The Help: Teen Mothers

May 16, 2013 in Anecdotes, Children, Lifestyle, Mothers, Parenting, Pregnancy & Birth, Stories

How many times have you walked past a pregnant female who looks far too young to have a child and judged them in your head? I’m sure I have at some stage in my life, which is not something I am proud of. Society paints teen mums as ‘irresponsible’, ‘immature’ and often feeds the stereotype that teen mums can’t be good mothers. I have heard many people say “They just want the baby bonus, it’s about money. Wait till that baby screams all night, the novelty will wear off and the money runs out and it’s not so ‘fun’ anymore, [...]

My Child has Osteogenisis Imperfecta and an Unbreakable Spirit

May 10, 2013 in Anecdotes, Children, Family, Health, Mothers, Parenting, Relationships, Stories

Imaging looking at your newborn baby. Their tiny lips their long figures That cute button nose. Now imagine being told to limit the amount of times you hold your baby. That every time you pick him up you need to carefully plan every aspect in handling him or you could seriously injure him. That’s what life is like with a baby born with Osteogenisis Imperfecta. Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI, sometimes known as brittle bone disease, or “Lobstein syndrome”) is a congenital bone disorder. People with OI are born with defective connective tissue, or without the ability to make it, usually because of [...]

Video: The Child Abuse Message Aimed at Children

May 7, 2013 in Children, Current Affairs, Health, Human Rights, News, Parenting

This video demonstrates a new anti-child abuse advertisement which contains a hidden message for children. When viewed from an adult’s height the image shows a sad child and the message “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it” but when viewed from a child’s height, or anyone under 4 foot 5 inches tall, the image shows a bruised child and the additional message “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” with the phone number. A really powerful message, a great idea and a wonderful way to reach children while they’re standing with the person [...]

Recipe: Allergy Friendly Chocolate Cake

May 2, 2013 in Children, Food & Recipes, Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

It’s birthday season in our house. Well three from five birthdays are in May so it’s most definitely at the top of my mind. Last year we had a guest at the kids’ party who had dairy and egg allergies and I must admit I initially had a bit of a stress about it. However I’m not one to back down for a culinary challenge and when you break it down it’s actually not as bad as you may think. Here are a few tips and ideas if you have to cater for those with allergies. Of course check with [...]

Why Are There No Boys Named Sue?

April 26, 2013 in Body Image, Celebrity, Children, Entertainment, Gender, Parenting, Pregnancy & Birth, Society

In the last few years it’s become acceptable and even cool to give kids gender neutral names. That’s hardly news. However with this trend, I’m seeing a lot of girls with traditionally ‘male’ names, and very few boys with traditionally ‘female’ names. As a teacher I’ve seen some pretty out there names and interpretations of names. Calling the roll for the first time with a new class can be tricky: Me: “Elliot? Is Elliot here? Has anyone seen him?” Student: “ Um, Elliot is a GIRL, Miss!” (Rolls eyes at my apparent stupidity) Me: “Oh. Has anyone seen HER?” I’ve [...]

Motherhood and Unrealistic Expectations (A Response)

April 8, 2013 in Children, Fathers, Mothers, Parenting, Pregnancy & Birth

This is my response to Tamsin’s post on Unrealistic Expectations on Parenting Central I’ll start by openly admitting before I had children I had no idea what I was in for. I joke about how dumb I was, or how naive  or how crazy some of my ideas and ideals about parenting were. But I do still have a lot of empathy for that old me (or rather, that young me). I had some pretty strong beliefs about how I would raise my babies. I intended that my babies would go on to a routine from birth, I would do controlled [...]

Some People Have Kids, Some People Have Cats

April 5, 2013 in Children, Parenting, Pets

I want to start by saying I think cats are awesome, I have Facebook and YouTube, I know cats are pretty cool. Unfortunately I’m allergic to cats, so I can never own one myself even if I wanted to. I have friends with cats though. I was talking to one friend when our baby was a couple of months old and I said to her I was so tired from night feeds, she said “Oh I know how you feel, *cats name* kept me up all night too.” I fought the temptation to ask if her cat breastfed hourly too, but I [...]

Fiction: The Easter Egg

March 28, 2013 in Anecdotes, Children, Family, Fiction, Stories

This is based on a true story… It was a yet another Sunday and her big brother was annoying her once again, only it wasn’t a normal Sunday – it was Easter Sunday. He was doing all the usual annoying things that big brothers were good at. Touching her…not touching her. Farting, burping, pulling faces, calling her names. Being Easter Sunday, he also added showing her his half-eaten chocolate Easter eggs on his tongue. “Stop it! Eeewww, gross…!” He just laughed, ate another piece of chocolate, and repeated the process over again. She wanted to eat her chocolate eggs, but she was feeling sick. [...]

How Do You Do Pocket Money?

March 14, 2013 in Children, Finance, Lifestyle, Money, Parenting

Way back in the Christmas holidays, I started pondering the subject of pocket money. I have two boys, 5 and 8, and the subject of pocket money had come up now and then, but never seriously. As my youngest was about to start school for the first time, and my older child got old enough to be able to save for things, I resolved to make a decision on the subject before school started. I thought I’d share my thinking process with you all, as some of my friends found it helpful to think about too. I opened up the [...]

Want The Best and Brightest to be Teachers? Pay Them More!

March 11, 2013 in Children, Current Affairs, Lifestyle, Money, News, Politics, Work

The NSW Government are intending to introduce tough new tests to ensure only the best and the brightest get in to university to study teaching. Many issues have been raised around this including the fact that the skills required to get a high score on a test aren’t necessarily the skills needed to be the best teacher in the classroom. There we agree. But when it comes to tests being the way to get the best and the brightest, I completely disagree. To me, the easiest way to get the best and the brightest in the teaching profession is to [...]