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Remembering ANZAC’s and talking to our kids about war

April 24, 2012 By 10 Comments

This week in Australia and in many places around the world, we stop to commemorate ANZAC day and the history of sacrifice for which it stands.

I am a bit of a history buff and a patriotic Australian so I enjoy being able to not only reflect, but to learn a little more each year about our countries military service. And yes I will tear up at the singing of the National Anthem on Grand final day and not just because I am anticipating witnessing another flag!

Anzac Day is a day that fills me with pride and a pride I will endeavor to instill in my kids. I want them to know how lucky they are to live in a country that offers us opportunity, freedom and choice. I also want them to know about the sacrifices that were made by those of years gone by and those sacrifices being made by our men and women soldiers and their families today.

But what about our children? How much do they need to know about war, particularly those wars that are happening right now? How do we make sure that the information they receive is relevant, accurate and appropriate for their age and intellectual and emotional development?

These days we have constant access to media and an overload of information. For parents, this can mean a difficulty in protecting our kids from imagery that may be shocking and disturbing.

For particularly young kids, say those around 7 and under, we need to be more discreet in terms of the imagery and content to which they are exposed. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Communicating and Connecting, Modern Parenting Tagged With: , ,

Birth Order: What happens when it gets rejigged?

April 18, 2012 By 14 Comments

Do you ever think about birth order and the roles and personality traits that accompany your childrens chronological entrance into the world? Does birth order play a role in determining the dynamics of your family?

When I had three children, which was for the first 6 years of my parenting, I had 3 very distinct birth orders. I had the eldest, the middle child and the baby. I don’t think my eldest is a typical eldest child. His visual disability may play a part in this, but so far he is not particularly conventionaI and conservative and nor is he one that needs constant approval! And on further reading of first born traits I am not so sure he is perfectionistic or sensitive to criticism.

I then had a middle child who acted more like a first born in some ways due to the older child’s visual disability and hence adopted more of a caretaker type role. He knew from the age of one he would have to go and find the ball that his brother had kicked into the bushes. He knew as a toddler that he couldn’t come back from somewhere, even somewhere familiar, without his brother in case he got lost. The middle child became the most independent, compassionate and capable and quickly worked out his role in the family dynamics.

And then there was the baby of the family. Traits similar to most youngest children, he was more of a rule-breaker, willing to push the limits but all the while more of a “mummy’s boy”. He probably wont like me saying that! The youngest usually doesn’t feel the need to compete with the other two, but rather they are confident to walk their own path, usually with an abundance of ideas, but not necessarily following them all through. [Read more...]

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Public versus Private: Technology blurs the lines for our kids

April 11, 2012 By 6 Comments

The children of today are really no different to those of years gone by. They want to hang out with their mates, they want to be included in social groups, they want to take risks and push boundaries, and they want to explore who they are in relation to their peers and to the rest of the world.

The big difference however, is the world in which our children now live.

In the past, these experiences were gained in places that were relatively private. In bedrooms, schoolyards, in local parks and shopping centres. Places where the surroundings were known, controlled and familiar.

Today the setting is very different. They still want privacy. They still want a space to explore. They still want to be in charge of who hears what they have to say.

But privacy means having the ability to control a situation and the ability to have control over audience, context and reach. The minute we upload a photo, update a status or engage in any online communication, we have lost that control. We have lost that privacy.

Herein lies the conundrum for adolescents of today. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Communicating and Connecting, Modern Parenting, Technology and Parenting, Teenagers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I learnt things too at the Digital Parents Conference

April 2, 2012 By 37 Comments

with Nathalie and Kristy at Digital Parents Conference 2012

Follow your passions, use your blog as a microphone for social good, believe in your ability and power to bring about social change and get inside the head of your reader.

These were just a few of the of the pointers I took home from last weeks Digital Parents Conference, attended by over 100 parent bloggers from all around Australia. Or maybe they were just the words that I could actually decipher from my scribble as I decided to resort to old fashioned, taking notes, handwriting. I therefore didn’t take too many notes.  And aside from that I had both Louisa  and Kellie live blogging next to me so I knew I could just hook into their notes later.

 

There were probably 2 facets of the conference however that I can use immediately to help me take my blog and business forward.

 

1. Blogging for social good: Whilst I may not be the blogger that goes to Niger like Eden to report on the latest famine, or like Darren from Problogger who travelled to Tanzania to help bring about life saving medical procedures that would be routine operations in Australia, I believe I still have the ability to bring about social change, even if it is on a much smaller scale.

 

For me and my blog and business, I want parents to experience more joy in their family life and I want children and teens to be better equipped to face the obstacles that prevent them from having a healthy, happy and productive journey into the adult world. To do so, I will continue to try and inform and empathise and expose some of my own realities of raising a family in the modern world.

 

2.Technological Domination: The second facet was the enormity of this digital world and how absolutely it will engulf our children and their futures. Now of course at a blogging conference there are going to be lots of ‘tech heads’ and social networking geeks that just love their gadgets and stuff.  But if this is what can happen with those of us that still typed their Uni assignments on a typewriter (or maybe a Dos document in the final year), then one can only assume that our children, who as 2 year olds are swiping through screens on an ipad like its second nature, will be even more engulfed by this online phenomenon. It is this aspect of parenting that I believe needs particular attention. I recently wrote about the importance for parents to embrace the technological world and attempt to understand it from their child’s perspective. I now believe that more than ever and will therefore continue to make this a focus.

 

What else I learnt?

 

  • Some people are exactly as you imagined them to be from their online persona
  • Some people are so very different from how you imagined them to be from their online persona
  • I have some competition when it comes to karaoke microphone hogging (Not mentioning Shae, Clint or Jess)
  • Kristy from The Imperfect Mum and Nathalie from Easy Peasy Kids would make great room mates. (thanks for letting me crash in between events)
  • Gemma from My Big Nutshell is one funny girl, with a  lots of  spark’ (and has great taste in clothes).
  • I love writing. I want to continue to write and experiment and hone my skills
  • I will try to make every sentence count

 

So thankyou to all who helped make this years conference a fabulous experience and for providing me with the information, motivation and the confidence to move forward with my blogging aspirations.

 

If you were there, what were your highlights? And if you are not a blogger, what have been your experiences of conferences and networking events?

 

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Filed Under: Modern Parenting, Technology and Parenting Tagged With: , ,