Kate Gorringe-Smith decides that it is best to guide children through tough times rather than trying to shield them from them. I knew things were bad, but I still didn’t expect to find my daughter sitting alone at lunchtime, crying. We’d been back in Australia less than...
Graphic scenes on television in recent times, showing homes crammed floor-to-ceiling with an astonishing amount of stuff is known now as a mental illness. Bronwyn Coulter explains how problems accumulated when she was growing up in a house of hoarders. I grew up in a house...
Louise Jefferies ponders the reasons for her husband’s infidelity and considers its impact on their relationship. It is hard to explain the reason for my certainty, but I suddenly realised that Rick – my husband of seven years, the father of my two preschool-age children, the...
Meredith Martin explains that you know you’re alive with five. A recent visit to the GP left me bemused. Our usual doctor was booked out, so we saw another. The appointment was for my son, not me, and yet the doctor launched into a series of...
COPE has a new online resource dedicated to providing emotional and mental health for women. Here we look at why it's such an important free tool for parents. Finding information on every pregnancy symptom and test online, always misses one of the most important pieces of...
Louise Bettison looks at how defence-force families cope, and sometimes struggle, with the effects of deployment and frequent relocation. In Perth, a young woman posts on internet bulletin boards, seeking advice about her pregnancy. Having recently relocated because of her husband’s defence-force obligations, she has no...
Lily Pavlovic introduces a new local kids’ program called Hardball, which premiered on the ABC Me App on 1 April. A recent study by Viacom of 8,000 dads across 22 countries found today’s fathers are more emotionally attached, embracing greater responsibility and investing in children’s learning...
Victorian barrister Celia Conlan, advocates for separated parents to take a conciliatory approach when dealing with arrangements relating to their children. In our society, in which almost everything has a price, most of us cling tightly to our investments. Some parents even view their children as...
Anju Regis discusses with Renee Fedele, a Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) Mediator & Child Consultant, what she observes when parents are entrenched in the battlefield that a separation/divorce can be. When you see families in mediation, and children in child consultations, what are the common...
Dr Melissa Kang contemplates how sex education is treated in Australian classrooms, homes, media and peer groups. Background History The scientific study of human sexuality in Western societies began just over 100 years ago. Prior to then, societies allowed the church to dictate the purpose, meaning and...
