parenting tips

Is Your Child Old Enough For A Smartphone? 5 Important Factors To Consider

Kids are so tech-literate these days and some parents give their child a smartphone when they’re incredibly young. But there are some parents who don’t like the idea of their child having a phone at all and make them wait until they’re in their late teens before letting them have one.  Source – Pixabay CCO License If you’re a parent, your kids are probably nagging you about getting a phone if they don’t have one already. They’ll tell you that everybody else at school has one and you’re being unfair by not letting them have one, so what should you …

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10 Tips for Cutting Costs as a Family #SaveSmarter

Save smarter: watch the pennies mount up

Last week I took a test. Devised by Aviva, the Financial Personality Tool promised to enlighten me as to my own particular strengths and weaknesses when it comes to money. It got me completely right, and opened my eyes to some opportunities to be a bit smarter about how I save, spend, and manage my finances. I took the test for my husband, and it agreed that my suspicions were correct: we should never have got married… That shock out of the way (who am I kidding, it was never a shock – I love him to bits, but gawd …

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Helping Kids to Make Healthy Friendships

Healthy Friendships

I’ll never forget the year my best friend send me to Coventry. There were six of us in our group, and I was completely oblivious of our status of ‘top dogs’ in the classroom, though I can see it now. We occupied the centre of the room, three double desks set together, making everyone else satellites to our clique around the edges. We’d been together right from the start, though Kaye and I were best friends. Both strong personalities, we probably vied for position, although conveniently, I remember her being the most confident. I’m the classic boiled egg – what …

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A short story about self-harm

There was once a little girl with a temper. A bit like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. She was helpful, kind (if a bit bossy), mature, supportive, funny and clever. She was an incredibly determined little girl, who learned things fast and loved to read. One day the little girl started piano lessons. She never wanted to practice, but her Mummy sat with her and they both played together. She got stuck a few times, because learning the piano is hard. When she got stuck she flew into such tempers that she cried, screamed, …

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What a Nightmare! Top tip for dealing with bad dreams

Last night I had a nightmare. I was in the final of Strictly Come Dancing (yes, of course I’m that good). For some reason we had drawn the short straw and instead of being in a glitzy ballroom we were in the school hall. Not only that, but the head judge was a sorcerer, whose modus operandi was to throw dirt in the loser’s face. Now, 6 years of experience has taught me that the waking up of Mummy is only to be tackled after much consideration. So when I awoke, sweaty and indignant at the injustice of my subconscious ballroom failure, I …

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