A recent report* declared that working parents splash out £2,000 a year on ‘bribes’ for their children as it emerges that four in ten parents spend less than seven hours a week with them. Half of these parents buy guilt presents for their childre...
Before the days of mobile phones, texting, computers, internet access, game consoles and endless television channels what did people do? The answer is that they used to communicate face to face. They used to sit down and have a family meal...
With governmental changes to Shared Parental Leave there is a greater emphasis on fathers and the role that they play than ever before. However, with the pressures of work, being a father and having the time to engage with your children is not an...
Nobody has all the right answers when it comes to bringing up kids, let alone teenagers. As parents, we feel the pressure to turn out perfect children and be perfect parents – no such thing! Parents of teenagers often feel: Worried that they...
Sibling rivalry has always had bad press - think of Cain slaughtering Abel and Joseph being thrown down the well and sold by his brothers because they were jealous of his beautiful multi coloured coat! Sibling rivalry can apply to any child living...
Stepfamilies have a bad image. Single parents are either frowned upon or felt sorry for. Think of Snow White’s jealous stepmother, the unrealistically positive Brady Bunch or Princess Jasmine’s desperate single father. Of course real life is mor...
Posted on 05 January 2017
For many senior school children, their digital world might seem as important as the real world to them. They might spend their evenings chatting to friends on Facebook, texting, watching and uploading videos on YouTube or downloading from iTunes....
As our children enter puberty, their minds and bodies go through huge emotional and physical changes. The first growth spurt in their brain occurs in the first three years of life, whilst during middle childhood their brains settle into a slower...
Posted on 30 September 2015
Long, lazy days, filled with day trips, late nights, and an ever-sliding routine are what make the school summer holidays. But as the days draw in and the autumn term looms, here’s how to tackle that tricky transition back to structured days and...
Whether you revel in All Hallows’ Eve or prefer to hide away, the goblins and ghouls of 31st October have steadily crept up on us all. We’ve rounded up some of the latest advice for parents on how to keep children entertained, happy and safe amids...
Posted on 25 October 2017
Is social media “ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”? These are the words of a former Facebook executive, who recently expressed regret and guilt over his part in building tools for the social media network that are “destroying h...
Posted on 24 January 2018
Some days, it takes the patience of a saint to parent a self-centered, moody and seemingly lazy teenager. In a nanosecond their mood can flip from one extreme to the other. What is going on with them? - And how should parents react? We’ve gathered...
Say “Fortnite” to any child over the age of eight, and the chances are that the reaction will be much more than a flicker of recognition. If that child isn’t already playing the game, then a friend probably is. Since its launch in September 2017,...
Can parents really be friends with their children? Or is it better to be the ‘best’ mother or father you can, and leave being their ‘best’ friend to their actual friends? We’re not going to pretend there’s an easy answer; unfortunately there isn’t...