parenting
Teen text speak – a parent’s guide to what they’re really saying online
How to decipher your child’s text abbreviations
Tips to manage your child’s Smartphone activity – a review of the Family Link app
Tips for setting safe limits for young teenagers
Parenting: What Defines a Mother?
I don’t have any photos of my boy on the walls of my house. There are 32 of my firstborn, as I’m frequently reminded by my son, who is a second child. I’ve been meaning to do it for 10 years – I’ve just been too busy. Being a mother. It’s not that I don’t feel guilty – believe me, I do. There just always seems to be something more urgent to take care of. I even bought a frame, just like the one I did for my daughter, but it’s gathering dust under my bed, where it’s been since …
Laugh: Leaving your kids at home with your partner
Last weekend I went away, leaving my children to be looked after by their father. When I say I went away, I mean properly, out of contact, of no use at all, don’t even bother to call me, I won’t answer away. I was on a press trip in Lanzarote – yes, I actually left the country, so whatever happened, my family were totally, and utterly on their own, for the first time in forever. It should be doable, right? Except, once you’re a mum, it’s really hard to let go. The first time my friend Kathleen went away and left …
Diabetes Anniversary: Not Drowning But Waving
A diabetes anniversary is always a time for reflection. If you’d asked me three years ago how I felt about diabetes, I would probably would have burst into tears before I’d managed to utter more than a sentence. But here’s why I’m glad, 3 years on, for the lessons it has taught us…
A Teatime Kids Favourite with Full-On Flavour but No Added Sugar
Hands up who sometimes ends up tearing their hair out at teatime? We make fabulous meal plans and have wonderful intentions to feed everybody from scratch, don’t we? But inevitably there’s going to come a day (or more!) in the week when you’re shattered, everyone’s hungry right NOW, and you just don’t have it in you to put together an elaborate chickpea and soya bean casserole. Am I right? But you still want to feed your kids something that’s nutritious, not full of rubbish, and that they’ll actually enjoy. My kids have always been fans of spaghetti hoops (though if …
Why teenagers need you more, not less as they grow up
When you’re in the thick of looking after your young child, and someone tells you teenagers need you more than toddlers, you laugh. But here’s why it’s true…
Parenting: Why Teenage isn’t a number
“She’s SUCH a Teenager!!” I’m betting every parent knows where that came from, even if their oldest child is only three. There’s even a term for it – threenager. Every exasperated mother who’s ever manhandled an obstinate toddler into a pushchair, or been struck speechless by her seven-year-old’s ability to hit a raw nerve understands the fear of what might come next. If she’s like this now, how bad is it going to be when she’s a teenager..? What exactly is a teenager? The thing is, teenaged isn’t really an age – it’s a process. Parenting society has come to use the word …
Why every parent needs a solo spa break
Stressed and frazzled? A solo spa break could save your parenting sanity…
Parenting: Watch More TV to End Bedtime Battles
Bedtime battles have to be one of the most frustrating aspects of parenting, don’t they? You put up with sleepless newborn nights, assuming that routine will come, and you’ll get your evenings back. And for most, it does. Until your baby wises up and realises that he has influence. From that moment on, you’re doomed. The nightly debate as your sleepy child kicks into his energy reserves for a final sprint sucks the life from you, even as your dinner sits cooling in front of Game of Thrones, stuck on live pause. Sky TV asked me to take a look …
How David Lloyd will Save Me From Myself
I spend all my time at my desk. I drop the kids off at school, flirt with the idea of going for a run, think better of it, and start work. I plan to run before lunch, then take a panic shower every day when I realise I have five minutes until the school run and I’ve been sitting there all day with nothing more and coffee and toast to break my focus. I’m a good mum; I switch off my laptop when the kids get home, and spend some time with them, cook for them, ferry them to their …
Parenting: 10 things your child will grow out of (and 5 that they won’t)
Parents: don’t worry about these things – they’re just a phase
Judgement – a Life Lesson for those who are judged, and those who judge
How best to support your friend who is going through something difficult.
Why diabetes is like a toddler
What would you say is the worst thing about having a toddler? The obsession with the word no, and a refusal to comply with any request? The sleepless nights, as your child won’t sleep, or will sleep, but not in his own bed, and only for intermittent bursts? His unpredictability, and tendency to tantrums out of nowhere? His uncanny knack of figuring out a way round all your best laid plans? Or his lack of common sense and logic, which frequently puts him in dangerous situations, as you hurtle in to save him? It’s the same with diabetes. Toddlers and Diabetes at …
Wot So Funee? How to change your parents
Prompted by I’m Counting UFO’s #funee post last week I remembered that actually I had wanted to change my Mummy recently. I knew I couldn’t, but after I’d doled out all the requisite slander – “You’re the worst Mummy in the world, you hate me, I hate you, you love the Bug more than me…” I pulled out my best lines to really sock it to her. “I’m going to tell Laura tomorrow, and she’s going to tell her Mum, and then her Mum will hate you too, and you’ll have no-one to speak to on the playground.” Mummy, having …
My name is GG and I watch TV…
Prompted by a thread on Mumsnet this week Mummy got rather mixed up in a debate over the rights and wrongs of watching TV as a child. It seems some bloke has advocated banning TV entirely for the under-3’s. For God’s sake! The under-3’s?? I have about enough time to eat my tea, go to a couple of playdates, do my homework, complete my music practice, and read a book or several before bed, without worrying about when I’m going to find a window for Tracey Beaker or Horrid Henry. Don’t get me wrong, I will sit for 36 hours in …
Guest post from Netmums Author Hollie Smith: Advice for parents on how to deal with friendship issues
I have never hosted a guest post before. I’ve had editorial from brands and companies on here occasionally, but I’ve never actually hosted another blogger. And not just any old blogger, either. A proper, bona fide published author-turned-blogger. I first came across Hollie Smith when I offered to review her Netmums Ultimate Baby & Toddler Q&A book. I thought that me having been an example of her subject matter not long ago, and an occasional comic to boot, would see me well-placed to write a riveting review. Time will tell; I’m up to the chapter about cutting baby’s nails, and …