Janet Christie’s Mum’s the Word – To quote the late, great Barry Chuckle – it’s goodbye to me, to you

After two decades, my family and column are on the move

Mum's the Word. Pic: J Christie

I started writing this column in November 2005 when my kids were 10, 8 and 2 and with the exception of occasional weeks when I was bumped by Christmas Day or an advert for a big slipper or suchlike, have written it every week since, inadvertently creating a history of my children’s lives, something I’d never get it together to do on purpose.

Now change is on the cards and this Mum’s the Word will be the last as my column is on the move. Despite this I will continue to parent, lend my kids money, gift them underwear, embarrass them and probably write about them too - why give up the habit of their lifetime.

For two decades as big events played out on the world stage, we toddled along, through Brexit with the ‘I never realised my dad was a migrant, and ‘are we foreign?’ questions, and Covid, when it was illegal for us to meet for a walk because we live in more than one household (while it was party central in Downing Street) and the sad death of Barry Chuckle in 2018 (his memory lives on in our ‘to me, to you’ every time we move the piano).

Janet Christie's Mum's the Word - in the words of the late, great Barry Chuckle, it's goodbye 'to me to you'. Pic: David Fisher/Shutterstock (1302102dr)

Huge thanks go to my children for trusting me to write about them. If I’d had the presence of mind to make the column anonymous and totally spilled the tea (as Youngest says) it would have been a different, white-knuckle ride story, but then I’d have trashed our relationship. It’s been better this way.

Thank you also to the readers, especially the ones who’ve stopped me when I’ve been out and about and told me they like reading it - I appreciate it - and to everyone involved in getting it on the page/screen.

For a last word, as ever, I turn to my offspring:

Eldest: Has it been 19 years? That’s amazing. Your column is old enough to drive, drink, vote, like us. Maybe you’ve actually had four children? Weird. I like reading it but prefer not to think about the potentially embarrassing things you’ve written. Luckily I have plausible deniability because you have creative licence to exaggerate all of the time.

Mum's the Word. Pic: J Christie

[Me: I didn’t. And ‘all of the time’? Now who’s exaggerating?]

Middle: It’s become the norm to have our mum write about us so I forget until someone mentions it. Whenever I’ve read it, it’s been funny, worth the embarrassment. And the em, mischief, it was good we did that stuff because we gave you something to write about. Now you’ll have to do all the work yourself.

Youngest: I like it. It’s nice for us to have the memories. Embarrassing having our stuff out there online and in print? Nah, who cares?

So from Mum’s the Word, it’s good bye, to me, to you.

Eldest, Middle, Youngest: “Thought we were getting the last word…”

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