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Why you are a bad parent…
by KAREN BERGREEN I have friends who were born to mother. A friend of mine (full disclosure, she’s a nurse) popped out her baby without an epidural and gave him a bath in her hospital room within hours of his birth. All this after delightfully feeding her competently-latching little charge with her abundance of milk. [read more]
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Selective fetal reduction: from three babies to one.
Last night 60 Minutes aired a controversial report into selective reduction. Selective reduction is the practice of aborting one or more fetuses in a multiple pregnancy for medical or ‘lifestyle’ reasons, if the parents do not wish to have more than one or two babies. The reduction procedure is generally carried [read more]
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‘None of these feelings are within my control’
This morning I found myself crying uncontrollably in the walk in wardrobe, blowing my nose into my towel. As I listened to the phone ringing the hospital, I thought ‘just compose yourself enough to talk to whoever answers’. A lady at main reception answered my call and sure enough as soon as I attempted to [read more]
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Telling other people’s kids what to eat.
Six years ago I landed my first Nanny job with a fantastic family. On the first day, I waited at the designated pick-up area for Bella and Seb, an overzealous 15 minutes early. Eventually they emerged, I took their bags and bingo – I was their favourite Nanny already. We arrived home and it was [read more]
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SIDS changes their safe-sleeping guidelines: READ THIS & SHARE
Babies should be breastfed if they are to increase their chances of surviving Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) the organisation SIDS and Kids has advised. The new recommendation comes off the back of new research which apparently shows breastfeeding is not only generally helpful, but helps specifically cut the rate of [read more]
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Confessions of a SAHM: ‘I’ve forgotten how to talk to adults’
The dinnertime conversation was about K. Rudd and the recent comments that the more you got to know him, the less you liked him. The man across the table from me said, “Apparently Wolfowitz was like that too.” Everyone at the table nodded as though they understood and they agreed. Some nodded so emphatically it [read more]
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‘If you could buy sleep, I’d be broke’.
I’m so sleep-deprived I’ve employed matchsticks to keep my eyes open, which might explain why they’re burning. Though a more likely explanation would be the fact I have two children under the age of four and haven’t slept since their date of manufacture. If you could buy sleep I’d be broke. [read more]
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NAPLAN- Not Another Painful Learning Assessment Nightmare
BY SHANKARI CHANDRAN At a recent parents’ drinks, I was asked by a mother whether I had made my daughter do any practice NAPLAN* tests. Naturally, I lied like the relaxed mummy that I most certainly am not. This week my little Prima (aged 8 ) has NAPLAN. It’s her first brush with standardised education [read more]
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‘Dear Mothers, stop whinging. Thanks’.
If you’re lucky enough to have kids, you should shut up and quit your moaning. That’s the general thought of UK writer Bibi Lynch, who recently wrote an emotional piece for The Guardian about why mums should ‘open their eyes and see what they’ve got’. Bibi has come to the realisation that she’ll never [read more]
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‘Where’s my *%&$ing village?’
My friend Bec has been spending a lot of time trying to pick up chicks in playgrounds lately. But as the weather grows colder, her pickings are getting slimmer. She is disconsolate about this. “Where’s my village?” Bec asked me plaintively last week. Except she used an adjective before the word village and it rhymes [read more]
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To smack or not to smack
If you missed 60 minutes last night you might just have missed some rather uncomfortable footage. Mums that smack their children. And make no apologies for doing so. Some of the vision was distressing but both mothers argued that smacking works for them and their children. They also say it’s their right to discipline their [read more]
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What did you get, give or do for Mothers Day?
No one ever tells you that the hardest thing about parenting is that moment when they do something so completely hilarious it’s impossible to stop laughing. You know the one. In an effort to avoid embarrassing your gauche children in public, you rearrange your face into the very model of decorum and frantically try to [read more]
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Breastfeeding older kids. Are you ‘mom enough’?
UPDATE Jamie Lynn Grumet who appeared on the cover of Time Magazine has appeared on NBC’s Today Show: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy In a surprise to no-one, this front cover of Time Magazine has gone viral and has sparked conversations around the world. Let’s dive [read more]
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A mother in more ways than one.
This Mother’s Day can we celebrate maternal instincts as well as mothers? At 37 the closest I’ve got to offspring is Wednesday nights on Ten. I don’t have kids but I have plenty of opportunities to nurture and love. 1. The Gift of a God Daughter Seven years ago I [read more]
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Mother’s Day without a mother…
Mother’s Day looms. It’s a difficult day for some of us, while for most, the lucky ones, it is a warm, celebratory day where we give thanks to and spoil the extraordinary women who brought us into this world and gave us the phenomenal gift of life. Really, one day a year doesn’t seem enough [read more]
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Parent FAIL confessions.
