Family

When all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. My hammer is parenting - whenever I get a chance I bang on about families and parenting because I'm passionate about it.

It’s my opinion that most people find the first year of their first baby the toughest ...

How old should a child be when they get a phone? The median age in England for a first phone is eight years old, and the main reason they have them is because parents think their children will be safer with one.

I have all sorts of memories, like getting mussels out at Bethells Beach with Dad and cooking them on a bit of tin right there on the beach.

Did you have to write a note to remind you to put on clothes this morning? No… because it's a habit.

School holidays are coming. Soon, their school bag will be thrown the corner of their room for the last time this year. It won't be touched again until late January, by which time only a forensic scientist could tell what the black stuff is in the lunch b

Is your girl a little princess? Of course she is... in one sense anyway. In your eyes and (hopefully) in her own, she is a young woman of huge worth.

Is there a low flow… of communication and affection? Is there a bad taste: tension, passive-aggressive anger and a sense of distance between you?

I've often blown it with my kids. Usually it was getting too angry, too loud. Sometimes I've known I've blown it...

My thick framed brown glasses were a sort of chastity belt I wore on my face. Not only did they cause social rejection but I could also see very clearly and crisply who it was who was rejecting me.