Thinking parenting Blog
Toddler Food Battles: Seven steps to stress-free mealtimes
There are certain battles that grown-ups will always lose if they go head-to-head with children. Toileting is a classic: there is absolutely nothing that a parent can do to force a child to produce...
How to be a good mother to a teenager
As a parent, it’s often hard to know what’s important and what isn’t. Does it matter if your child eats their chips with their fingers at the dinner table? Or is it more important...
Becoming a single parent: the change curve
Becoming a single parent was both the worst and the best thing that has happened to me. At the time, it was devastating: I felt I had screwed up my life and my children’s lives. Fundamentally....
What’s going on in my teenager’s brain?!
Teenagers and toddlers have a lot in common. An ability to go from 0 to 10 on the tantrum scale completely out of the blue, a stubborn refusal to follow guidance, fierce fixations on particular...
How my preschoolers designed a stress-free morning routine
When my children were little and still at Nursery, our morning routine was a tetchy affair. As a single working parent I had to get them (and me) dressed, fed and out of the house by 7.45am to be on...
The secret of calm parenting? Only ask twice!
Being a parent I have discovered that I do not have endless patience. Like a muscle that has been regularly exercised, I hope that my patience has strengthened through raising children. But when...
Parenting teenagers without conflict
The thing about parenting teenagers (and parenting in general) is that every time you think you’ve got a handle on it, something changes. Strategies that work well with one child seem to have...