July 2017

Junior’s sitting in front of the TV, playing a video game, and out it comes, swearing at the characters or other players. You don’t know where he learnt those words, and his father’s no help, he’s mysteriously disappeared, so you know he didn’t teach him. Must have got it from all those youtube videos he’s been watching, right? At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Okay, I admit it, I have on occasion sworn in front of Jay, my son (that didn’t last long, did it?). And he’s picked some of it up from me. Some are from youtube videos that we haven’t caught, but I do take the main responsibility.  He’s heard me do it, and by consequence it’s become normal for him. The problem now, though, is what to do about it. read more

It’s something I see everyday, people crossing the road in unsafe places. Unfortunately, the majority of these people are with young children, and it amazes me how cavalier they are, not only about their safety, but the child’s safety as well.

As responsible adults, our first instinct should be to protect our children, not put them in unnecessary danger. And just so everyone’s clear, we live in an area where we are never more than 100 meters away from the nearest traffic lights, and clearly marked and regulated crossings. read more

We’re walking through the local mall, and looking down, I realise my son, Jay, isn’t next to me anymore. My heart plummets, my pulse is racing, as I spin on the spot, eyes searching, body moving in to overdrive as panic overwhelms me. It only takes a moment to find him, looking in the window of the nearby games store, but the damage has been done as my body spends the next half hour in hyper-alert, watching him every second, every movement.

It’s a parent’s worst fear. We lose sight of them for a moment and their gone. It’s something my wife, SO, and I have kept in mind since we first welcomed him into the world. And it’s something that we have prepared for. read more

It seems like a strange question, doesn’t it? We spend so much time telling our children to be honest, that it seems counterintuitive for us to turn around and teach them to lie. After all, how many of us want our kids lying to us?

Recently though, I came across a video that suggests we should be teaching them to lie. Not the big lies that we get upset about, but small lies that help to protect other people’s feelings. You know, like when their grandparents give them a present they don’t like. None of us want the embarrassment that comes with our little one saying, “I don’t like it. It’s stupid.” read more

It’s one of those things that parents want to use, but using time-outs effectively doesn’t always seem to be within our grasp. How long should they be? Where should we put them? Are we doing anything right? Why doesn’t it seem to be working like it’s supposed to?

It’s something that my wife, SO, and I have been doing with our son, Jay, for years. Yet they never seem to have the effect that we want. So we did what most parents do, we kept doing the same thing and hoped that it would somehow start to work like it’s supposed to. read more