Blog

Whether our kids are unsure of themselves or brimming with confidence, it is useful to think about the way we connect with them through compliments. I will include a link to a TED talk below, in which Cheryl Ferguson, a music teacher from Winnipeg in Canada who beams with enthusiasm for sharing what she has [...]

Christmas is over. New Years has been and gone. For many families the family holiday away has passed as well. Still to come for many of the families I work with are weeks and weeks of juggling being back at work while at the same time keeping the kids adequately supervised and occupied. This blog [...]

ABC Newcastle Interview with Jenny Marchant It can be hard to watch a child of ours not radiate with glee apon opening their christmas gifts. We can flare up with with concerns they have become entitled and ungrateful, and the next thing we know Christmas Day has gotten off to a bumpy start. Listen here [...]

Imagine this - it is Sunday. You are just back from a fabulous holiday and the back to work dread has crept in. You moan to your partner, saying you wish you didn't have to work tomorrow and how ready you are to quit that place. You KNOW you have to go, and that you [...]

Maybe you are familiar with this situation - standing to one side cringing at the level of emotion that your partner is dishing out to your child.  Every molecule of you reacting to the fact it has gotten more physical or more shame-evoking than you know is useful and you are worried that dear child you [...]

When our kids say things like "I'm not pretty" or "I'm so dumb" we can easily worry that it is a reflection of how they feel about themselves in general and non-usefully project forward visualising them as teens all bound up in angst and self-hate head to toe in black self-harming to death metal. It [...]

How in heck are ‘our own back-to-school needs’ and respect/gratitude related? Well – last year my most hotly asked questions were ‘How do I teach my child gratitude?’ followed closely by ‘How do I teach my child respect’ from parents looking hopefully at me to tell them something they could instill into their children in [...]

Here is an exercise you can use to reflect on what your family achieved this year, what was challenging, and the skills you engaged to shine through. When we take the time to think on these topics it sets us up to better know how we function as a crew, and how we can etch [...]

‘Take time OUT of your business to work ON your business’ is something I constantly hear as pivotal to success in entrepreneurville (which I entered in April this year when I left my 10 yr government-funded position as a Parenting Worker to launch Love Parenting).   Now, more than ever, I see why.  For the 10 [...]

A huge theme this month has been all the 'conflicting information' we encounter as parents.  Over and over again there has been glaring examples of how much our parenting stress amps-up when we try and navigate these mixed messages. It came up big-time in last week's conversations when the theme was 'picky eating', as well [...]