Okay, it’s official. Science has done it. They have the tools and they can build one. The future of tomorrow is here today. They have finally deciphered the arcane impulses that govern our children and unveiled the alchemical process that will unerringly result in the rearing of a perfect child. If that whiffs of nonsense, … 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
In my last blog I spoke about the lack of resources in our care system which are committed to recognising and treating the long term effects of early life events on children in care. A related issue, but unaddressed in the last blog, concerns the events that precipitate intervention and action by a social worker. … 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
Why is it that authority in one area so often confers authority in another? It’s a well-studied phenomenon. One of the most famous examples of this can be seen in the social psychology experiment conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Miligram in the 1960s in which he measured the willingness of study participants to obey … Continued
I’ve written a number of times about discipline, parental supervision and technology. There is some pretty good advice out there on the net and a plethora of online communities that exist to provide support to newly minted parents. One theme that has run through many of my posts is the risk and challenges presented by … Continued
I have spoken a lot about the necessity of secure attachments in the development of a socially and emotionally healthy children. Anyone with a modicum of common sense understands that good interaction and quality parenting behaviour lie at the heart of this. Achieving this however is not always easy. Kids are not blank slates that … Continued
Children are intrinsically creative. From the moment they become aware of the world around them they carry their own unique representations of it in their heads, right alongside the other imaginary worlds they build there. Albert Einstein once said that his schooling almost destroyed his interest in Mathematics and Physics, but that it recovered upon … Continued
Hey readers, Happy New Year. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! Phew, thank God the buying frenzy is over. Of course I’m kidding, but there is an element of this, a tightrope we traverse between drowning our little ones in toys and incalculating in them the value of family. If you’re lucky you … Continued
I wrote recently about the draconian abortion laws in Northern Ireland. With the recent announcement by the Chinese government that it is about to abandon its one child policy in favour of a two child policy, I’d like to discuss the other side of that coin…what happens when planned parenthood is directed, engineered and enforced … Continued