Mark Leishman share his thoughts on being an older parent.
Family food gatherings may be a time for giving, but there’s one thing you don’t want to give your family or your guests – and that’s food poisoning.…
Do you frequently look for new recipes or do you stick with the same recipes you always use? Could some of your favourite recipes do with a makeover?…
Having four children contributes to a heavy workload and I often say that I have too many children and not enough husbands. Or, as someone corrected me recently,…
I enjoy the holidays but with 4 boys at home I have definitely run out of ideas to keep them busy and active without depleting all our financial…
I sense my 8 and 10 year old sons are struggling to believe that Santa Claus is really real. This year there have been no requests for Santa’s…
I have succumbed to the “but everybody else has” argument in allowing my two eldest sons to have mobile phones. According to them, every child eleven years and…
I am not a perfect parent and as much as I adore my four sons they aren’t perfect either; come to think of it neither is my husband…
One of the questions we are often asked as parents is “What after school activities do your children do?” Maybe it is just the “mother thing”. Since the…
February has been a funny month in our house – and that’s funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha! Ian and I have gone on a health kick. I will…
Childhood obesity is becoming a big problem in New Zealand, as it is in most Western countries. The National Children’s Nutrition Survey, carried out in 2002, showed that…
Many of us hark back to a distant memory. It may be of our family, it may be of someone else’s family, it may be of a mythical…
I know that many of us dread the kindy and school holidays. Weeks without a break from the kids. For me, I always see it from a different…
Years ago I went to a business seminar by Andrew Smith of APT (Accelerated Planning Technique). He based his planning method on the idea that every large project…
Ian and I have recently had time to sit down together, enjoy an entire cup of (hot) coffee and talk to each other without interruption. This is weird.…
The return to the school term routine presents a good time to reflect on how meal times in your household work. Here’s some of my key tips to…
As I write to you this month I have to admit to feeling more than a little off-colour; I’m unlucky to be suffering from a particularly nasty stomach…
At some time after the hazing ritual of childbirth, our “fight & flight” adrenalised womanly minds (muddy and bloody as they are), begin to fathom the irreversible depth…
Without a doubt Christmas is getting closer. No one needs to be reminded that during the lead up to Christmas it is often a time when we can…