How to answer your childrens difficult questions about sex

My three year old daughter is desperate for another sibling and regularly asks me how we can get another baby.  Many parents know that these difficult questions can start from a early age and arming yourself with the answers in advance can make those moments easier. Linda Goldman author of Great Answers to Difficult Questions about [...]

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The best ethical Easter goodies on the market for all the family

Easter is on the way and personally I try not to use this as an excuse for a massive binge but my family always want to indulge the kids so this year I am going to try and point them in the right direction and get some high quality fair trade chocolate. So if you [...]

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Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Asking a child to apologise when they’ve done wrong can be a tricky thing.  You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to do, otherwise you end up in a stand off. “Say sorry to Tommy” “No, I don’t want to” “Right then, you will not be allowed any friends over to play [...]

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Do children need time out or time in?

I went through a really difficult patch with my eldest daughter recently. Tantrums, tears, defiance, lying are some of the things that have reared their head. Whatever I said she just tuned me out, we were completely disconnected and she felt out of reach. Frankly, I found it quite scary, she’s only just coming up for 4, [...]

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What’s wrong with bribing your children?

By Janine Hazlewood.  I’ve recently become aware of how much I use bribery – and the occasional threat – to get my three-year-old son to do what I want: ice cream for eating his tea, a DVD for playing nicely with his sister. My friends agree, when you’re in a hurry or your child is [...]

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Teenage girls eat less healthy food than any other group, survey reveals

Teenage girls eat more unhealthily than any other group in the population, ­government research has revealed. The study from the Food Standards Agency is designed to shed light on the nation’s eating habits shows that despite multimillion-pound government initiatives to encourage us all to eat more healthily, obesity levels in the UK have barely changed [...]

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Conventional schools failing your child? Consider the alternatives

We are anxiously  awaiting the results of our primary school application. We live in an area with a high proportion of young families where schools are oversubscribed. This year, our first choice school had 45 places of which 30 went to siblings leaving just 15 places. We been researching other options and come across some [...]

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Swine flu vaccine scrapped for under 5′s

The Department of Health has revealed it is to scrap plans for healthy children under five to continue to be vaccinated against swine flu, just three months after urging GPs to vaccinate more than three million youngsters against the outbreak. In a major U-Turn, the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, revealed the programme of [...]

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Cost of raising children on the rise

According to an annual survey of parenting, the cost of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 has topped £200,000 for the first time. Figures released today show the cost of having a child has risen by 4 per cent in a year. More than three out of four parents say they [...]

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Charity Beat says teach children self esteem

Children as young as eight should be taught about self-esteem in a bid to stop them developing eating disorders, a charity has said. Youngsters need to learn emotional resilience and tactics for dealing with images of the “perfect body” in the media, said Beat. It wants lessons on the issue to form part of personal, [...]

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