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  The frowning man sitting in front of Madeleine now was a million miles from the one laughing and splashing in the water with the kids by day, and strumming Willie Nelson tunes on guitar as the sun went down over the Gulf of Mexico.

  Back to reality.

  “What ever happened to just learning the letters instead of pronouncing the sounds?” Tom complained. “That teacher of Jake’s has a lot of nerve, too. Look at what she wrote on his math homework from last week—he actually got points off even though he answered the bloody question correctly. All because he didn’t do it with the ‘new’ standards. A load of crap, if you ask me. All these lazy pencil pushers in the Department of Education who know nothing about education making nonsensical new rules that we don’t need.”

  Madeleine rolled her eyes good-naturedly at yet another diatribe from her husband on why the “newfangled” ways of learning were ridiculous—totally different to how they did things back in their day. A contrarian by nature, it wasn’t unusual for Tom to rail against the status quo, but times moved on and she was sure the teachers knew what they were doing. In truth, Clara was a lot further on in reading than Madeleine had been in her very first year at school. However, it was late and she didn’t have time to discuss this just now, especially since she knew what his next point would be.

  “This is why we should be thinking again about homeschooling them. Because of this palaver. I’ve told you, Maddie, it’s seriously worth looking into—”

  “Not now,” she said, cutting her husband off, irritated that he seemed to have forgotten the fact that, like him, she had a job, so where on earth would she get the time?

  But her “job”—a popular blogging channel for mums that was rapidly growing in popularity and reputation—was all too easily overlooked. To Tom, Mad Mum was just a frivolous hobby and a means for Madeleine to entertain herself while the kids were at school. How quickly he’d forgotten that she was once a marketing executive at the top of her game, before giving it all up six years ago and in some fit of madness (the blog wasn’t just a play on her name) taking early redundancy to be a stay-at-home mother. Madeleine grimaced. She adored Jake and Clara but God knew (as did so many of Mad Mum’s fans) that she was never going to be a candidate for Mother of the Year.

  Though to be fair, Tom was an amazing dad; brilliant with the kids (way better than she most of the time) and a wonderful husband. He was senior management in a top Irish bank and related job pressures meant that she’d always borne the majority of the child-care load.

  All well and good while the kids were younger, but now that they were both in school, was it really that terrible for Madeleine to want to get some of her own life back?

  She supposed she shouldn’t blame him too much, though; her husband had just become so used to the current family dynamic that he’d forgotten the fact that she needed something other than parenthood to define her. And Mad Mum filled that role very well.

  Madeleine had originally started the blog as a means of blowing off steam while alone in the house with the kids all day, bemoaning the day-to-day trials of motherhood in a good-natured but deliberately non-mumsy way. At work, writing compelling copy for various campaigns had always come naturally to her, so this felt like a natural extension. And by outlining her frustrations and “warts ’n’ all” experiences with her newfound domestic role, it was, she supposed, an attempt to rail against the holier-than-thou and somewhat smug how-to guides for mums already out there, and she sensed an appetite for some down-to-earth straight talking.

  Still, she’d been taken aback by the overwhelmingly positive response her ramblings had received, and very quickly her visitor numbers and social media following spiked to remarkable heights. Ever the marketeer, she quickly realized that she had, quite by accident, amassed a captive and thus potentially very valuable demographic, one that admired and trusted her.

  But it was really only when Clara started play school a couple of years ago, freeing up Madeleine’s mornings, that she’d taken steps to turn Mad Mum into an actual business.

  And while Tom had always been supportive of her endeavors, over the last year or so, she’d gotten the sense that he was a little taken aback by the business’s increasing drain on her time as she set determinedly about securing advertising and sponsorship. Of course he didn’t yet have a true inkling of exactly what those efforts were achieving.

  But her beloved would get one hell of a surprise at the meeting they’d scheduled with their accountant next week when he realized Madeleine’s “little” media business might actually end up pulling in something close to his salary soon. Thanks to the blog’s burgeoning visitor numbers, avid social media followers, as well as recent TV appearances, her profile was on the rise, and the site had already pulled in some heavy-hitter online advertising partners.

  No way was she going to cut the power from under all that by going back to having the kids at home all day. In truth, Clara starting proper school last year and thus Madeleine getting her life back had been a godsend, and the additional free time the impetus she’d craved to get her business plan into high gear.

  “Hon, we don’t have time to talk about it now,” she told Tom, glad of an excuse to put him off. She loved him and they’d always been a great team, but there was no denying that middle age (and no doubt parenthood) was turning her once laid-back and easygoing husband into a grumpy old man. Such a pity that their next family holiday wouldn’t be until the summer; though she could help Tom recapture some of that relaxed Gulf Coast vibe by plying him with the odd margarita now and then, she thought wickedly.

  After grabbing her handbag, Madeleine checked her freshly curled and newly lightened tresses in the hallway mirror, and once again tried to hustle her errant family out the door.

  Hopefully, the bouncy do would hold up well enough for tomorrow’s TV appearance. Madeleine had only gotten the call from the Channel 2 producer immediately after lunch and had just managed to snag a last-minute appointment with her trusty hairdresser before picking Clara up from school. She wanted to look her best for her slot on Morning Coffee, a popular lifestyle show featuring an ever-changing panel of female guests chatting about interesting topics of the day.

