Well here I am back from a big blogging break. I’ve been practicing doing nothing in the evenings and benefited from it quite a lot. I have put my feet up, spent some time getting over feeling guilty and just recharged my batteries. Now I felt it is timely to do a blog post on […]
Parenting in a way that keeps rules and boundaries alive but doesn’t kill your relationship with your children!
It’s about how we encourage the rules, boundaries and routines in our families that is important. Read more
What a fabulous time of year to talk about making great memories for your children!
Vacation time – or as we say in New Zealand, ‘holiday time’ – is the perfect opportunity for us parents to think about how we can help our children create great memories of their childhood.
It doesn’t have to be huge and dosn’t have to be amazing but just doing something different together as a family is so important. Read more
Recently my youngest son (8 years old) came home from school saying that the teacher wants them to watch the News on Television so they can talk about it in class.
Now normally I wouldn’t think anything of this as they do need to have some knowledge and interest in the world around them. Read more
The other night I had a mini family therapy session with my own family. It was a wee problem I had noticed with the way the kids were talking to each other. There was starting to be a bit of rudeness and name-calling. Although it wasn’t a huge issue yet, I decided to ‘nip-it-in-the-bud’ before it became one.
I’ve had a lot of conversations with parents recently around when is the time to get help for their children, or parenting. It’s an important question and something that has driven my work for many years. Read more
So I haven’t been working on my blogs for a while as I’ve been really busy with other projects. I’ve been neglecting blogging!
But I thought it is time to put fingers to the keyboard with some thoughts…about fingers on the keyboards….
Is parental screen time, whether it be smartphones, tablets, computers, tv, gaming, really worse than parents chatting to friends and phone calls like the old days. Really a lot of screen time is social interaction or relaxation time isn’t it? Read more
Today I thought I would sneak into the kitchen from my sick bed and whip up some food ready for dinner tonight. You know get a head start on things so that dinner and therefore bed time is not a late one.
However as I entered the kitchen I realised that my 8 year old is rostered on for dinner tonight. Usually this means he helps me, but I had a flashback of his happy little face some time ago when he cooked dinner for us all, mostly by himself. He cooked beef stew and vegetables with mashed potato. Read more
I confess that I am a bit of a food snob, a food diva, maybe even a bit of a drama queen about food.
I have a few rules for myself such as I won’t eat left overs in general, maybe sometimes but not often. I hate mince and sausages, it’s a sirloin steak for me! Vegetables must be eaten raw, I cannot stand beautiful vegetables that have been boiled to within an inch of their little lives. I do not eat chocolate or cakes, or many sweet things at all really (Because I don’t like them rather than the sugar issue). And I absolutely will not drink instant coffee even though I am a coffee girl! Read more
Recently I was watching a TV programme about a teenager who fell in love with a Facebook “friend” who ended up not being who he said he was and actually was a perverted stalker set out to ruin young girls lives.
It is the very thing that puts fear into parents all over the world. For this young girl, her adolescent years from 15 years old until about 20 years, life was taken over and she was harassed, stalked, verbally and psychologically abused. All during the very years she would be developing her sense of herself as an adult and also when her adolescent brain was not functioning at its optimum. Read more
Sleep is a subject which I am pretty passionate about. I absolutely love my sleep.
I have the most comfortable bed in the world! I am, however, a bit of a night owl though. I am most definitely not a morning person, but can get up early if I feel motivated to get things done. With the help of a few cups of caffeine in the mornings I’m reasonable…I think!?
Apart from the fact that I love sleep, I also know the significant health benefits of sleep.
Throughout my work career I have become convinced that most children are just not getting enough sleep. In my recent work in youth suicide prevention, sleep was a significant issue for depressed teens. Read more
