What I am reading more and more is that we basically have to walk on egg shells with our children for fear that we are going to forever damage their self image. I prefer to think that by telling Toby and soon his sister that they are all of the above things that they will believe me, they will know that they are loved and they will feel confident.

The holiday time with family, partners or friends over Christmas is disrupted by exciting new technologies to the fold. With this comes the likelihood that a new device or game will draw time and attention away from shared activities, and foster solitary interactions with the device.

Before I say anything else I will say this; I love my boyfriend. I love him so much that if you catch me at the exact right moment (like, say, upon opening the dishwasher, poised to load it with dirty dishes only to realise it's still full of clean crockery), I could literally weep with how much I feel for him.

Christmas. A time for giving and receiving. This year, I would like to thank Santa for the gift of threadworms. My kids asked for a hamster but worms were an interesting alternative. To be honest, nits would have been preferable and I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

My husband and I bathed Grace, put a new nappy on her, cut a lock of her hair and took hand and foot prints. We took as many photos as possible, with the unspoken and grim realisation that they would be the only ones we would ever take.

Just be you and never try to be a people pleaser, folks will like and love you for who you are and if they can't accept that then you don't need them in your life. Laugh, be kind and don't ever let boys break your heart. Most importantly bask in what makes you happy and build your worth on experiences and not possessions. Never forget that you can talk to me.

My stance back then was one of confusion at why anyone would have a problem with it, especially when there is so much nudity in today's society but also, especially as pregnancy is such a natural and truly incredible phenomena.

Back to school, back to school - three little words that have a profoundly pleasing effect on me, put a little extra skip into my step. I'm trying very hard to keep my enthusiasm for the Spring Term under wraps but it is tough, really tough.

My son, Louis, would be 13 years old tomorrow. I have spent all these years silently counting the years - I know the year he would have started primary school, secondary school, I have wondered what kind of birthday parties he would have enjoyed. I look to place him in our world, picturing him on our holidays, at our dinner table, in our house.

I regret constantly comparing him to other babies. Worrying about his size and how small he was. I regret not using my common sense and telling myself that a baby born out of the blue at 37 weeks would clearly be smaller than one that had had five extra weeks of gestating.

I see it all the time, a toddler in a stroller being entertained with an iPhone at the park, a toddler confidently navigating an iPad app at a children's party, a little girl enjoying a game on her DS in a restaurant. All of them looking down instead of living in the moment.

Whilst we know names are influenced by celebrities (remember the popularity of Kylie...) and new babies from those celebrities, the most notable new arrival has been Princess Charlotte, with many girls born this year being named after our new princess.

Despite the plethora of books, articles and classes meant to prepare you for motherhood, why are the first weeks such a shock? Here's what I wish I'd known.

2 December 2015 was the day that my fourteen-year-old daughter tells me her childhood ended. She became an adult when her classmate died, and she and her peer group, were thrust suddenly and unwillingly, into a world that teenagers should never normally inhabit. A world of funerals, of grief and of loss.

As part of my job working with PTAs, I regularly speak with committee members all over the country, and although many have an uphill struggle getting parents to help out - we did manage to make them laugh out loud with a few choice gifs...

Something has changed recently - you've felt it and of course I have too. Our days together are often unpredictable and the routine you crafted around me so carefully - the net which kept both of us safe - has crumbled. You don't know where you stand all of a sudden and you feel a bit helpless. But remember, I feel this way, too.

Massage involves working on the body with pressure and can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, knees and feet. This particular spa treatment starts in pregnancy when Baby decides to poke a knee straight out the front of your belly while simultaneously shoving an elbow into your bladder.

I know I am not alone and parents throughout the country struggle with this very challenge every week. So here's the thing - I don't have the answers but am on the journey too with a dogged determination to overcome this biggest of hurdles and try to remove the pain from homework.