023 30

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Republic of Parenthood Why is mum-shaming still a thing in 2023? Is it because society still won’t let women fully express themselves?

I t’s hard enough being a working mother of young children, especially one in the process of getting divorced, without being smeared in the press as...

15.09.2023 5

The Guardian

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

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