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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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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Meet the family who pulled the plug on gadgets to bring back childhood

Most of us have wondered at some point if the kids would be better off without TV, phones, computers and all the other gadgetry aimed at our children.  Well meet the family who have actually done it and claim its the best parenting decision they have ever made. Miranda and Richard Jones, from Ilkley, West [...]

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Put your partner before the children

A new book says parents should put their children second to their marriage to ensure family wellbeing. The advice comes from family therapist and Wall Street Journal writer David Code, in a new book entitled To Raise Happy Kids, Put Your Marriage First. He claims children who receive too much attention from overanxious “helicopter parents”, [...]

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It’s a girl thing. Part 2: Body image

Body image is a hot topic amongst girls and women . Too fat, too thin, big boobs, no boobs, too short, too tall, the list goes on. A recent 2 year study by the Children’s Society found that children were unhappy with their appearance and levels of confidence. Using a pioneering approach looking at the [...]

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It’s a girl thing. Part 1: Friendships

We’ve put together a 2 part piece on some of the big issues parents tackle when raising girls. Today’s issue… Friendships My eldest daughter is 3.5 and already the “she says she’s not my friend anymore and I can’t go to her party” has started. It breaks my heart and even worse I struggle to [...]

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