Stephanie Brown and Deirdre Gartland look at how intimate partner violence affects children’s health Childhood should be a happy and carefree time, but often it doesn’t work out that way. Children are exposed to all the stresses and strains that affect the families and communities in...
When Ondine Sherman meets another parent at a picnic, she is prompted to wonder about some social vagaries. “We’re going for a picnic,” said my friend Vanessa. “Beautiful spot, heaps of kids, and a riverbank where they can run around.” I agreed. Me, my husband Dror,...
Patricia Lee learns to take nothing for granted as the midwife called for the emergency obstetrician. As I slumped onto the delivery bed, panting and sweating after another contraction, I knew something was wrong. After spending the entire day in labour and pushing for hours, my...
Why First-Borns Rule the World and Later-borns want to change it by Michael Grose, published by Penguin Life, p/b RRP$34.99 (pub. June 1, 2021) Originally published as Why First-Borns Rule the World and Last-borns want to change it, 2003 this is fully revised and republished and updated...
Lara Cain Gray recounts a hairy moment involving her son. My 10-month-old son ate a spider. Let’s not sugar-coat it (although I’m sure that it's a delicacy somewhere) – it was frightening and revolting in equal measure. We’d had a typically hectic morning trying to get our...
When her daughter was eventually diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Sue McLachlan finally understood the reason for her daughter’s many rituals. When my daughter was about four years old, I was impressed that she had a genuine concern for hygiene. She loved to have her bath each...
Adolescent years can be a turbulent time for children and parents, as teenagers lack the skills and maturity to handle emotional stressors....
The arrival of two guinea pigs marks the end of Jodie McEwen’s pet procrastination. I’m just not an animal person; love of creatures is not in my nature. My dad tried to pass on his love of animals, so we had rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, birds,...
The federal government is pitching its 2021 budget as “women-friendly” writes Danielle Wood, Kate Griffiths and Owain Emslie. This week it announced a key feature of that – more money to make child care cheaper and boost women’s workforce participation. The Coalition’s policy will increase spending...
Already badly off, single parents went dramatically backwards during COVID, report Tom Crowley, Danielle Wood and Esther Suckling. These parents are raising our future adults. Single parents with dependent children — eight out of ten of them women — were far more likely than others to...