  Tomorrow they would be discussing Mad Mum’s latest blog post—a controversial piece by Madeleine, which had very quickly gone viral, about why maternity leave was a Very Bad Thing. She smiled, looking forward to the inevitable public outcry and debate, something her profile thrived on.

  While most of her posts about motherhood were often deliberately tongue-in-cheek, this was a topic she actually believed in wholeheartedly. If it wasn’t for maternity leave, and how it neatly assigned all the earliest and most difficult child-rearing responsibilities onto the hapless mother—setting up a lifelong “default parent” and allowing Dad to take a less active role—then she and Tom wouldn’t be even having the homeschooling conversation.

  Placing his pen down, her husband conceded, “All right, maybe we can talk about it later. I’m just sick to the teeth of civil servants telling us how to live our lives, Maddie. I know how I learned math and look at me now. What’s wrong with kids learning things the old-fashioned way?”

  “I know, I know, it’s all so different these days,” she soothed, kissing him on the head. “But get your ass in gear—we’ll be late at your mum’s.” Not that Harriet Cooper would mind. Tom’s mother was as laid-back as they came and, unlike Madeleine’s own late mum (who before she died two years ago was routinely scandalized by the forthright opinions her daughter laid bare in public), a big supporter of Mad Mum.

  Tom got up and followed her into the hallway where their children waited, lost in their own conversation.

  “Clara, for goodness’ sake, stop sniffling and just blow your nose. Go on, the two of you, get in the car,” Tom chided them good-naturedly, as he helped Madeleine on with her coat, a sand-colored cashmere Ralph Lauren number she
adored.

  Another major benefit to earning her own money again; she could once more afford the beautiful things she’d had to forgo when they were just a single-earner family. She wrapped a colorful silk scarf around her neck and pulled on her leather gloves. She’d picked out a gorgeous DVF top for her TV stint tomorrow, something patterned to try to compensate for the fact that the camera added ten pounds. Which reminded Madeleine to see about maybe arranging weekly group running sessions with some of her friends. Now pushing forty, she knew she needed to try harder to keep herself in tip-top shape.

  The couple followed their children out to Tom’s BMW, which sat parked in the driveway of their five-bed faux-Georgian house, about half a mile from Knockroe village. Both kids were now loaded in and sitting dutifully in the back seat, already enraptured with the DVD screens on the back of the front seats. She and Tom did attempt to keep in check the amount of screen time they seemed to default to, but there was no denying that the darned things kept them quiet.

  Might write a piece about that soon, she thought wickedly, her mind racing. Something irreverent and completely contrary, sure to send the do-gooders into convulsions.

  Tom started the engine and backed out of the long pebbled driveway, just as Clara began a heavy fit of sneezing. He made a face. “Here we go. Did you see that note from school today? About the girl in Clara’s class sent home earlier.”

  Madeleine was checking her reflection in the mirror and reapplying her lipstick. “No, I haven’t had a chance to go through their bags.” She sighed inwardly. “Why—is something going around?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing serious. Chicken pox, apparently.” He threw an eye back at their sniffling daughter, who did look pretty miserable. “But Clara hasn’t had that yet.”

  Madeleine knew. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to cross our fingers,” she said optimistically, for Clara’s benefit. Little ears heard everything and she didn’t want her daughter worrying unnecessarily. While the pox wasn’t too serious, it was uncomfortable all the same, and her heart broke at the notion of her little girl coming out in those nasty, uncomfortable sores and, depending on the severity of the case, perhaps even being bedridden for a few days, poor thing.

  Of course, one of the great benefits of working from home was that Madeleine didn’t have to call in sick to take care of the children if need be. It was one of the reasons she’d taken the redundancy package in the first place; Jake had been a sickly toddler and she had been exhausted from making excuses for missed meetings and freaking out over work absences for the first two years of his life. The logistics became even more of an issue when Clara was born, so while Madeleine had been dubious as to whether full-time motherhood was really for her, a much-needed respite from all the running around (as well as the financial package her firm was offering) was ultimately too difficult to ignore.

  Still, to her mind, time away from the workplace was always going to be a temporary arrangement—at least until the kids were old enough and she found something else to sustain her creatively and professionally. Thankfully, Mad Mum filled that role on both counts.

  But she worried the family had become a little too comfortable with these domestic arrangements and now her thoughts came full circle and again returned to Tom’s argument for homeschooling. Once again, she’d be the one having to make the sacrifice and, work commitments aside, why would she want to take on the responsibility of that along with everything else?

  She was already overcommitted to not only her business, but also volunteering for various school fund-raisers, her book club, Knockroe Tidy Towns and other community endeavors, not to mention that she could be called for a guest slot to any TV or radio station at a moment’s notice.

  In order to grow her business to the level that Madeleine aspired, profile was important—it made a huge difference, as any marketeer worth their salt would tell you.

  Not that her kids’ education wasn’t important, of course—it was just nice to be able to pack them both off to school each day and have someone else deal with them for a while.

