Wednesday Wisdom
Tooled Up tips for loving parents around the world.
Reflect
Motivate
Support
24/04/2024
Challenges around Change
We are seeking a new family home; a process that has reminded me of both the anxiety-inducing aspects of upheaval and of all the exciting and life-enhancing opportunities it can ignite.
17/04/2024
Sibling Influences
A friend of mine recently asked me a question using terms I haven’t heard since I was at school. “Now that you’ve had two children,” she asked, “do you believe in nature or nurture?” It’s a question all parents must ask themselves at least once a week: how do you explain why your children are the way they are? And once a sibling arrives it gets twice as complicated. Because these two children, both made from what you might assume are the same ingredients and raised by the same parents…why are they so different from each other?
10/04/2024
Catching Our Breath
School holidays… they can be tricky beasts. On the one hand, it’s lovely for the kids to have a break, catch up with friends, see relatives, enjoy some downtime, and have greater opportunity to spend family time together. On the other, when children are at home (perhaps hoping for some form of entertainment from you), but ‘normal life’ also carries on, it can, at times, feel like a real challenge to keep all of the required plates spinning.
03/04/2024
No Simple Answers
Whilst listening to the radio over the Easter weekend, I happened to tune into a conversation about smartphone usage hosted by British journalist Matt Frei. The topic of conversation was around whether phones were entirely to blame for the current mental health crisis affecting children and young people.
27/03/2024
Brain Spring-Clean
As parents, our focus is on raising our children so that they can survive and thrive in adulthood. Throughout the parenting journey, we attune to who they are, nurture their interests, provide them with love and support as well as the necessary resources to cope with the inevitable challenges that will come their way.
20/03/2024
Testing Times
2,000 days. From your child’s first day in Reception to the day they sit down to their first GCSE exam twelve years later, they’ve probably spent just over 2,000 days in school. Goes quickly, doesn’t it? Whatever school you choose for your children, whatever subjects they take, whatever pathway they imagine for their future, exams are the immovable milestones of education.
13/03/2024
The Magic Pill
Here in the UK, it’s National Sleep Awareness Week. Recently, I went to a timely two-day conference organised by The Sleep Charity, a UK organisation which campaigns to improve sleep support and raise awareness of the value of a good night’s sleep.
06/03/2024
Sporty Saturdays
Last weekend, I decided to do what I rarely do, and spend it watching school hockey matches. I realised that both of my children would be playing on adjacent pitches for the first time ever, in an away game, so decided to hop in the car to go and see them play.