What we've learnt from a crazy year on the front line of motherhood There hasn’t been a dull moment for mums this year. As we celebrate Mother's Day, four writers tell us how it was for them Kerry Potter at home with her children Credit: Clara Molden ‘The government should build a respite centre-cum-spa for working parents’ Kerry Potter looks back on a year that just didn't have enough hours in the day It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times – as Dickens would’ve put it, had he been trying to write that novel while simultaneously doing fractions with recalcitrant children and running the world’s worst 24-hour diner, where the food keeps running out and service is with a scowl.