Category Archives: Family

Owen: an NHS birthday baby

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Sorry for being so slow in following up on my post about Owen’s arrival. As you’d expect, we’ve had a hectic – but wonderful – time over the past 27 days!

By coincidence, Owen was born on the day Britain marked the 60th birthday of the National Health Service, in an NHS hospital. The NHS doesn’t always get the credit it deserves – the media and opportunist opposition politicians are all too quick to condemn. Yet our experience during Karen’s pregnancy and Owen’s birth made us very grateful for the service – and rather proud of it. I wrote in praise of our doctor’s surgery on this blog in January; our experience in Wexham Park hospital when Owen arrived was equally praiseworthy. (As the new dad, I was very grateful to the midwifes who brought us several helpings of tea and toast for free!)

What makes the NHS so admirable is that we’d have had the same marvellous care regardless of how much or how little we earned. True, there are still variations in the standard of NHS care across the UK, but the spirit of Aneurin Bevan’s creation lives on after 60 years.

The best day of our lives: Owen arrives

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After what seemed like the longest pregnancy in history (Karen had a very rough time), Owen Charles Skinner finally arrived last Saturday, 5 July. He weighed in at 7lb 13oz.

I’ll write about this unforgettable, breathtaking experience in detail in the coming days. In the meantime, here are a few photos taken on the day our son was born. 

Karen Rob Owen 5 July 2008

Rob and Owen 30 mins old 5 July 2008

Karen and 10 minute old Owen

The tide’s always out at Southend: Bob Skinner in The Observer

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Going to the seaside is a cherished part of childhood. But things don’t always go smoothly. 

My father, Bob Skinner, wrote in yesterday’s Observer magazine about an ill-fated family trip to Southend in the late 1920s. I too remember an early day trip, from Cardiff to Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset. (In those days the paddle steamers went from the Pier Head in Cardiff Bay.) Within minutes of getting off the boat I had cut myself on a piece of glass on the beach, requiring an urgent visit to the first aid station. It must run in the family…

Margatefrankjoanbob

This photo shows Dad, his father and cousin on a more successful seaside trip in the 1930s. We think it was taken at Margate.

The rise of the great-grandparent

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Did you know your great-grandparents? I didn’t. The last survivor died some five years before I was born. Blame the first world war – my grandparents were in their thirties when they started families – and the fact my parents were in their mid thirties when I arrived.

By contrast, a fascinating article in today’s Family Guardian on great-grandparents shows that today’s children are enjoying a rare experience of getting to know their great-grandparents. The post-war babyboomers had their children in their mid-twenties. They are also living longer, into their 80s and 90s. Mylo, my niece’s son, illustrates the trend. He’s just turned three. His grandparents are in their fifties, and all four of his maternal great-grandparents are still alive. But as the Guardian article suggests, this may be a short-lived trend, as parents start families in their thirties and even later.

I may not have known my great-grandparents, but my maternal grandmother gave me a real sense of history. Gwen Dymond was born on Lenin’s 21st birthday in 1891. Queen Victoria died a few months before her 10th birthday and she turned 21 the week the Titanic sank.

I loved talking to her about the past: I remember vividly her telling me how she went in a hansom cab to get oxygen cylinders for her dying father in 1912, and how she watched her brother climb a tree to watch Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee celebrations in 1897.

Her 100th birthday in 1991 was a very special event. Below is a photo showing the two of us at the big party at County Hall in Cardiff.

Nan at 100