IN THIS ISSUE

WHETHER YOU ARE A MOTHER or are simply celebrating your own or other mammies, we hope you have something lovely planned for this weekend. Our cover star today, Faye Dinsmore, page 20, is mother to 16-month-old Cloud with her Web Summit husband Paddy Cosgrave. It’s refreshing to hear from someone in what many would consider a privileged position that even for her motherhood is not easy. She makes a wonderful point that so many new mums are praised for ‘snapping back’ into shape, getting back to work quickly or returning to their past life in no time, when really all new mothers should be doing is resting. It’s very rare to hear someone be lauded for doing nothing, but that’s precisely what we should be doing. When a woman gives birth, her body has gone through 40 weeks of near-trauma and it’s going to take time for that to heal – never mind the emotional and psychological demands that a new baby makes. So let’s take a leaf out of Faye’s book and tell all new mammies to rest – and give them whatever help and support we can to let them achieve that. OUTSIDE OF OUR BONDS with our mothers, perhaps our tightest relationships are with our female friends. From school, clubs, college through to work and social scenes, we encounter thousands of women in our lives, yet only a select few make it into the circle of trust. On page 26, YouTube star Lily Pebbles outlines how we need to treat our friendships like we would romances, with all the rules and pitfalls that entails.