An interview with canberrakids new columnist by Trish Smith

Who are you and how did you get here?
I am Trish and I was born here.  I read about the canberrakids website and sent the Editor and email and asked her if she had thought about adding a blog to the site.  She asked me what a blog was.  I told her that no self-respecting parenting website could function without one and she believed me. 

Do you have kids?
Yes, I have two daughters – Maddie is eight, and Caitlin is five.  I have one niece and three nephews who also live in Canberra and they range in age from four years to three weeks old.  My parents are understandably thrilled and often too busy to baby-sit for me anymore.

What is this column going to be about?
Well, there’s really no telling what I might write about, now that I have my own little piece of internet to mess up.  The Editor has graciously invited me to write about anything and everything, as long as it has something to do with kids in Canberra and presumably isn’t too offensive.  I’ll try to keep stories about dirty nappies and even dirtier politics to an absolute minimum.

You poor thing, have you lived in Canberra your whole life?
Yes! I love Canberra!  I lived in Sydney for a year when I was 22 and spent that entire year defending my home town against ridiculous attacks from people whose only hands-on knowledge of Canberra was acquired during a compulsory sixth-grade school excursion.  In hindsight, I should have spent it buying investment property.  However.  I love Canberra.  I have travelled overseas and all around this country and have not found anywhere I’d rather raise my family.  I have romantic notions of living abroad, expanding my kid’s horizons and meeting new friends, and one day we might do that.  But we will always return to Canberra.  We love it here.

Who is PJ?
He is my husband.  We met in Year Eight, he used to throw things at the back of my head during History lessons.  We were married ten years ago in Kings Hall at Old Parliament House.  These days he’s a very responsible public servant and only throws things at the neighbour’s cats.  His name might come up from time to time, especially if he’s done something hilarious that other mums can relate to.  There will be plenty of stories about how I trip over myself trying to be a better parent, so it’s only fair that he gets a mention, too.

Do you have a day job?
Yes, I do.  I think I have finally stumbled across the perfect part-time job for working women and I’m not going to tell you what it is because then you’ll all want to do it and there wont be any work left for me.  And yes, it’s a perfectly legitimate job.  If I had to tick a box I’d say it was in the area of  Human Resources.

So, we should just log on each morning to canberrakids.com.au  and sit down with our cup of coffee while the kids sleep/fight amongst themselves and see what you’ve got to say for yourself each day while we search for information on playgrounds and prams and medical centres?

Yep, pretty much.

Trish

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