The teenage years can be among the trickiest times for a parent. You have been used to being your child’s voice of reason. Then, all of a sudden, your authority is challenged by their peers, social media and huge developmental changes. But the good news is children aged ten to 12 are still more influenced …
Parenting style
It can be hard to accept as an adult parenting teens that perhaps you are part of the problem. The ‘problem’ being the repetitive arguments that start with a niggle (bedroom a bombsite, clean laundry chucked into the bottom of the wardrobe), and escalate to a full-blown blue. The kind that leaves you reeling, feeling …
The program Parental Guidance has been showing on Channel 9 recently. This is the second season of the show that pits 12 sets of parents with very different parenting styles against each other to work out which is “best”. This year, for example, there is a couple who use “American-style” parenting, pushing their young daughter …
A parenting switch might be just the thing you need in your life right now. Every parent knows the sinking feeling of defeat when you suddenly realise that whatever it is you’re doing to try to guide your child just isn’t working. Just. not. working. It’s that feeling of beating your head against a brick …
Years ago, when the children were small and there were only two of them, we would talk about our best and worst parts of the day at dinnertime. Gathered around our timber dining table, a candle burning, night falling, we started practising gratitude – a tradition that has since become a daily ritual. We would …
When my kids were little, I used to be eager to get to the ‘next phase’. Next stop rolling, walking, talking, solids, potty, preschool, letters, school, sight words, reading… On and on it went. I didn’t yet realise that parenting is a marathon, not a sprint. When we sprint, there’s a finish line and a …