I’d like to start with a quick hello and to briefly mention that I’ve been rather busy with a new charity recently. It’s called Hope and Homes and it’s particularly close to my heart. I mention this merely to explain the dearth of reading matter in recent months for anyone who might enjoy this blog. … Continued
Forgive the vaguely amusing title, but perhaps it is necessary to counter the level of enmity and ire this issue seems to attract. It seems at a glance to be such a personal, small, mind your own business kind of thing and yet if there is one thing that is virtually guaranteed to divide any … Continued
Ladies and gentlemen it has come to my attention, despite desperate attempts to ignore it, that I am getting older. In truth, I’ve known about this for a while. Time may heal all things but it does diddly squat for old age. I’m afraid time is so often mediated and perceived through a youthful filter. … Continued
I seldom find panel shows to be sources of wisdom, but one the other night was clearly an exception that proved the rule. It posed the following question to its participants: ‘If there was one piece of advice you could give your younger self what would it be?’ There were various answers to it, but … Continued
I would like to start this blog on a slight tangent… Take a look at the picture below. I’m sure many of you are already familiar with this wretched story. To those of you who are not it revolves around a 12-year-old girl and her father, a gun toting, NRA loving, … Continued
The internet was set alight last July with angry mums from all over the globe furiously tweeting, blogging, instagraming, emailing, shouting and generally airing their views in any medium that would have them. What was the source of this ire, you ask? The answer is a Dr Charlotte Renzick, an American clinical psychologist and author … Continued
I’ve spent a lot of talking about attachment theory, but have not really focused explicitly on the role of the father. General speaking infants develop attachments with regular interaction. This interaction is relational and not simply a matter of sheer proximity. A child is adept at discerning the nature of such attachments and deciding whether … Continued
In 2013 a 17.5 million pounds initiative was announced by the government which aimed to support 16,000 young mothers by 2015. The move was inspired by similar programmes in the USA which claimed to reduce the incidents of domestic violence and child abuse in these households. It’s an interesting experiment, but it also highlights a … Continued
I was chatting to a friend the other day about an article they had read in some broadsheet. It concerned the idea of ‘affluent neglect’. She seemed to find the notion rather provocative and controversial. My only response was to ask, ‘why?’ The proposition that wealthy parents are often physically and emotionally unavailable for their … Continued
I came across an old Facebook post on my timeline the other day, one of those viral thingamajigs. It was basically an image of an anonymous letter received by an Australian first time mother, Jade Ruthven (presumably written by ‘friends’ within her face book community), attacking her for her constant baby posts. I include it … Continued