May 2017

I got home exhausted the other day, Jay had made a mess. He was refusing to do his homework, and hadn’t showered. All he wanted to do was continue playing. He refused every request I made, no matter how I asked him. He was just in that mood where he will contradict everything that’s said to him.

So I start shouting, raising my voice, because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. At least, that’s what I would have done in the past. I know it doesn’t work, but there comes a point when you’ve tried everything you can think of, and it’s the only option left. read more

“But all my friends have one” she yelled at the woman who had to be her mother. “I don’t care” she responded, “You’re too young to have your own phone”. “I’m twelve, and everyone else already has one” the girl screams back. Standing there in the middle of the phone shop, the mother and daughter play out a scene that is becoming all too common.

Our children are being exposed to technology at a young age, and as parents we seek to limit and direct our offspring through the treacherous waters that tech can lead to. In a lot of cases this means we aren’t just battling with our children, but also with other parents that have a different view of the world and all it has to offer. read more

Jay, my son, is sitting at the table frowning at his Chinese homework, “You can do it if you try”, we tell him. “We believe in you. When you push yourself, you do really well at this”, we continue encouraging him. But then we go too far, “You’re really smart, just take your time and you’ll get it all right.”

As parents, we all (at least I hope all), want to encourage our children to do well at school, but how do we know if we’re pushing encouraging them too much? And what was wrong with that last thing we said to Jay? read more

The other night Jay, my son, SO, my wife, and I were sitting in the kitchen talking and SO was looking through her Pokemon Go app, when she asked a question about what she needed to evolve a certain Pokemon. If you’re not sure what that means, don’t worry it’s not that important for this story. The thing is, Jay started going off about what was needed in detail, talking about what she needed and what the evolutions were and a whole bunch of other facts that, to be frankly honest, confused both SO and I. He actually went on for about ten minutes, even though the answer to her question was just a single item. read more

It’s been a long day at the office and you’re exhausted. You walk in the front door, and your son (or daughter) is on you. “Mummy, I hurt my foot at school. Can you make it better?”. “Mummy, Bobby teased me.”. You didn’t even get a chance to take your shoes off, and you have a million and one problems to solve before dinner.

You check with his father, and he knows nothing of these problems. It’s not that he doesn’t care, if he’s anything like me he does. The thing is, your little one sees you as the problem solver and has been storing up his problems and anxieties until you got home. read more