I love this time of year. It can be busy and crazy… overwhelming even. But there’s also something magical in the air. A new year is about to begin. Can you feel it beckon? In amongst all the celebrations, it is a good time to pause and reflect: Are you where you thought you’d be […]
In our culture we fetishize willpower. We get hooked on the idea that individuals change themselves through the internal flexing of their own will, somehow pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. We fall into the trap of thinking that we can force others to change through sheer will. Complex and poignant interactions between people […]
We all have a cardboard cut-out idea of the perfect parent rattling away in our mind’s attic. You know, a superhero with infinite patience that doesn’t need to eat or sleep, who can read your child’s every thought or feeling with a single glance, clean and re-organise the house with a wiggle of her nose, […]
Parenting is challenging at the best of times and, every so often, it is particularly challenging. Here’s a really simple idea that I always recommend. When parenting is particularly challenging, make the rest of your life as easy as you can. Learning how to breastfeed for the first time? Not a great time to renovate […]
I think every parent gets lost in a maze of guilt sometimes. I certainly do. The list of shoulds, of not enoughs, of weaknesses, of mistakes, traps you at every turn. Stuck in the maze of parenting guilt, it seems like the only way out is to be more, to be better, to be perfect, […]
With much excitement and joy, I’d like to announce the ‘birth’ of my new book: Becoming Mum. Becoming Mum is a truly unique self-help book. It is the first book written to support women, all women, through the psychological passage to motherhood, empowering them to become the kind of mother they wish to be. Becoming […]
It is easy, as a parent, to become dazzled and then disappointed by grand plans, to feel guilty about our supposed lack of achievements or depressed about long days in which nothing much seemed to happen. We live in a culture that celebrates the big, the grand, the fancy, the over the top, the larger […]
Me-time, taking a break from your children and doing something just for yourself, is something I often here parents speaking of wistfully. It is something I’ve been known to speak of wistfully. But in my opinion, me-time can be a dangerous obsession. Let me be clear here, I don’t mean that you shouldn’t have any […]
Parenting is a 24/7 job and you can’t be at your best 24/7. I know that I am capable of providing my toddler with a day filled with a whirlwind of enriching and stimulating activities and outings, while simultaneously keeping my household running, encouraging her emotional development and responding to any challenges along the way […]