Rob Pegley looks at the family bookshelves to find that 'ABC' books have a way to go to appeal to the 21st century child. Our children’s book collection is much like that of any other household. It includes a handful of ‘ABC’ books from various publishers....
Elizabeth Bate is driven batty by cultural confusion over her son’s superhero party. When my husband, Martin, offered to dress up as Batman as a surprise for our son Sam’s fifth birthday party, I was enormously relieved. In this modern age of competition, children’s birthday parties...
Rob Pegley investigates the fascinating, and often downright frightening, world of children’s classics. Like most parents of preschool children, we try to shield the kids from television programs of a slightly adult nature with borderline offensive content. Even something as universally accepted as The Simpsons fails...
Lavinia Day reports personal space seemed to be missing with some of the younger kids in her child's class and her daughter's friends come just a bit too close too often! As adults, we feel uncomfortable when someone we are talking to stands too close. I...
The birth of a child changes little for Australian fathers’ working lives, according to an analysis of employment trends in the past few decades by Emma Walsh, CEO Australian Institute of Family Studies. Institute Director Anne Hollonds said that while mothers’ employment alters dramatically after having...
Evelyn Santoro, My Forever Family NSW spokesperson, says they hope to inspire more people to consider becoming a foster carer and to understand there are a variety of ways they can do so. There are currently over 17,000 children living in out of home care in...
Deanne O’Keefe was given full-time care of her grandson nine days after his birth. His mother, Deanne’s second-eldest daughter, was schizophrenic, an alcoholic and addicted to heroin. Deanne had little contact with her daughter in the years that followed, but she did find out that a...
Clinical psychologist Renee Mill explains that a child who might appear to be the victim of bullying could simply be struggling with class dynamics. Six weeks ago, a couple consulted me about their son, Peter*. They were concerned because he had complained more than once that...
It was a relief when the mystery of why Liz Dunoon’s son was having difficulty in reading was solved. I sat in the driver’s seat of my car feeling empty and numb as a warm tear slid down my cheek. I stared blindly through the windscreen...
Contact changeover – the handing over of a child or children by one parent to the other – is often difficult and awkward, even in situations where the separation has been relatively amicable. When a child is handed from one parent to the other and...
