Ain’t London grand…

Gillian Power - 20 Aug 14

I’ve always been a fan of London. From a teenager dreaming of living here to when I eventually did in my early twenties. As the years went on various friends had children and moved out to the commuter belt “for the quality of life” – but I didn’t envy them. I still felt that London was a fascinating place to bring up a child. Too many people – in my humble opinion – focus on the bad sides of this city, as if kids can’t thrive here, but I don’t agree.

So when I had my daughter my husband and I were determined to embrace parenting and city life. And it hasn’t disappointed. At 22 months old my daughter is the coolest girl I know. I love that she’ll get her life education on the urban streets, just like I did growing up in a city in Ireland.

She gets cultural lessons around every corner, from the original Banksy mural we stumbled across out shopping one day to the V&A museum exhibition where we saw the original ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz. Isn’t that a once in a lifetime experience in itself?

London has so much to offer kids. Already at her young age she’s been raving on a Sunday afternoon with other kids and parents who love music and want their children to experience the same tunes as them – glow sticks obligatory. 

And instead of dwelling on the bad British weather we enjoy the changing seasons. We stomp through puddles in the park in our wellies, feeding the ducks on the lake in spring, play in the fountains and paddling pools during the summer and watch that same lake frozen over in winter. 

We have a small garden where we spend sunny evenings having tea, or stare out at rainy mornings. The other day my daughter spent the afternoon sweeping up the unripe apples from the tree at the bottom and then we watched birds come by and finish off what was left.

She attends a great nursery mixing with children of all backgrounds, and I feel her education at such a young age is truly multicultural. She eats a variety of foods from curry to cous cous and away from nursery has eaten street food from Portobello Road and had lunch in Michelin Star restaurants.

We love to take her to markets all over London from the food mecca of Borough to the fashion of Spitalfields. On one occasion a couple of my NCT group and I ventured out to Camden, a convoy of buggies and smiling babies amongst the crowds and tourists. Sure, we got the odd tut for holding up the human traffic, but mostly people made way for us, the traders smiled and waved back and we heard more than one comment about how brave we were navigating the busy city with our kids in tow.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live my life through rose-tinted Wayfarers. London is a tough city. I worry about getting her into a good – actually an out-standing- school and keeping her safe from crime. But aren’t they worries every parent has?

Both my husband and I work full -time and we’re all pretty exhausted by the time the weekend rolls around. But the pay-off is living in and bringing our child up in one of the most exciting and diverse cities in the world and to me that’s kind of worth it.

Gillian Power

Gillian lives in South West London with her husband and daughter Nola, 1. She works in marketing for a news company, spends too much time and money on shopping for clothes for Nola and stuff for her house and not enough of either on exercise. She always makes time for yoga though.

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