Teenagers aren’t lazy—their brains are wired to run later. New neuroscience explains why early school start times clash with teens' sleep, mental health, and learning, and why some Australian schools are rethinking the school day. If your teenager struggles to get out of bed before school,...
Sandy Leen finds that her idea of what constitutes a good babysitter is quite different from those of her children. When You Don’t Have “A Regular” The downside of living far from family and moving every couple of years or so is that we have never had...
Is it only just an increase in sick days? How can Australia fix this? ask researchers Jordana Hunter, Amy Haywood and Molly Chapman On a typical school day in Australia last year, about 11% of students were absent. In 2014, the figure was 7%. Two in...
How parents shape a child’s pain response matters, writes Joshua Pate It happens in slow motion. Your six-year-old daughter is sprinting across the playground at school drop-off time when her toe catches on uneven ground. She goes down hard. The playground goes silent. She freezes and looks...
More than 20 sunscreens were pulled from the shelves in 2025 after testing showed they were below their advertised SPF rating – so where does this leave us for summer 2026? Asks Sophie Paquet-Fifield In Australia, we are exposed to some of the harshest and most...
If you’re anything like me, parenting (and pregnancy) has a habit of sending you down some very specific Google rabbit holes, writes Susie Williams From sleep and behaviour to screens and pregnancy worries, parents’ search histories offer a revealing snapshot of what’s really weighing on families...
As Australian families prepare for the start of a new school year, many parents are asking a quiet but important question: will this classroom really work for my child? For families of children with disability, developmental delay, autism or additional learning needs, inclusion is about more...
If your child falls apart the moment they get home from school, you’re not imagining it — and you’re definitely not alone. Afternoon meltdowns, bedtime blow-ups and tears over seemingly small things are incredibly common in young children, especially during the early primary years. What looks like...
Australia is battling its biggest rise in whooping cough cases in 35 years. So why the surge? Asks Archana Koirala During 2024 and 2025 Australia recorded 82,513 whooping cough cases – the highest number since monitoring began in 1991. Also known as pertussis or the “100-day cough”,...
Take care with paracetamol when pregnant, write Luke Grzeskowiak and Debra Kennedy — but don’t let pain or fever go unchecked. Pregnancy comes with aches and pains and heightened anxiety about what we put into the body. A new article published in Nature Reviews Endocrinology has urged...
