Parenting

A little girl doesn't come to the conclusion that girls aren't as brilliant as boys because one person told her so.

Study reveals true terror of raising daughters

COMMENT
Ben Pobjie

After 34 years of quiet suffering, Maeve Marsden is ready to come out about the trials of her upbringing.

Six dangers of growing up with lesbian parents

SATIRE
Maeve Marsden

The idea that "good" women should be totally fulfilled by caring for their children is not uncommon.

When people ask 'aren't your children enough?'

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

Hair Apparent.

My child's transition became routine rather than dramatic

Laurie Frankel

After the birth of her fourth child, Leslie Hsu Oh spent a month without the pressure of fixing meals for her family.

A month of rest after childbirth is more than a gift

Leslie Hsu Oh

Mad Men's Betty Draper.

What happens when narcissists become parents?

Jody Allard

Your kids should be able to swim 25 metres confidently by the time they've turned seven. And so should you.

I just enrolled in adult swimming lessons. You should think about it too

Jenna Price

Sydney mum Faria Hossain.

'I was oblivious to the commotion around me': Sydney mum's miracle baby

Faria Hossain

What does it mean for a child when his mother's best present was the destruction of her marriage to his father?

One of the best Christmas gifts I received was divorce papers

Sonya Huber

They may not be the ones who are disappointed.

What psychologists really think about the Santa myth

Ana Swanson

"The couple of minutes of joy gained from my children was scant compensation for the forty-plus minutes that the parent ...

The pride and pain of attending school Christmas concerts

Ben Pobjie

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION, Anthony Michael Hall, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Barron, 1983

Help, we are all going on a family hell-iday

Lola Borg

Public debate about the difficulties and costs of managing work and family is still solely centred on women.

We need to start talking about working dads

Jane Gilmore

"If parents protect their child from uncomfortable emotions, when they're older they won't know how to cope with those ...

Why saying 'no' to your kids should make you feel good

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

adult dance

How adult dance classes helped me reclaim my body after birth

Sarah McKenzie

"Now I am a mother and I have learned to see my face through different eyes again."

Now that I'm a mother, I can at last see my own mother in me

COMMENT
Clementine Ford

Stay-at-home fathers are still a rarity.

Our perceptions of what makes a good mother are stuck in the 1950s

COMMENT
Shevonne Hunt

"Ever since I was a little kid, I've been intimidated by kids... I have a dark, desperate dread that they're still ...

I'm fine with looking after my own kids, it's other kids that terrify me

Ben Pobjie

For anxiety sufferers, it can be heartbreaking to recognise the same struggles in their children.

The fear of passing anxiety down to your children

Kerri Sackville

We should support them and coach from the sidelines.

How to help our children fight their friendship battles

Kasey Edwards

Cropped image of a young couple sleeping in bed.

Clementine Ford: My battle with perinatal depression

COMMENT
Clementine Ford

Anna Whitehouse and daughter Mae.

My daughter helped me realise it is OK to talk about miscarriages

Anna Whitehouse

"Individually people love their own kids but as a nation we just don't like them."

Sorry kids, Australia is just not that into you

COMMENT
Paul Chai

Adele spoke about suffering from post-natal depression after the birth of her son.

Adele, I too know the agony of postnatal depression

Judith Woods

"I can handle my child; I've been doing it for years. It's the admonitions of strangers that deplete me."

My daughter likes to climb. I wish strangers would stop judging us both for it

Leslie Kendall Dye

Apple Martin and Blue Ivy Carter, two kids who get out and about with their parents (and a bucket load of body guards ...

Getting outdoors with your kids is overrated

Celeste Barber

In Hans Christian Andersen's original, the mermaid of The Little Mermaid doesn't go back for her prince because he is ...

The Little Mermaid is not lovesick, she is ambitious

Mary Laura Philpott

There is a dark side to unsupervised play that should not be overshadowed by climbing walls and mosaics.

What the playborhood's Mike Lanza gets wrong about 'helicopter mothers'

Kasey Edwards

Single motherhood is an option, the difficulty is knowing when to start down that path.

When is the right time to start a family on your own?

Danielle Braff

Mike Lanza's playborhood vision sits opposite to modern parenting, or what he calls "mom philosophy".

No parents, no rules and plenty of risks: Would you allow your children near the playborhood?

