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How to parent smarter not harder.

encouraging co-operation - tips on how to get children to listen and do what they are asked

Encouraging co-operation: how to get children to do what they’re asked!

He just doesn’t listen! She just won’t do as she’s asked! Getting children to co-operate can be utterly infuriating. But when it comes to encouraging co-operation, there are some...

The importance of good transition routines between work and home

Very few working parents use the same skills set at work as they need at home. Work skills tend to be task-focused and efficiency-driven. Whereas children need emotionally attuned parents who are...

Top tips for growing babies’ brains

Babies are born with almost all the neurons in their brains that they will need as adults. Their first developmental task is to start linking those neurons together to form the neural circuits that...

Round up: best parenting websites for dads

Lots of parenting websites assume – either explicitly or implicitly – that their readers are women. There are some really good websites (such as Family Lives) that strive to be...

Building a good relationship with your child

How you think about parenting makes a difference. Too often we can fall into the trap of seeing parenting as a type of ‘correction’ role – pointing out to our children what they...

photo of three happy teens to illustrate article on fun family weekends

Fun family weekends to tear teens away from tech

Sometimes, if you want to tear teens away from their tech and grab some quality family time, the best plan is to get them out of the house for the whole weekend and as far away as possible from the...

fun family activities

More fun family activities to tear teens away from tech

My mission to find new ways to entice my teenagers to make more time for family activities (and less time for tech) continues. Now that the weather is warming up, the options are widening –...

photo of hand signing behaviour contract

Using a behaviour contract with teenagers

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of reward charts. They help children to focus on the behaviour that is expected from them and they remind parents to catch their children being good and...

photo of smiling teenager to illustrate article on fun family activities

Fun family activities to tear tweens/teens away from technology

Like many people, I worry about my teens spending too much time staring at a screen. As a family, we are all pretty active but we tend to do our sports separately rather than together. We usually...

Working parents: making the most of time with your children

Many working parents find that we have less time with our children than we would like. So how can working parents invest their time and energy smartly to make the most of family time and ensure...