The Status Of Childbirth (My Media Bugbear)

IMAGE : KATE, WILLS AND GEORGE - BLESS 'EM | The Status Of Childbirth

Let it be said that I love Kate and Wills and new baby George. I love what they stand for in these modern times and good on 'em for announcing that they'll be doing the hands on parent thing (although I'll bet my left ovary that Mary Poppins will be called upon before too long because why wouldn't you after a string of sleepless nights if you had the choice?).

Perhaps I'm being over-sensitive (and I do write this post with my tongue pressed gingerly into my cheek) but does anyone else find the above statement accompanying the photo slightly pointless and a teeny bit insulting? 

Taming The Beast - Social Media And Pre Teens

IMAGE : MORGUEFILE.COM | Taming The Beast

Social media: the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.^[1] (Wikipedia)

 Sounds harmless enough, doesn't it? Sounds almost necessary and educational according to the above definition.

As a parent, if I was asked to visually define social media, the first thing that comes to mind is an enormous, towering transformer - like beast, casting a large dark shadow, complete with heavy doors which open and close allowing only the brave to enter, loudly slamming shut behind them. Okay - I concede it's a little dramatic but despite my own familiarity and understanding of said beast, I feel as though I need to go back to seeing it as something new and fearful in order for me to navigate it as a parent of an almost ten year old girl who in the coming years will will commence her journey into the online space. I may not like it, but it's going to happen unless the internet blows up so I figure I might as well do it correctly, right?

New York - The Most Beautiful Catastrophe

EMPIRE STATE BIRD  | IMAGE : THE MOTHER LOAD

New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban night is like the night there…. Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will. Ezra Pound

With the sounds of the New York subway trains and the continuous honk of impatient taxis still pulsating in my ears, I sit here back at my desk once again absorbed in the routine of everyday life and yet I'm now grinning with sly satisfaction as I recall the awesome memories and experiences I have banked from the past two weeks of (childless!) travel. My New York bucket list was long and I feel as though out of complete obligation to myself and by a certain degree of luck, I've finally ticked off a countless number of experiences and for this, I'm silently high-fiving the travel Gods for allowing me the chance.