Parenting
If we have realistic expectations we realise that what we really need is not to train our babies and toddlers, but build a network of support once again for parents, a 'village' as some say. The issue really is a problem belonging to adults and society, what really needs fixing?
Spending time with your children is the perfect excuse to get healthy
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There’s not much better for family bonding than arts and crafts.
I appreciate this probably sounds 'far out' and frankly quite ridiculous to some of you reading. Why on earth would we not want our children to apologise when they have done something wrong? I'm not disputing this, I am however disputing the way in which we go about achieving it.
Against this background of Mothering Sunday hysteria, it's understandable that over the years various teachers, play school helpers and creche supervisors approach the inevitable 'for whom should we make the card' conversation with us with visible dread.
I'm just going to come out and say it. I did the '36 book exchange' thing on Facebook. I know it's bad. I know I should be ashamed of myself. I know I am basically a moron and I have done The Worst Thing Ever.
For parent and child, a cancer diagnosis is a mental shock. And the physical shocks that follow that diagnosis- invasive treatments, surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy are also difficult to bear, also potentially traumatising.
Look, no woman is obliged to tell the world how she got pregnant, famous or not. Infertility is an intensely difficult, often painful and always personal experience. But to safeguard our own fertility and our self-esteem, we need to start filtering these "miracle" celebrity pregnancies through a reality-check. Which brings us back to Hollywood's donor egg explosion.
Living with the death of a child is difficult at any time of the year but Christmas brings extra challenges for bereaved parents. I should know. This will be my ninth Christmas without my son Owen.
