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,...
Is My Child Gifted — Or Just in the Wrong School Environment? When her bright, quirky son became withdrawn and unhappy at school, Jane Eldridge wondered if giftedness was the issue. Years later, she realised the more important question was whether he had found the...
Adolescent years can be a turbulent time for children and parents, as teenagers lack the skills and maturity to handle emotional stressors....
When a beloved family pet disappears, the hardest thing to cope with is not knowing what happened, explains Gill Canning. It was the first day of the school holidays. “Has anyone seen Ziggy?” I asked my three boys at lunchtime. They shook their heads. No one had...