  Madeleine sighed again as she wondered if she was a bad mother for thinking that way, but then chided herself. She knew from day one that was she wasn’t going to be perfect. It was a bit late now for stressing about it.

  She was only vaguely aware that the car had gone silent and that her family’s attention was on her. “I’m sorry? What was that?” she asked, turning to face her husband. She noticed that Tom was frowning.

  “Is it true, Mum?” Clara asked, her nose streaming, and Madeleine gulped. Damn, the poor dear really was coming down with something. Hopefully, it would be a day or two before the worst of it kicked in.

  At least until the TV thing is over and done with...

  Yep, she was indeed a bad mother. Terrible.

  “Is what true, sweetheart?” she replied.

  “What Kevin Campbell said—that he’s never had chicken pox, and when people get sick at school that it’s our fault,” her five-and-half-year-old said indignantly.

  Madeleine gritted her teeth. Number one, Kevin Campbell was a known brat who liked to start trouble, and number two, the kid had no idea what he was talking about. But number three—and more to the point—Kevin Campbell’s mother was obviously gossiping about their family within hearing distance of her child.

  Now she understood why Tom looked so annoyed. He couldn’t stand Christine Campbell—not only was she always in everyone’s business in Knockroe, trying to tell them how to live their lives and thinking she was so smart with her “supposed” diploma in sociology from UCD, but she was also a notorious shit-stirrer.

  And Madeleine knew that Christine especially hated how, with the increased popularity of her blog and subsequent TV appearances, Madeleine’s profile and thus her community standing had grown and threatened to supersede Christine’s own self-imposed Queen Bee status. Not that she had the slightest iota of interest in celebrity or overthrowing Christine’s “reign”—she was all about expanding Mad Mum’s reach.

  But it was completely out of order for the woman to make such comments, especially in earshot of her son. Jake and Clara shouldn’t be singled out like that. And moreover, her and Tom’s parenting decisions didn’t need to be questioned—by anyone. It was nobody else’s business.

  “Ah, don’t listen to what Kevin says. He has no idea what he’s talking about. Just ignore him.”

  “But is it true, Mum?” Jake piped up, interested. “Would it be our fault if other kids got sick? Because we don’t get injections like everyone else?”

  “No, it wouldn’t be your fault,” Tom said through gritted teeth. He turned to look at his wife. “I’m going to phone that Campbell woman and—”

  Madeleine quickly laid a calming hand on his arm. “Don’t give her the pleasure,” she interjected wisely. “You know Christine relishes getting a rise out of people, and she would love nothing more than to debate with us, again, on the vaccination thing. Just ignore her.” Christine Campbell and her ilk never failed to get her husband—who was fiercely protective of not only his family, but his principles—riled up.

  She turned around to face her kids. “Guys, your classmates getting chicken pox is not your fault and never will be. OK?”

  To say nothing of the fact that you didn’t usually vaccinate for chicken pox anyway. So at least they didn’t need to worry on that front, and hand-wringers like Christine Campbell could go stuff it.

  Clara and Jake nodded solemnly.

  “We’re here.” Madeleine smiled as Tom pulled into the entrance of his mother’s home on the other side of town, and she unsnapped her seat belt, mentally crossing her fingers that Clara’s sniffles were just your typical run-of-the-mill cold and nothing more troublesome. At least not anything that would put the kibosh on her plans for tomorrow. “So stop thinking about whatever nonsense Kevin was spouting,” she reassu
red her children, “and focus on wishing poor Ellie get well soon.”

  3

  “Put the kettle on and crank up that coffeemaker, it’s Morning Coffee time! Our panel today is outspoken Daily Record journalist and media commenter Gemma Moore, bestselling author Anita Wright, former Miss Ireland and beauty expert Claudine O’Donnell, and the newcomer to today’s gang, mummy blogger Madeleine Cooper, whose no-nonsense and provocative take on motherhood has garnered her a huge following among many Irish women, myself included. Madeleine, welcome to the show.”

  “Thanks a mill, Louise, it’s lovely to be here.”

  “So let’s dive straight in. Your latest article...it’s already racked up hundreds of thousands of hits, has been retweeted a quarter of a million times and has also been a major focus of discussion in some of the papers, including Gemma’s Daily Record—in short it has the place abuzz. Needless to say, Madeleine, you’ve hit a nerve.”

  “It would seem so.”

  “First, let’s just explain to any of our viewers who might not yet have come across your article... Madeleine suggests that maternity leave is—and these are your own words—‘a patriarchal construct that disempowers women.’ How on earth did you come to that conclusion?”

  “Well, like I said in my piece, Louise, maternity leave, this statutory practice of assigning care of the newborn solely to mothers for the first six months, sets up a lifelong family dynamic, whereby dads get to go off and carry on as normal, while poor sleep-deprived Mummy is at home meeting all of junior’s needs.”

  “Sleep-deprived, ha! Yes, we can all definitely relate to that bit.”

  “But in reality this doesn’t just last for six months. Mum becomes the default caretaker all through life, the child’s go-to for everything whether she likes it or not, which means that she—not Dad—is always the one forsaking things to meet that responsibility.”