Mothering

I am a big believer in equality having been obsessed with fairness as a child but I'm also a realist. I get that equality doesn't always been everyone doing the same or getting the same thing.

So when it comes to sharing the responsibility of raising Laurie I know there is always going to be a bit of shunting necessary.

Yesterday, myself and my husband decided to run away together. We put Laurie down at her grandparents with her uncle and a small written list of instructions and drove to Oxford. We realised that it was the first time in 16 months we had been out on our own together during the day.

I have to be honest. We relished every second of it.

We reflected on how strange it felt to be doing something that was incredibly normal for the first 6 years of our relationship and entirely alien now.

We went to the smallest pub in Oxford and drank old man's bitter and hot mulled wine. We walked along the Thames in the drizzle and admired the boathouses. We stopped at an old pub called Isis and listened to some musicians l play bluegrass to only a handful of people

But more importantly we talked. Talked about how we felt. What we missed. What we needed. He is equal to me, that doesn't always mean doing the same thing or sharing the same load but he feels the responsibility equally and needs the same suppport and unburdening too.