Skip to content

How to parent smarter not harder.

photo of young black boy wearing glasses in a classroom surrounded by children all working hard in exercise books, to illustrate article on school stress

School Stress: are you pushing too hard?

There is growing evidence that children and young people in the UK are experiencing a mental health crisis. School stress is one of the top reasons children reach out to the counselling service...

montage of 8 children's books about shyness

10 Children’s books about shyness

Reading books with children is a great way to start conversations about topics they might find difficult. Whether you have a shy child or just want to help your confident child develop empathy,...

Helping children set goals by parenting expert Anita Cleare - picture of toy astronaut

Helping children set goals

Helping children set goals has huge benefits for their self-esteem. It also teaches them an essential life skill that underpins much academic and workplace success. And, at a time of huge...

How a snow globe can help children self soothe

Young children find abstract concepts difficult. So words like ‘anxiety’ or ’emotion’ can be a bit baffling to them. What do those words actually mean? And how do they help?...

Mindfulness apps for children and teens

Parents and professionals are deeply concerned about the impacts of the pandemic on children and teenagers’ emotional wellbeing. Coming on top of an existing crisis in children’s mental...

Finger breathing: how to calm anxious children (by Anita Cleare) - photo of hands

Finger breathing – how to calm anxious children

If you have ever tried to tell a young child who is in the grip of a big emotion to “Calm down,” you will know that often doesn’t work. Children need much more concrete strategies...

Parenting is a two-way relationship

One of the things I encourage parents to do is to see parenting as a relationship between a parent and a child rather than as a one-way activity. That means focusing on building a good relationship...

Montage of book covers showing storybooks for children about working mums

Storybooks for children about working mums

A client recently asked me to recommend books she could read with her little one about going back to work. But I could only think of one book. I can recommend lots of books for helping children cope...

Photo of girl in a chair staring out of the window with caption to accompany resource list for parents on supporting children's mental health

Supporting children’s and teenagers’ mental health: resource list

Children and young people’s mental health is hardly out of the news these days but often parents are at a loss how best to help and support a child/teenager who is struggling. So, I have...

Photo of mother cuddling young child to illustrate article on talking to children about tragic events

Talking to children about tragic events

As events remind us all too often, we live in a world in which bad things happen. And in this digital era of rolling news, graphic details about terrorist attacks, accidents and other tragic events...

Top 10 starting school books: photo of 'Boris Starts School'

Top 10 starting school books (for preparing children for school)

Getting ready to start school has very little to do with the alphabet and lots to do with practical and emotional preparation (see School readiness skills for pre-schoolers). Their first day at...

Resilient Parenting (because bad things can still happen to good parents)

Whenever I run parenting seminars, there are always some parents attending who are there for ‘prevention’ purposes. By that I mean that they don’t have problems with their...

photo of stressed mum and child

Stressed-out parents: how stress impacts parenting (and what to do about it)

One of the key principles of positive parenting is looking after yourself. Being a parent is not all about the kids. Creating a family that you enjoy being a member of means balancing...

Building children’s self-esteem

Self-esteem comes from children feeling accepted, competent and effective. Parents cannot directly create those feelings in children – feelings are subjective and everyone is different. But...

Separation anxiety

It is very normal for young children to experience separation anxiety when being left by a parent. Separation anxiety tends to emerge at about 8-12 months old and can be very intense (especially...