Daisy Dumas

Donald Trump holds two-year-old Hunter Tirpak, who is dressed as Trump, during a rally in Pennsylvania last week.

What our sons are learning from Donald Trump

Claire Cain Miller

Why do people assume that the day women go through the trauma of labour must be up there with the best days of their lives?

The truth about giving birth - it was not the best day of my life

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

Saman Shad's six-month-old son was on childcare waitlists since well before he was born, but none of them have a place ...

It's that time of year when women like me find out if we can afford to go to work

Saman Shad

Celeste Barber and #hothusband enjoy a two-week sojourn in the US.

Celeste Barber: I went away without my kids for two weeks

Celeste Barber

Weddings are full of rules, particularly around dress.

Why I'll be going to my daughter's wedding naked

Jenna Price

"This Day of Atonement, I will try to forgive myself for all of it. And be better to myself over the coming year."

Today I shall atone - and maybe you should try it, too

COMMENT
Kerri Sackville

The early typecasting reverberates as girls become women, making it harder to close gender gaps in education and ...

Why you should give your sons more chores than your daughters

Cleve R Wootson jnr

What do you tell children about Trump's latest round of offensive comments?

Parent grapple with explaining Trump's lewd remarks to their children

Danielle Paquette

"The landscape of self-care and mental health in today's world is riddled with minefields," writes Christine Organ.

It's time we make therapy as a method of self-care acceptable

Christine Organ

A woman was charged for "skin-to-skin after c-sec" to the tune of US$39.95.

US woman charged $39.95 for holding her baby in hospital

Mary Ward

"I know I should be grateful - even floored by the miracle of biology. But now I'm just incredibly freaked out."

I'm pregnant, and I'm terrified I'll never be alone again

Allison Steinberg

"My first taste of tipple was a sip of Dad's KB en route to the tip when I was not quite ten."

I expect my children to drink, but hope it's for the right reasons

Jacinta Tynan

We long for someone to tell us that what we did was formidable and brave and really hard.

Why we can't stop giving pregnant women advice they don't want

COMMENT
Natalie Reilly

'Aunties can give children additional trustworthy adults to look up to and expose them to different opinions and points ...

The benefits of including childless adults in your parenting village

Louise Fabiani

Pretty princess costumes have finally been dethroned by girl pow(er).

Female superhero costumes finally freeze out princess dresses for top spot

Abha Bhattarai

"My son is eleven. Some might say that's too young to see Marvel's grown-up superhero jokes-and-blood-fest 'Deadpool'."

I let my kids watch inappropriate shows, but these are the rules

COMMENT
Ben Pobjie

Why – when I've spent the past three years rolling my eyes and saying, "God, no," when people ask if I'm having a third ...

'I don't want my husband to have his vasectomy'

"Researchers have come out on the side of nagging and I could not be more thrilled," writes Jenna Price.

Nagging mothers proved to be the best mothers for teenage girls

COMMENT
Jenna Price

Leaving the door open to Catholic schooling came up time and again.

Why we baptised our baby despite almost never going to church

COMMENT
Katherine Feeney

There are mounting reports of underpayment, unreasonable work demands, unceremonious sackings and unwanted sexual advances.

When au pairs get exploited by their host families

Cosima Marriner

Women with daughters get advice every single day. Women with sons, not so much.

What you need to tell your sons about drinking

Jenna Price

Patrick Dempsey and Renee Zellweger share a rom-com moment in Bridget Jones's Baby. Would things be so sweet in real life?

Bridget Jones's Baby is delightful, but one part doesn't ring true

Lisa Bonos

"Culturally, we're obsessed with women suffering as much as possible during childbirth," writes Kasey Edwards.

Why are we still trying to talk women out of epidurals?

Kasey Edwards

We need to teach our teenage sons to stop calling girls 'sluts'

Jody Allard

Lunchbox.

My child's lunchbox is the source of my secret shame

COMMENT
Kelley Benham French

"I am sure fewer parents would set out on high-performance parenting if they could foresee how miserable it would make them."

I was a tiger mum - it made us all unhappy

Tanith Carey

Bird's nest parenting separated parents go back and forth between residences while the kids remain in "the nest".

Does the 'bird's nest parenting' solution really work?

Cosima Marriner

"The mothers want to feel supported and this is no different than any other society," says Maha Abdo, president of the ...

