Having children who are approaching, or in the middle of their ‘teenage’ years can be a daunting experience leaving you unsure whether or not you will all emerge unscathed. With a large dose of preparation, patience and understanding you should.   How each child reacts to their changing bodies, hormones, emotions and the pressures from [...]

        The kids are getting bored with the journey by the time you have travelled for 15 minutes of the 2 hours it is going to take, providing there are no traffic queues.   The first book comes whistling past your ear as you are trying to negotiate a right hand turn, [...]

So many parents become their children’s unpaid cleaners, personal assistants, taxi drivers, cooks, chambermaids and skivvies.   Sound familiar to you?   Fear not, you can take steps to change this.   If children are involved in deciding what jobs need doing around the house, and how, when and by who they are done, it [...]

I was in the position, just before Christmas, to be called ‘unique’. Of course I am unique, as is everyone else on the planet, but the context of this particular uniqueness baffled me as it related to my philosophy on the giving of presents at Christmas.   The person calling me unique is a work acquaintance who [...]

  We are speeding towards the time of year when our children’s behaviour can became more erratic and unacceptable. Through a combination of excitement, anticipation, tiredness and over-stimulation their behaviour can change dramatically. We are also more tired with all the preparations and extra work we have to do to make this a special and [...]

I was looking through some old tutor notes of mine from when I taught at our local further education college. It’s interesting that although the language and terminology we use when talking about child development has changed over the years, the actual sequence of development and the support children need is still the same. Sometimes [...]

I was unaware until last week that fencing around private swimming pools in France is only one of the ways in which owners can comply with the law. The regulations state that there must be some form of protection to help prevent children, or adults, accidentally falling into the pool. This could be simply putting [...]

The day has dawned when our youngest leaves for Australia, maybe for good, or maybe for a few weeks if he decides he doesn’t like the place. I should be getting used to this by now. I have probably said before that we seem to have ‘Boomerang’ children who keep bouncing back to home between [...]

I know I am focussing on the teens again but this time of year is particularly focussed on them and their futures. The government has put extra money aside this year to fund the training of 230,000 apprentices aged 16 – 18 years old. I think good, skills based apprentiships are a great way for [...]

I have been staggered by the news again today, a common occurance I am afraid. This time through the reporting of the financial difficulties some families are facing because their childcare costs are rising.   I have difficulty understanding why a couple would chose to both work after having children then complain that it is [...]