There seems to be so much confusion about what Free Range Parenting is all about. I am a clear advocate of Free Range Parenting, its part of my Six Key Factors in great parenting see here—however, lets be clear, Free Range Parenting is not Free For All Parenting! If we are going to let our [...]

Parents, we need to look in the Mirror! Yesterday my 14 year old was furious! Not just cross but furious.  And it was to do with her favourite sport kayaking.  I was surprised, she’d had a brilliant time last week not only paddling but also jumping off the jetty with her friends for a swim [...]

The Low Down on Good Food for Our Kids There is so much STUFF out there about food and kids… Everyone is freaking out about childhood obesity—with good reason too I might add—the numbers are terrifying; up to 25% of Australian kids are overweight or obese and this number is growing each year. 50% of [...]

  I’m sitting around on a Saturday afternoon mulling over what we would do as parents to really screw our kids up?  Not quite sure why this came to me, but it sure as hell gives us some ideas of what not do as parents. So much of this is based on my work in [...]

NB: if there is violence or abuse within the relationship, all bets are off and most of this material is probably not applicable. Nothing damages kids more than witnessing or experiencing violence. I don’t care whether you had a terrible childhood, your mother didn’t love you enough, you drink too much or do drugs – [...]

  This is hugely emotional topic, as I write this from personal experience. I’m not putting it out there as the last word, or basing it on research; it’s drawn from my experiences with a chronically ill child.   I consider myself extremely lucky that my child was only chronically ill and her life was [...]

While it may seem stupidly obvious, you really need to talk with you partner about your expectations and thinking about this whole parenting adventure that you are about to embark on. Right now you probably feel a bit overwhelmed by decisions; what colour should we paint the baby’s room? Will we have a natural birth? [...]

With the launch of the For Kids Sake report in Australia this week, the message for raising happy kids seems to be, “Everyone get married, stay married and all will be well with the world.” I wish it were so easy and simple, however, reality, being the bugger that it is, means that things are a lot [...]

Can we have a bit of sense here, please? In the latest media frenzy about the issue of same sex marriage and parenting, triggered in part by the announcement of Penny Wong and her partner expecting their first baby later this year, and in part by the London riots, many commentators seem to be confusing [...]