ReachOut Parents is partnering with Instagram Australia to launch a new ‘Parents Guide to Instagram’. Mental health service ReachOut Parents has released new research showing that approximately one-third of Australian parents are concerned about their teens' use of social media and are unsure about the role...
Her daughter’s dread of daycare leads Heather Catchpole to change her childcare centre. Each morning I awoke to the same question: “Is it daycare day?” Reluctantly awake, I would screw up my face and prepare myself for the onslaught. “Yes, darling, it’s daycare day.” Then the...
A daughter’s probing questions cause Karen Baumgart to ponder the nature of nudity in the home. It began with an all-too-tactile query from our two-year-old daughter: “What’s that?” she chirped merrily, making a grab for that part of my husband as he emerged from the shower....
Some wonderful books have been released recently for parents, step-parents and carers on how to support and help their kids develop into happy and healthy adults. These books cover many of the topics you might need to be confident supporting today's 'Generation Alpha' to flourish. The...
Hellen Morgan-Harris ponders how children might figure in her life. I wonder how on earth I am to explain to the angelic eight-year-old face peering at me that her uncle is wearing swimmers to bed because we have been warned that she might jump into bed...
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” This 19th-Century mantra has been drummed into kids for generations, writes Nicki Letts. Now it’s got new life as the biggest buzzword in education: grit. Did you know Bill Gates’s first business failed astronomically? That Stephen King’s...
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” The biggest buzzword in education is grit, writes Nicki Letts, who provides these ideas to help your child develop it. Nurture them. Lab experiments show that baby rats whose mothers licked and groomed them to reassure them...
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,...
Jane Elder no longer wonders whether her son is ‘gifted’ – she is just relieved that he has found his own niche. For two years, I stood by helplessly watching a vital and clever little boy transform into a bored and lonely, apathetic child who was...
Adolescent years can be a turbulent time for children and parents, as teenagers lack the skills and maturity to handle emotional stressors....
