Topic of the Month Archive

Running on empty, feeling exhausted and overwhelmed or just fancy a night off and some fun?

Found out more here.....

From the moment you play peek-a-boo with your baby, you are preparing them for the process of moving away from you and learning about independence. Separation can be a difficult emotion not only for you as a parent but also for your child. As your child matures and gains in confidence, they grow into independent beings and it is important that you prepare them to fly the nest one day.

"How do you get your kids to stay in bed once they are there?"

Well here is a magical formula for getting your children to stay in their own beds, appealing to your child’s magical imagination – a place where they dream, imagine and wish.

You’ve heard of the Tooth Fairy, so why shouldn't there be a Sleep Fairy?

Here’s a simple but really effective way forward with no more whining, no tantrums, no arguing, no crying and no begging!!

The most important gift you can give your child is the gift of self esteem.

Self-esteem is how you rate yourself deep down. It is a belief and a confidence in your own ability and value. It's a gentle knowing that:

you like yourself.
you think you're a good human being.
you deserve love.
you deserve happiness.
you feel deep down in your inner knowing that you are an OK person.

However, where does this ability come from?

The hurdles and preconceptions that career minded women must overcome to penetrate the boardroom and reach the higher echelons of the corporate hierarchy are more than well documented, combine this with the difficulties that many of us face whilst trying to raise a happy well balanced family and it’s easy to see that life as a successful women in business is no stroll in the park.

As a Parent Coach and mum of two teenage children I am shocked, distressed and searching for ways to help our society move towards a better future where children can grow up safe, well balanced and with a purpose in life. Free from despair, anger, drugs and hopelessness.

I am not a politician and it strikes me that the answers lie in many different places from government policies, schools and to society as a whole and but for me, one key place for teaching tolerance, respect, and important social values is in the home and begins with positive and confident parenting.

Homes are the natural place for children to be taught these key social skills easily by example and can be passed on as simply as just sitting around the kitchen table and eating together and chatting regularly.

A bad marriage can make parenting – and life in general – stressful. The loss of the family structure can be very upsetting and distressing for everyone involved in the major change. Despite divorce being on the increase around the world, parents often feel at a loss when searching for practical support. They also feel overwhelmed, confused, afraid, resentful, or completely frozen in panic about how to handle the changes in their family’s way of life.

Anger is an honest emotion, but it’s what you choose to do with your anger that’s important.

Ten simple things to do every single day as a parent

Parenting is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year job so it can be tiring, frustrating and challenging. But, bringing up a child can also be hugely rewarding, uplifting, fun and a great privilege.

Building a happy home takes patience, tolerance and unconditional love. But for the majority of the time being a great parent boils down to following a few simple principles that you can practise every day

In our modern society raising happy, confident, well balanced and emotionally healthy kids is often increasingly difficult. Kids seem to speak a completely different language when they are texting or chatting on the internet that is sometimes hard to understand yet one really important aspect to parenting is to meet your child’s need for love. But did you know there are actually five primary ways in which your child expresses and receives love? And did you know that every child has their own unique way of perceiving that love?

For many children their first real experience with loss happens when a pet dies. When a well loved pet dies, children need consolation, love, support and affection more than complicated medical explanations. They need to have their feelings understood and validated. Their reactions will depend on their age and stage of maturity but it isn’t until the age of 9 years that children fully understand that death is permanent and final.

As the clock ticks down towards the new year, and we all await the arrival of 2009, I am beginning to wonder what all the people around me are truly wishing for deep down in that very quiet place where dreams, hopes and wishes live. You know the place, where we don’t always reveal our true desires to others in case we sound silly, foolish or vulnerable.

Managing ADHD Positively

As a Parent Coach and former Deputy Head teacher I have read the new report and recommendations by NICE (The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) with great interest.

There are an estimated 365,000 children in Britain diagnosed as having ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) which means they find it hard to concentrate, have extreme difficulty in sitting still, and find learning or concentrating very challenging too. These children are also very easily distracted and restless, have great difficulty remaining in their seats and find it difficult to wait their turn. They find it hard to play quietly or follow instructions, and often shift from one incomplete activity to another constantly interrupting others.

So the Summer Holidays are nearly upon us and I hope you’ve had your Butlin’s Red Coat dry cleaned and aired for the next 6 weeks of entertainment!

The school break is a time for relaxation, recovery and re -cooperating energy but it can also feel like a burden of responsibility and an expensive nightmare if you don’t get clear about how you’d like to spend the next 6 weeks with your children.

If you think of the next 6 weeks as a trial to be endured then it will indeed feel like an ordeal because you get what you focus on, but if you take just a little bit of time and make just a little change in perspective you’ll enjoy it far more.

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”~Berthold Auerbach


Music has always played a large part in my life as my Mum played the fiddle in her Irish family’s Ceili band so my early memories are of parties, laughter, singing and people playing live instruments and having fun together.

I learnt to play the piano and the guitar myself as a child but I always enjoyed just messing about by myself for hours trying to work out the latest hits by playing them by ear and singing along. It was a great creative outlet and hobby. I even cut a record recently in a studio to vent my dream of being the next Madonna!! Now I just sing loudly in my car along to the radio and sing at family get togethers. It was never about being the next “Britain’s Got Talent” it was about enjoyment.

Rude and greedy behaviour among adults is contributing to the epidemic of gang and knife crime among children according to the Government’s school behaviour adviser Sir Alan Steer who is also a well respected Headteacher of Seven Kings High School in Essex.

Talking about the growing problem of knife crime Sir Alan said: ”It is connected to a violent sub–culture. But we bear some responsibility. Sometimes as adults we don’t model the behaviour we want youngsters to follow. Of course the kids have a huge responsibility, but there are questions about what’s going on at home. Parents have a huge responsibility. Government doesn’t bring up children, parents do.”

In my work as a Parent Coach I help parents become far more aware of the influence they wield on their children. Whether it is through the words they use, or the actions they take. Parents are a role model for their children throughout their lives from toddler to teen whether they are aware of it, like it, or even accept it.

Sneer and Jeer TV - Has Simon Cowell got it wrong this time?

I love those Saturday evenings at home with the kids watching Ant and Dec and sometimes having a take-away in front of the TV but something happened on Saturday that changed all that.

Everyone gets angry with their kids at some time or another – it’s normal, it’s healthy. Kids know just what buttons to push, and they push them! It helps to accept that anger is an honest emotion, but it’s what you choose to do with your anger that’s important.

So the easter school holidays are upon us and I hope you’ve had your Butlin’s Red Coat dry cleaned and aired for the next few weeks of entertainment!

The school break is a time for relaxation, recovery and re -cooperating energy but it can also feel like a burden of responsibility and an expensive nightmare if you don’t get clear about how you’d like to spend the next couple of weeks with your children.

Are your ‘boomerang kids’ driving you MAD?

There’s a new word out on the street called the “boomerang kids” - children who return to their parents’ home in adulthood and remain there into their 20s or even 30s!!! According to a leading charity Parentline Plus they are putting enormous strain on family relations.