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A bunch of women were trying to get this off the ground when I was first pregnant in early 2007 (and even before that I think), but I fled the city and took my practice nearer to the support of family and cut down my commuting time. I don’t know how we could have made it work otherwise.

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Shame on the bar if it can’t find a way to make remaining at the bar after starting a family more manageable. Too many good female barristers just disappear from practice because they decide the compromises their families are expected to make are too great, that the sums just don’t add up.

1. Abortion is legal in this country, and

2. 76% of people believe such adverts should be permitted?

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I would have thought such ads will help to maximise awareness, giving women (and their partners) a fuller opportunity to explore and think through ALL of their options at the earliest opportunity and to ensure that a higher proportion of any abortions that are carried out take place earlier on in the pregnancy. I doubt there will be some subliminal message or hypnotic subtext that compels otherwise unwilling women to terminate their pregnancies. Abortion is a difficult topic and a regrettable outcome (even if sometimes its the ‘right’ outcome or the least worst option), but you can’t eliminate free choice or prevent people and services from operating within the law.

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My own parents routinely take our son for a day a week, but whilst for them they are pleased to feel they have helped us out with childcare, we are pleased to ensure that they have some quality time with their grandson. We try not to rely on it as failsafe childcare, being sensitive to when they have something else they need to do that day, but we would want to keep up this special time with grandma and granddad even when we aren’t at work. For my son Monday is Ga-mma day. It’s not a transaction we could quantify with money. That would be demeaning. I do see the arguments for being able to claim working tax credits childcare element if a grandparent is giving up a large chunk of their week and is prevented from earning money through other work (although I also see the difficulties with it), but to create maintenance obligations between different tiers of family members just undercuts the whole notion of family helping family – politicians are obsessed with trying to strengthen the family and ‘mend’ society, reducing the family to a set of financial obligations or contracts is not going to help cement our society together or make our children happier.

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As a footnote, its heartening to see that what I would call a ‘marketing blog’ can still be an interesting read, and can contain some real and insightful opinion. If a blog is worth doing it has to contain some human input and not just be an endless stream of advertorial. Whilst Woolley and Co have clearly invested heavily in their online media marketing strategy, they are doing it well. So many other firms are doing it badly.

I return to find that our local CAFCASS has a backlog of 155 cases (largely private cases) which is proposes to clear by Mar 2010. Pigs might fly, but then if my other half can get back from far flung states in economy class complete with unexpected new crutches, maybe anything really is possible. Hope springs eternal. As a colleague recently noted – CAFCASS have recently relieved themselves of the services of 70 staff owing to resource difficulties, of which but two were managers. SIGHS…

I also return with a renewed conviction about how important it is to ensure kids know both sides of their extended family, even if they are kooky and even if they are far far away. It’s pretty tough to make this happen when oceans divide but watching my boy careering round the farm with his little cousins and being fed deer jerky by mommaw and seeing for first hand where his daddy grew up was worth the trip, even if it was quite possibly the most stressful holiday I have ever had. For the boy it was nothing but a great big adventure. An adventure punctuated with lashings of chocolate milk and as much spaghetti as a boy can eat.

And finally I return with a unavoidable bump. It is at least 10% baby and only 90% blueberry pancakes. Time flies eh?

2 years ago things were a lot different: for family law; for me. The ‘Secret courts’ were all the talk – now we have open justice, perhaps soon to be open reporting. The Baby P scandal had yet to break – now we have social work and CAFCASS collapse as a result of the fallout.

Some things were ever thus: proposals to slash legal aid for family practitioners were afoot, there were hotspots of CAFCASS delay and the bar had not really found its way to the blogosphere (perish the thought of embracing technology).

At home, I was just pregnant (or just about to be).  And working in London. And whilst my short period of maternity leave was perfect opportunity for blogging about the job I was taking a pause from, the return to work in Bristol coupled with the ever increasing mobility and ever increasing volume levels of a 15 month old present an ever increasing challenge to making time in my life for the blog (both this one and the Family Law Week blog).

To those who poo-pooed the idea and to my nameless but very learned friend who suggested it was downright unprofessional and demeaning for a member of the bar to be involved with such trash as a blog, 3000 hits a month respectfully submit that you were wrong and that there is something of value in between Heat Magazine (to which you compared this blog) and a legal looseleaf. Clever is good. Clever and interesting is better. And successful is good. But successful and happy is better.

But enough of bitching about the past (although I do feel better for having got that off my chest), what is the future for Pink Tape? Well, I’m always happy to hear suggestions for the direction of the blog, you may like to comment on this post. But in general terms: here’s to another two years at least. It may not go on for ever, but I think I have a clue who may be inheriting the Pink Tape mantle when I hang up my keyboard and blog my last…as you can see from the picture he is earnestly in training already.