Like them or loathe them, Neha Shukla discovers how validating a mothers’ group can be. “Try and stay in touch with each other after your babies are born,” the midwife told everyone in our antenatal class. I remember thinking, ‘We’re not going to have time to...
For many kids, the period between childhood and early adolescence can be difficult, report researchers Associate Professor Vanessa Cropley, Dr Maria Di Biase and Rebecca Cooper This transitional period is commonly known as ‘pre-adolescence’ and can be a vulnerable time for the development of mental health...
Teachers should only be the first part of the solution, report Brian Moore and Sarah Redshaw. They are not trained as mental health practitioners. Schools are an obvious place to do mental health work with young people. This is important, as about one in seven young...
New UniSQ study first to explore Australian adolescents’ trolling experiences If you’ve ever thought that young online trolls are nothing more than pot-stirrers or mischief-makers who get a kick out of riling people up, you might be onto something. Trolling is an online antisocial behaviour that is...
Grit or quit? asks Sarah Jefferson Grit. Don't quit. That's the mantra many parents may have in mind when they, like me, spend what feels like years ferrying children to a seemingly endless variety of sports and activities. From enduring sheets of almost vertical icy rain...
Researchers Georgia Middleton, Eloise Litterbach, Fairley Le Moal and Susannah Ayre ask is eating together regularly as a family really a simple solution for improving health and wellbeing? We have been told that to achieve these proposed benefits we must follow an idealistic, age-old formula: all...
Researcher Rebecca English looks at why more and more parents are homeschooling and why governments need to be vigilant. Bullying can be a major factor in deciding to homeschool. An increasing number of Australian families are educating their children at home, either through homeschooling or distance education. My...
Kim McDonnell challenges us to rethink our drive for perfection. Nobody ever really tells you just how hard motherhood can be. Sure, you hear about the physical demands, sleepless nights, unequivocal love you will feel and how “your life will never be the same”. All of...
Kelly-Ann Allen looks at the special place schools have in the process of belonging. Every March, in every corner of Australia, schools, workplaces and communities gather in various ways to celebrate Harmony Week*, and whether it’s through shared food, music, songs or stories, this is a...
Sarah Hamilton examines the epidemic of parents oversharing online. If a baby takes their first steps in a quiet family room and nobody Tweets about it, did it happen? Technology has infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives, leaving our children little chance of sliding under...