Is it just me or has parenting turned into one big test? It feels like there are new opportunities to stuff it up every day. And as a mother of three, I get triple the opportunity to FAIL. Don’t get me wrong. I think I score okay on the big picture stuff. I’m patient. I [read more]
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The Gift of Sleep on Today
To celebrate Mother’s Day and the launch of our first e-book, “The Gift of Sleep: teach your baby to sleep in 3 days”, Mia Freedman appeared on Today with her 3yo son (who is a Gift of Sleep graduate), sleep whisperer Elizabeth Sloane (author of The Gift of Sleep) and 1yo Ruby Anne who is [read more]
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Do I have to spend Mother’s Day with my kids?
The thought of going out for Mother’s Day lunch with my entire family and all seven children makes me want to blow my brains out. I know I’m being dramatic, but I can’t think of a more unpleasant day than chasing after my three children who tend to run in three [read more]
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What I wish someone had told me before I became a mother…
To celebrate Mother’s Day and the launch of our first e-book, “The Gift of Sleep: teach your baby to sleep in 3 days“, we recently asked Mamamia readers to tells us what they wish they’d known before they had their first baby. We were inundated with photos and advice from our brilliant community … so [read more]
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Why pink doesn’t stink
“Be careful Victoria, you don’t want her to grow up ‘butch’.” That was the sting in the tail to my mum’s innocuous interest in my daughter. A light and breezy chat about whether Florence liked dolls and teddies suddenly turned into a snippy sermon on gender alignment. You see, mum had recently sent me a [read more]
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‘My kids aren’t always equal. That’s OK’.
BY KATE HUNTER Sometimes I get my 11-year-old son to listen to his little sister’s reading homework. Actually, I do it most nights. Although I’m a children’s author, I have little patience with children learning to read. It’s just the way I am. When I was five and learning to read myself, [read more]
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How long is too long to be away from your children?
I have an amazing job. Amaaaazing. In a couple of weeks, they are sending me overseas for six weeks to advance a project I’m working on. I will be travelling through Scotland and England, spending my days researching and writing on things I’m passionate about. Dream come true? Well, not exactly. You see, I have [read more]
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10 things you never thought you’d say
“Please take the phone out of the fridge.” This is what I found myself saying, quite calmly in light of how I was feeling, when I heard the phone ringing through the door of the fridge the other day. It’s not something one says every day. Unless of course you live with a smallish person [read more]
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Share this link with every tired parent you know
A few years ago, the idea of sleeping for eight hours – hell, sleeping for two hours – uninterrupted was like a fantasy in the realm of winning Lotto or marrying Ryan Gosling. That’s because my then five-month old daughter Coco was waking up to eight times every night to have her dummy re-plugged. Even [read more]
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Does everyone deserve to be a parent?
Do you ever want to take some kids away from their parents? I know we’ve all have bad days and moments of frustration, especially while shopping, but I wonder how some people can be parents at all. I apologise for the language in this article, but it is necessary. This is an accurate account of [read more]
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The mother who allegedly burned her daughter in a tanning salon
Ok, this story is pretty messed up. A woman in the US has been arrested for allegedly taking her 5-year-old daughter to a tanning salon where her skin was burned. News outlets in the US initially reported Patricia Krentcil’s daughter was burned from a stint in a tanning bed, after she [read more]
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5 terrifying ways the US is trying to control women
It’s an interesting time to own a uterus in the United States. The debate between pro-choice and pro-life is as fierce as ever with a plethora of laws proposed and passed in recent months with the ability to have a colossal impact on the reproductive choices available to women and their [read more]
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A letter to the daughter I never got to meet
BY MIA FREEDMAN To my darling girl, Today should have been your 12th birthday. I wonder what we would have been doing today had I ever got to meet you? Probably discussing The Hunger Games at length but who knows? I think that’s one of the toughest parts of losing a [read more]
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UPDATED: Most hated names. Is yours on this list?
UPDATE: And just when you thought we’d reached a critical mass of ridiculous, Levi Johnston has revealed what he intends to call his unborn daughter. Breeze Beretta Johnston. Breeze is, er, interesting enough but Beretta? That’s a type of gun, for those playing along at home. You might remember Levi from such [read more]
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It’s not about being the best parent…
If you’re a parent, you’ll know this already. If you’re not a parent yet, this is useful to heed. There’s truckloads of parenting information out there. Some of it’s useful, and some of it’s not. The problem is deciphering which is which. Particularly when clear, reasonable decision making – something you [read more]