The tough choices faced by Muslim mothers raising sons in Australia

Taghred Chandab

Any woman giving birth to a daughter while in her 30s will experience her peri-menopause alongside her daughter's puberty.

The 'hormonal hell' of being a menopausal mother with teenage kids

Annabel Abbs

Women shouldn't suffer in silence - at work or otherwise - when they miscarry.

Why working women keep quiet about miscarriage

Daisy Dumas and Anna Maxted

Coping with bullies: "I've decided to teach her how to roll her eyes and shoot condescending looks."

Should you teach your children to have compassion for bullies?

Kylie Khouri

Australian news presenter Jacinta Tynan with her two boys Jasper and Otis.

Rising to the challenge of raising boys

Jacinta Tynan

Antenatal depression and anxiety is almost as common as postnatal depression but awareness about it is significantly lower.

How I added my voice to the war cry of millions of women who have given birth before me

COMMENT
Clementine Ford

The pressure to be the breadwinner comes at the expense of time and relationships with family.

Why 'having it all' is an issue for men too

Ellen McCarthy

"We all want to be the best parents we can, but we need to look at our definition of success," writes Kasey Edwards.

When did over-scheduling our kids become a sign of good parenting?

Kasey Edwards

The author and her son. (Courtesy of Sa’iyda Shabazz)

I'm a proud black woman. My son looks white. Now what?

COMMENT
Sa'iyda Shabazz

A sore pelvis, aching back, haemorrhoids, morning sickness: what's not to love about pregnancy?

Not all pregnant women are glowing, beatific creatures

Celina Ribeiro

Being a stepmum isn't easy.

I don't love my stepchildren

COMMENT
Michelle Smith

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

I'll be there: a mother's imperfect promise comes unstuck

Monica Dux

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 07: Simone Biles of the United States smiles before competing on balance beam during ...

As seen at the Olympics, there is still a lot of ignorance about adoption

Jenn Morson

"After my baby daughter turned one, it finally hit me. I'm an introverted mum."

I'm an introverted mum

Raidah Shah Idil

"The next time I buy a book as a present for a boy, I'm going to make sure it's about a girl. He can make up his own ...

How I've helped teach boys that girls are boring and unimportant

Kasey Edwards

"That so much of the focus has been on the mother's age is an example of the way we continue to place the bulk of the ...

Why criticising a mother's age is the least useful discussion about IVF

Erin Riley

Mick Jagger, 72, is set to become a father again.

Sorry, Mick Jagger - you're too old to have a baby

Rachel Ragg

All closer to being head of Australia than you.

What we can learn about modern parenting from this viral GIF of the Royals

Natalie Reilly
Natalie Reilly

Here's looking at you kid: we are unconsciously programmed to find babies appealing. That applies to both men and women.

The sneaky ways babies get inside our heads

Rachel Feltman

Brock Turner and his father Dan Turner in court.

What parents can learn from the Brock Turner case

Stanford rape
Amy Joyce

Eye-rolling is at least a sign your teenager is listening.

Do the many ways a mother rolls make her a good role model?

COMMENT
Karen Hardy

"It's time we start recognising the paternal baby-name tradition for what it really is: just another way to perpetuate ...

Why is there still such a reluctance to give a child the mother's last name?

Kasey Edwards
Kasey Edwards

Jamie and Jools Oliver.

When breastfeeding is a middle class, able-bodied privilege

Kasey Edwards

"Men are unlikely to step up and share the burden of domestic work when even a six-year-old thinks it's the dud option."

How kids are taught to devalue motherhood

Kasey Edwards
Kasey Edwards

Why is it that only girls are permitted to enter the playground of gender fluidity?

The subconscious bias of 'unisex' baby name trends

Baby names
Kasey Edwards

Aziz and his dad Shoukath Ansari.

Do you know your family stories?

family stories
Paul Chai

Kate Middleton in the offending outfit.

What's so wrong with 'dressing like a mum'?

Keeping up appearances
Kasey Edwards

It may be men who are more inclined to want children while childless women are unsure, or firmly against the idea.

When men want babies more than women

Kasey Edwards

'We have Hollywood expectations about what parenthood is going to be like."

The eight stages of early parenthood

Kasey Edwards

catnip flower

Has mother's guilt become a status symbol?

Jacinta Tynan
Jacinta Tynan

catnip flower

When your mother says she’s fat

Body image
Kasey Edwards

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