Strategies to help children cope with anxiety
Whilst anxiety can be a normal response to the fears and worries that present themseles to our children, there is also evidence of increasing instances
June 10, 2011 12 Comments
Parenting
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Childhood Anxiety- What’s Normal?
Anxiety can be a normal part of human functioning and something that we all experience to some degree. As a parent with an overly anxious
June 2, 2011 4 Comments
Helping Kids with Friendships- From Toddlers to Teens
“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.” — Baltasar Gracian (1647) Friendships are some of the most important relationships we have throughout
May 26, 2011 8 Comments
5 WAYS TO STAY CONNECTED TO YOUR KIDS THROUGHOUT THE TEENAGE YEARS
As we have seen with the changes to the Teenage brain and the social and emotional effects of these changes on our children, one of
May 19, 2011 8 Comments
THE HAPPINESS PROJECT
Could you do with the occasional reminder of all the great things that you have in life? Are there times when it seems that
May 14, 2011 17 Comments
From child to adult…the social and emotional changes affecting our teenagers
“People spend their childhood learning to be like their parents and their adolescence learning who they are and how they are different from their parents”
May 10, 2011 26 Comments
Mothers Day, My Nan and the Importance of Grandparents
As Mothers Day approaches, I have been thinking about the presents I have to buy, the wondrous gifts I am about to receive from the proud shoppers at
May 5, 2011 10 Comments
The Teenage Brain – Whats Going On There?
Whilst I am yet to embark on the teenage years with my own children, it is with frightening speed that these years will come bullocking
April 30, 2011 16 Comments
Embrace the Boredom – Teaching Our Kids How To Fill the Void
“Mum…I’m bored….there’s nothing to do…..” As the holidays come to a close I am sure this is not an altogether unfamiliar phrase to be heard from the
April 27, 2011 10 Comments
Rituals, Holidays and Family Traditions
Rituals ,holidays and family traditions are what help make our families unique. These are the events that happen pretty much no matter what. They are
April 21, 2011 5 Comments
Why Do We Need Help To Parent Our Children?
Why do we need so much advice on how to parent our children? Why does the modern world insist on inundating us with information for
April 17, 2011 2 Comments
13 Things I Have Learnt from My First 3 Kids To Help Me Parent The Next 2
As we parent each new child we gain more knowledge, we learn more strategies, we make more mistakes and we continue to come to the
April 13, 2011 15 Comments
Equality is not always the answer. Why we cant always be fair…
“That is sooooooo not fair” wailed my 9 year old from the bathroom. Not really sure what he was wailing about but my swift response was an equally
April 8, 2011 10 Comments
Behaviour
Sibling Rivalry- Strategies to Manage the Inevitable!
Sibling rivalry, like parent guilt, tantrums and snotty noses seem to be part of the whole ‘parenting package’. Can we win the war, or should we simply
April 3, 2011 5 Comments
Stop bailing out the kids – and give them the skills to help themselves
It is only natural when our children are faced with loss, failure, disappointment or rejection that we want to step in, take away the loss,
March 28, 2011 3 Comments
Guilt and Motherhood- Wasted Emotion or Part of the Package?
Guilty Mother Syndrome! Is it something you are automatically injected with the minute those double lines appear on the wee stick! I cannot tell you
March 23, 2011 16 Comments
Being The Best Parent You Can Be
How can you be the best parent you can be? How do you know that you are doing the best job when others are doing
March 19, 2011 7 Comments
Tv Mums & their Parenting Styles : Role Models or Pure Entertainment?
Before I had children I knew exactly the type of parent I was going to be and subsequently I knew exactly the type of children
March 15, 2011 20 Comments
Helping Children Grieve Part 3: Practical ways for parents to help their children cope with loss
My previous posts have looked at helping children grieve and how a childs age and development can determine their reaction to grief. I will finish this
March 13, 2011 2 Comments
Helping Children Grieve Part 2 -How age can determine a childs response to grief
Whilst children respond very differently to the loss of a loved one, there does appear to be some identifiable patterns of behaviour largely determined by
March 10, 2011 4 Comments
Helping Children Grieve
Grieving is a very personal experience and many of us will find that we deal with grief in very different ways. This of course, is
March 7, 2011 12 Comments
Picking the Battles With Our Children – Negotiable vs Non-Negotiable Rules
The family unit can only run smoothly when respect, rules and a clear set of boundaries are firmly entrenched. In my previous post, Saying No to our
March 3, 2011 13 Comments
Saying No to our kids – without the arguments, tears and tantrums
How often do we respond to a childs request by saying ‘no’ only to be worn down by negotiations, arguments, tantrums, whining and over-explaining? Saying “no” translates instead to, “I’ll
February 28, 2011 7 Comments
The grateful child – Can we teach our kids the art of gratitude?
Probably one of the more difficult lessons to teach our children is the art of gratitude. Can we in fact teach them to sit back,
February 25, 2011 7 Comments
It’s the good times not just the bad that help make us resilient
When we lost our daughter and the boys lost their sister, months later I was reminded how much “stronger” the boys would be, as they had already gone
February 21, 2011 1 Comment
What are you doing for your kids that they could be doing for themselves?
What are you doing for your kids that they could be doing for themselves? This is a question I have been asking myself with a
February 17, 2011 23 Comments
Winning or Losing – Are we Failing Our Kids?
Are we failing our children by denying them the right to win….. and more importantly to lose? Every weekend during football season my sons and
February 14, 2011 9 Comments
Morning Routines – Getting to School on Time without Nagging, Yelling, Fighting…
With 3 primary age boys and a 12 month old baby, mornings were not necessarily the most serene time of the day. Despite telling myself
February 11, 2011 22 Comments
Providing the Right Environment for our Families to Thrive
Building up resilience in ourselves and our family is certainly something that relies on many different contributing factors. Whilst there are things we have little or no
February 9, 2011 2 Comments
Resilience -Where Does It Come From?
In the months following the death of my 4 month old daughter, friends, family and even those I hardly knew would repeatedly comment on
February 6, 2011 19 Comments
The Trials of the Modern Parent
How does the modern parent survive and even thrive? So many choices, so little time, so much to contend with, so much to compare to
February 2, 2011 7 Comments