Stress

Happy at school … preparation is the best medicine.

How to beat the first-day blues

Ann-Maree Moodie It's your little one's first day of school. She's standing beside you at the school gate wearing a uniform that makes her look so grown up. Her backpack is almost as big as she is.

What do children want? Time, not toys

Julia Medew A word of advice for their parents: forget about showering them with gifts, do not over-schedule their time and get down on their level to engage with them as much as you can.

Boys are not as tough as they appear

Jen Vuk The Salvation Army, one of the Wishing Tree's three charities and its longest-running partner, has consistently identified a particular group - boys aged 10-13 years - above all others as missing out...

A world of their own

Jim Kellar Welcome to the world of autism, a lifelong developmental disability that affects one of every 160 people in the general Australian population.

Do babies and start-up entrepreneurship mix?

Tony Featherstone Is the challenge too great to launch and build a fast-growth venture, and raise babies and toddlers at the same time?

Navigating Christmas as a step-family

Dolla S Merrillees For stepfamilies and blended families, Christmas can often bring a mixed bag of complications as they juggle ex-spouses, multiple sets of grandparents, joint custody arrangements and children with...

Thrifty Christmas might be the magic pudding

Maggie Dent A survey released by the Australian National Retailers Association reported that 34% of people intend to spend less on gifts this Christmas than they did last year.

Home alone: term break no holiday for children

Keeli Cambourne One-third of children aged five to 15 will be left at home alone during the school holidays while their parents have to work.

Life after school: all homework, no play

Ainslie MacGibbon The children arrive home from school, you offer them a snack while asking about their day before sending them off to play until dark. Hardly.

Making time for your partner

Kim Kind Sometimes we forget there is nothing more important to children than the quality of the relationship between their parents. Are you making enough time for each other?

Don’t be afraid to get dirty

Brooke Wells The media know how to play on the fear of parents that germs are the source of family illnesses and infections. But is the opposite in fact in true?

A child's right to be safe: teaching self-protection

Family Planning Queensland Self protection skills are one way to help children to be safe or know how to find safety.

Nagging and Shouting

Carole Disseldorp You realise that your 4 year old is capable of tidying her room and you don’t want to do it yourself as you have a lot of cleaning of your own to do.

School homework: Tips to avoid tears and tantrums

Sonja Walker Hated by children of all ages, nightly homework causes stress for parents all over and yet it is an inevitable part of school life for children from Kindergarten through to Year 12.

Healthy children actively involved

To make a change for the better, parents and children have to become actively involved in changing their lifestyles. They need to support and encourage each other.

For health's sake, ditch your doona

Caroline Marcus It's the eve of winter: time to lose the doona. An Australian doctor with almost 50 years' medical experience says doonas were invented for the northern hemisphere and warns that overheating at...

Fathers raising the bar

Louise Turk In the past decade fathers have taken an increasingly active role in their sons' lives, says child psychologist Steve Biddulph, and they're thriving from the attention. He talks to Louise Turk.

Homework anxiety

Caroline Milburn Many students and parents are shocked by the homework burden imposed by schools. Now mutiny is in the air, writes Caroline Milburn.

Match the treatment to the malady

Miranda Devine When the psychiatrist Gordon Parker talks to parents at boys' schools in Sydney, he describes the brave new world of gender relations in a terrifying way.