Single parents in Derbyshire

Derbyshire is two counties in one: Derby, Chesterfield and the Amber Valley on one side, and the Peak District on the other, where villages are ten miles and twenty-five minutes apart. Parents in the Peak think in terms of which market town to meet in. Parents in Derby think in terms of which part of the ring road.

Everyone here is a parent, so the practical stuff — custody weeks, childcare, a reply that comes two days later because it was that kind of week — never needs explaining.