Anne Fitzsimmons’ children may not be great athletes, but they are good sports. I was never good at sport. Any sport. Even the ubiquitous tunnel ball and captain ball. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise to find my children have all followed in...
Mary Pearl recalls seeking sweet relief from her toddler’s supermarket tantrums. There was a toddler having a tantrum in my local supermarket. He gulped and he sobbed. He took deep hiccoughing breaths and he shrieked. The shrieks became howls of rage. His cheeks puffed and his...
Four-year-old Lucy Deerborn has survived two malignant tumours and lives with neurofibromatosis, a congenital condition that has no cure, writes Jane Reid. The first time I talked to Kristy Deerborn*, her daughter Lucy* had been in remission from a malignant tumour for two years. The tumour...
Nicole Thompson considers how we teach our children that manners matter. A single voice pierced the muffled sounds of the airport terminal, and my ears pricked up instinctively. “Lucy, no! Remember your manners,” the voice shouted. “Say, ‘Please, Mummy’.” My son and I turned to fix...
Discipline does not have to be hardline to be effective, writes Mary Pearl. My husband is a primary school teacher who uses a piano accordion (“A creature lives and breathes in a big grey box, can you guess what it is?”) and three monkeys to capture...
Kris Bordessa’s sons have a tendency towards truncation in their communication The bright, bold colours of billboards and street signs intrigued my oldest son, Brad, long before he could read. “What does that say, Mum?” he’d ask from the back seat as we whizzed down the...
Despite years of research, Lara Silko discovers you can never pre-determine what type of parent you will become When I was doing my psychology honours research in the mid-1990s as a fresh-faced 20-something, parenting looked pretty simple. I learned it could be conceptualised along two lines:...
Kate King waxes lyrical about bygone times, before realising she is a different person now she is a mother. One night recently our children gave my husband and me a rare and unexpected treat: they were asleep by 7 pm. As we gently pulled their bedroom...
Stephanie Brown has some homework for parents of children starting school. I wish someone had given me an honest and realistic list of things to be prepared for as I navigated the start of ‘big school’ alongside my five-year-old. So here’s my contribution to the greater...
To help your kids become safe and responsible online users, check out these tips. Set the ground rules Establish rules about the types of content or information your child should report to an adult – for example, telling you about any swearing or bad words they find online.Set...
