After spending four years working in London for Condé Nast Publications Lizzie moved back to Ireland to indulge a dream held since college – to do the 12-week Ballymaloe course. After which her new life as a food writer took off. She went on to edit a number of Irish foodie and non-foodie magazines. These days, she edits cookbooks, develops recipes for clients and is currently chair of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild and Food Editor of Image Interiors & Living magazine. Oh, and she has three gorgeous kids.
We get up at… 7am, wake the kids and down for breakfast. As they gobble Weetabix, I make the lunches (I know I could do this the night before but I’m never quite that organised). Get everyone dressed at about 7.30am and then it’s a boiled egg or bowl of porridge for me and into the shower. We leave the house at 8.20am. We scoot on mornings when I’m just working from my desk at home, but we drive if I have meetings or am working elsewhere.
Once the three kids are in school… I return to my desk to work until 2pm before going to collect them. Three days a week I have a childminder to help me, so I try and plan meetings for those days. But I still do the school collection if I can. I try not to work on a Friday – that’s when I get to do stuff for myself in the morning and arrange playdates in the afternoon.
The best thing about being a parent is… checking on them when they’re asleep (and they look so angelic it nearly cracks your heart in two); my three-year-old’s squidgy little feet; imagining what they will be like as adults; overhearing earnest conversations between my two boys, 6 and 8, in the back of the car (the last one was about the merits of the name ‘God’ for their newly-born cousin).
The main differences being a mum is… the fact that getting to sit with a cup of coffee and the papers, or your book, for an undisturbed hour, is just about the most luxurious thing I can think of.
My favourite thing to do with the kids is… when all five of us are piled into our big bed on a Sunday morning, and we have nowhere we have to rush to. Sunday is our only true switch-off day as my husband works all day Saturday, and the boys have a range of sport stuff on.
The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is… whatever tricky parenting phase you’re battling with at the moment (hit-and-miss potty training; temper tantrums; teenage surliness) it will almost surely pass. Know that there is an end in sight and try not to lose your mind.
My favourite book to read the kids is… The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Room on The Broom and David Walliams’ Gangsta Granny are all firm favourites.
Being a parent can… make you feel terribly strong at times, when you have that moment when you look at one of them and realise that no matter what else is going on – or going wrong – in my life as long as I have them I’m ok. And then it can make you feel so vulnerable and exposed for the very same reason.
The nuggets of wisdom I’d like to pass on to my kids would be… to learn to cook, have good manners, be considerate to others, listen, laugh regularly, never lose touch with the handful of friends that really count, be nice to your mum…
I’m not sure that I make all the juggling work. But I did go back into an office job three-days a week and soon realised that the flexibility I had before worked better for me and my family. It means I am often taking my laptop with me to swimming lessons and have to return to my desk when they have gone to bed to meet a deadline. But the flexibility suits me, and I like to be there for all the school stuff.
I couldn’t do it all without my team … my mum, Judith, is a total life-saver; she only lives five minutes away and helps a lot with school runs. And we’ve had the same childminder, Delia since my eldest was born. So I’ve great support.
My greatest indulgence is… when I’ve had my hair blow-dried. I feel like a new woman.
I spend my down-time… in the bath at 9pm with a glass of wine.
The best thing to do as a family at the weekend is… escape the city. I love going to Wicklow for a big walk, followed by a pub lunch, then back home to crash out. We don’t get to do it much, but it’s so nice.
