Bringing home a new bundle of joy is pure magic. But we’ve got to address the elephant in the room: it’s also shockingly expensive! The moment that pregnancy test turns positive, the baby industry starts blasting ads for high-tech wipe warmers, designer nursery gear, and organic swaddles that cost more than a nice dinner out. It’s overwhelmingly easy to watch a bank account drain before the little one even starts crawling.
One of the unexpected things about writing for more than fifteen years is that you don’t just watch your own family grow up; you watch the world around it change too.
Summer can be a wonderful time for families. The longer days, lighter evenings and slower pace of life often create opportunities for outdoor play, family adventures and making memories together. However, when temperatures rise and heatwaves arrive, keeping children cool, comfortable and entertained can quickly become a challenge.
Family life is always changing, but big shifts like separation or divorce can feel particularly overwhelming. That’s why helping children build resilience during periods of change is so important. As a parent, your main focus is your children’s well-being. Guiding them through this time with care and reassurance is key to helping them adapt to a new family structure. This guide offers practical advice on how to support your children and manage the process constructively.
For many students, university is about far more than lectures, coursework and exams. Increasingly, degree programmes include opportunities for work placements, internships, year-in-industry schemes, teaching practice, clinical placements, and other forms of hands-on experience designed to prepare students for life after graduation.
You’re making breakfast, hunting for a missing shoe and trying to get everyone out of the door, so “learning time” may sound like one more thing you’re supposed to fit in. The good news is that children don’t only learn from worksheets, clubs or carefully planned activities.
If your teenager is in the middle of GCSEs, you’ll know what I mean when I say the whole house feels it. Late nights, slammed doors, the silent meltdown over Maths Paper 2 at 9pm on a Sunday. It’s hard on them and it’s hard on you, and you spend a fair bit of the term trying to help without really knowing how.
Being a parent comes with more joy than most people can imagine. Once you start having kids, you’ll see this more and more. It also comes with a lot of responsibility, and there could be more than a few times where you’ll get stressed over something seemingly simple.