This was the title of a talk that I went to Thursday evening at my children’s school. It was presented by Associate Professor Nicholas Allen from University of Melbourne. He is a clinical psychologist working in the Faculty of Medicine. I am four or so years of expecting my first adolescent, but I found his [...]

Back in February I reorganised the children’s toy shelf that we have in the family living area. I had noticed how over the last week or so, the majority of the toys were remaining untouched and the preschooler and toddler were looking for other things to play with. I try to rotate the toys on [...]

When The Thinker (now 9.5) was at his first year of preschool, his teacher pointed out to me how using empty praise on children often has the reverse effect of what we intended. I did some further reading on this issue and concluded that I would try and eliminate praise from my parenting vocabulary and [...]

As you can probably tell by the number of very familiar meals in the menu plan this week, the children chose all of the meals. They normally contribute in some way to what I plan, but I think after my eldest had two meals in a row which he “didn’t really enjoy” he felt the [...]

Essential Baby published a post earlier this week on a dilemma of modern parenting, asking the question “Are parents today getting it all wrong?” I know that I parent differently from my parents, but I think that within the bounds of normal (whatever that may actually be ) my children behave with consideration and respect [...]

It is only a bit over two weeks until we have school holidays here in Victoria. It has been a very long term and I have to say that I am looking very much forward to the school holidays arriving. During the term breaks I aim to have a balance of rest, relaxation and organised [...]