Parenting

1. Avoid reassurance: Our first instinct is to tell our child that there’s nothing to worry about; meanwhile, their brain is telling them that it’s a life-or-death situation. Saying “don’t worry, it’s going to be okay” simply tells our child that we don’t understand what they’re feeling. Validate their anxiety and then set about solving […]

The following bedtime meditation for kids combines relaxation and visualisation techniques to encourage kids to calm themselves before sleep. Before you try it, carry out your usual bedtime routine, tuck them in and turn out the light. Meditation can literally make your brain bigger. A study by Harvard neuroscientists found that just eight weeks of […]

Here are 4 delicious apple recipes that you will keep coming back for! First up, Apple Cinnamon Pancakes! APPLE CINNAMON PANCAKES · 1 cup buckwheat flour · 1 cup whole wheat flour · 1 tbsp raw sugar · 2 tsp baking powder · pinch of salt · 1 1/4 cup buttermilk · 2 eggs · […]

An Article by Liz Evans with Colour Psychologist Angela Wright Back in the 1990s, iconic Icelandic singer Björk told me that she loved to wear orange. She felt it was a healing colour, and good for her soul.  At the time I thought it was a very Björk thing to say–typically lovely, and refreshingly original, […]

Everyone needs a list of things to do, easy entertainment for the school holidays with the mission of saving one bored kid at a time. Here goes: Make a pet rock for each family member Play Exquisite Corpse Sort through your toys and choose three for charity Write a love letter to Mum or Dad Make […]

Engineer, educator and philanthropist Arvind Gupta is a man on a mission. For thirty-five years he has travelled around India and the world preaching a movement he calls Toys From Trash. Motivated by both the poverty of much of his homeland and the deadening way science is so often taught to kids, Gupta has a […]

It’s a brave new world, where boys don’t always have to be so brave anymore, thanks to illustrator Keith Negley. Men might be cooking risotto, folding the towels and staying home to mind the kids nowadays, but we’re still not talking about our feelings. Not really. A few might have started opening up to their […]

Rates of anxiety and depression are at never-before-seen levels among teenagers. To some, screens are the culprit, but is it really that simple? “The Royal Children’s Hospital survey suggested that teenagers, the biggest users, were engaging with screens for an average of six hours each and every day. Yet this drastic and unprecedented shift in […]

Driving two kids in a clapped-out Holden to the centre of nowhere. Kate Berry tells us of her adventure of driving to Uluru with kids. I bought a bombed-out 1966 HD Holden station wagon for a thousand bucks in a Gippsland paddock. It was a reckless purchase made at a rocky time. I named her […]

There are lots of great benefits of having an ordinary kid. For one, you don’t have to drive them to sporting or dance events every weekend. You won’t spend empty hours in your car, sitting at the wheel in pitch black, wondering what the hell happened to your life while your super kid kicks a […]

By Catherine Deveny I vividly remember tea in the ’70s. On most nights it was chops with two veg, sausages with two veg, rissoles with two veg, ki si ming / chop suey / chow mein (or whatever your family called the dish made from mince, a packet of chicken noodle soup, Keen’s curry powder […]

By Zoë Foster Blake I enjoyed a simple, semi-rural upbringing in the ’80s. It was EXACTLY like Stranger Things, just with less paranormal activity, and more wheatgrass. My parent’s completely biodynamic, self-sufficient approach to food pissed me off so hard, cos it meant junk food was completely off limits, (“White death” mum screeched like a […]