A friend recently forced herself to try coffee for the first time. A 33 year-old mother of three, she finally caved in to the social pressure to join the coffee-lovers club. Her first experience wasn’t all that enjoyable, so it will be interesting to see if she perseveres. As a non-coffee drinker, I can understand the pressure that she has faced to conform. I’ve had numerous suggestions from coffee devotees about the best way to overcome my aversion to the taste of coffee. Read full article
Toxic parent communication stoppers that are guaranteed to turn teens off – and your better response to keep them talking. Let’s face it, talking with an adolescent can be like walking through a minefield. At any moment you could be asking what you thought was a simple, sincere question only to find it triggering an explosive response ... Here are seven things you should avoid asking an adolescent because they are guaranteed to be big “turn offs” and how to pose those trickier questions another way so you’re more likely to get a better response from your kid (or at least keep her standing in the same room with you). Read full article
Who else has this problem? This one always comes to a head in our house during the school holidays. Where are the entertaining and challenging and fun Playstation Games for teenage boys? I confess I have not done thorough research on this topic but having two teen boys in our house means that this question is frequently raised. Perhaps more than some parents, I am very careful about what I allow our teenage boys to play online or on the Playstation. Read full article
Boys are under increasing pressure to look good. How is this impacting on boys' healthy body image? Yvette Vignando appears on The Morning Show Channel 7 and discusses briefly what parents can do to promote a healthy body image in their teenage sons and protect them from developing eating disorders. Also appearing, Danni Rowlands from the Butterfly Foundation and Loveena Guilford from Styed with Love. Read full article
My eldest son was born seventeen years ago. In the time-honoured principle of new mothers, I thought him the most attractive, charming and gifted baby in the entire world. When it came to the last of these I may have had more claim than most. On his first birthday I took M to the early childhood centre for a developmental check. The nurse handed him a shape sorter with four different shaped blocks, which he promptly slotted into their respective slots without faltering: one, two, three, four. Read full article
Do you kiss your kids often? Do you tell them you love them every day? I do. They kiss me back and tell me they love me too. Often this happens more than once a day. My kids are 17 and almost 19. I grew up in an environment where the words “I love you” were never said, well almost never said. When I was 15 my mother told me she loved me in an awkward moment in the bathroom. I didn’t say it back. Read full article
Internationally acclaimed parenting experts Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish have helped millions of families with their breakthrough, bestselling books "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk" and "Siblings Without Rivalry". Now, they return with this lively, down-to-earth guide that tackles today's tough issues. Within these pages you'll discover the innovative Faber & Mazlish approach to maintaining a candid, open, mutually respectful dialogue between parents and teens. Read full article
I often swim with some girlfriends at our local gym. It's great for the exercise, the post-swim coffee time and to talk about the critical issues of the day - like our kids swearing. Each family has different levels of tolerance for swearing and even within a family, two parents would often have different views. I remember when our oldest son was at preschool how shocked I was by some of the words used by his peers who had older siblings. My shock wore off pretty fast ... Read full article
Glee star Lea Michele appears on the cover of the March edition of US Cosmopolitan. The actress is apparently 24 years old but plays the role of a teenager in the internationally popular television series Glee. In the news is the reaction by some Texas newsagents who have removed the magazine from display and others who have said that the cover shot is overtly sexual and inappropriate for a celebrity who plays a teenager. The implication is that Lea Michele is also something of a role model for young women who watch Glee. Read full article
P!nk (Alecia Moore) has just released her latest music video for her current song, “Fkin Perfect”, being given airplay. I must confess I'm partial to P!nk and her music. This is because of what she represents and stands for, and the tunes of course. As I was playing the footage on my computer my 6 and 3 year old wanted to look. I do let them listen to P!nk. I know some of her lyrics contain explicit language so I either sing loudly for those songs and cover the swearing, or I don’t let them listen to those but I don’t believe that she should be censored. Read full article
