Some Holiday Blog Reading: A few favourites from The Modern Parent

As we recover from the food and festivities of Christmas, I thought I would share with you some of my favourite blogs to give you a little holiday reading! Obviously these are not all the blogs I read and certainly there are many more that are worth mentioning so I may have to do a Part 2. (or 3 or 4)

But here is a rundown of some of this years reading and a very general description of what they cover.

For all things Teenagers: The Kids are All Right. Rachel seems to be on a very similiar path to myself when it comes to some of the issues facing our teens today. A great forum is available too, enabling you to get lots advice, empathy and understanding from others.

For all things Fashion: Fox in Flats. Andrea is my favourite fashion blogger for mums and is expert at keeping it real whilst still managing to look and feel great. A monthly style dare that is also lots of fun keeps you from getting stuck in a fashion ‘rut’ and allows you to navigate motherhood in style.

For all things Planning and Organisation:Planning with Kids. As a fellow mother of 5, Nicole has it completely covered when it comes to getting families organised, getting homework supervised, meals planned and extra curricular activities thrown into the mix like a well oiled machine. Nicole is also an esteemed author and public speaker.

For all things literacy and early education: The Book Chook. This blog is full of book reviews and fabulous resources from an Australian writer passionate about kids learning to read, write and create. Susan has some great ideas for reluctant readers as well as fabulous online resources to help kids with their storytelling.

For self care , self love and self knowledge: Happy Mums At Home: As a counsellor and life coach, Kirri is passionate about inspiring mums to not only be the best mum they can, but to do so whilst leading rich and fulfilling lives as an individual. Kirri’s use of positive psychology to help us face life’s challenges is both realistic and motivating. Oh and she loves to dance!

For the funny, the very real or for some creative inspiration: My Big Nutshell: Gemma has lots of great ideas, takes a great pic and her posts are a gorgeous mix of the serious and the hilarious. She covers all sorts of topics from parenting, mental health to organising, creating and cooking, and does so with a wit and honesty that mirrors the real life gorgeous person she is.

And last but not least… A Funny Dad blog: Reservoir Dad: Clint is a stay at home father of 4 boys who writes with brilliant wit and honesty.  Whether reading about his vasectomy diaries or watching his gangnam style video, you are guaranteed a laugh.

This is just  snippet of my blog reading and in no particular order or fashion…..just the first few that came into my head. Most of these people I have met in real life or have got to know well online and they are all inspiring writers. I have realised how many, many more I need to mention but as I am finding it hard to concentrate with the cheering of the Big Bash cricket in the background, I will definatily have to come back with more favourites throughout the year.

And of course every Tuesday you will find me linking up with the awesome Jess at Essentially Jess and every Friday I flog my blog with the gorgeous and funny Grace at With Some Grace. 

Who are some of your favourite blog reads? Oh and of course feel free to give yourself a plug!

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A Christmas message from The Modern Parent

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and their families a very happy and healthy Christmas. Thankyou so much for another year of support and community and I am so grateful for the many friends I have made as a result of my blog and the opportunities my blog has afforded me.

I hope you continue to join me next year as I continue to strive to provide entertaining, informative and realistic posts based on my personal experience as a mother with kids of various ages, stages and personalities! I will continue to research all I can about the changes that are happening in the world our children are living. I will continue to help parents and myself make sense of new technologies and what that means for ourselves and our families.

My family and friends sometimes have a laugh when pointing out my parenting failures or less than magical parenting moments and wonder if these moments will make it to the blog. But you should all know I do not profess to be a perfect parent. In fact I am far from it. I do however strive to give you a realistic viewpoint of how my research and years of work and study translate realistically to everyday situations.

I look forward to another great year next year and am already looking froward to some presentations I have booked in, helping parents understand the modern world of technology and cyberspace. If your school or community group would be interested in a presentation please contact me via email at  info@martineoglethorpe.com.au

And lastly I would love it if you could fill in this really quick 9 question survey so I can better plan for the coming months.

The Modern Parent Survey

Once again have a wonderful festive season, enjoy your beautiful families and stay safe

xx

 

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Problogger, Parenting and Pearls of Wisdom

Darren and his closing words on the blogger's potential

I love learning new things and I love meeting new people. Last week I got to do both for 2 whole days at the Problogger Event where we talked, laughed (your fault Natalie) and immersed ourselves in all things bloggy and business. We listened to and were inspired by the passionate, the experienced, the expert, the novice and those who had accents that just made them really easy to listen to!

There is much I have taken away from this experience in terms of how to improve my blog and business and I will certainly look forward to taking on these new challenges.
But more than that, these conferences leave me with many important lessons about people and life in general. As my blog is ultimately about parenting I will share with you some of the wonderful words of wisdom from the speakers and how we can apply them to our parenting and everyday living.

“Get the big things right and the little things will follow” Darren Rowse, Problogger [Read more...]

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I learnt things too at the Digital Parents Conference

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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The Best Modern Parent Reads of 2011

As I approach my one year blogiversary, it still kind of amazes me that it was only this time last year that I actually read my first blog.  Within a few weeks of doing so I had started my own blog and a year on and 66 posts later, I am ready to start working on the next installment of my blogging journey. So whilst trawling through some old posts, I thought I would bring some back to life for those that weren’t following in the early days.

So here are some of my most popular posts from 2011:

What are you doing for your kids that they could be doing for themselves?

Resilience: Where does it come from?

Helping Children Grieve

The Teenage Brain- Whats going on there?

11 Practical ways parents can help build self esteem

Don’t be sad for me: babies and their gender

I’d love to know if there were any that particularly resonated with you or what you would like to see more of in 2012.

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