Parenting

Jacinta Tynan ...I didn't want to look at the photos and forever be reminded of how ghastly I actually felt.

Motherhood is hard enough, we need breaks in reality

COMMENT
Jacinta Tynan
41 mins ago

However, there's one truth that remains one of the biggest parenting taboos of all ... the sheer, excruciating, ...

Admit it. Looking after young kids is boring.

COMMENT
Jo Hartley

Can you judge my cartweels? Can you help me make a cubby? Can I crack a walnut? Yes, yes yes.

Why I decided to say 'yes' to my children for a day

Rachael Mogan McIntosh

Holly Zwaif travelling in the UK with her child.

When you're a solo parent, three is not a crowd

Holly Zwalf

"When we praise girls for looking pretty, what they can hear is, 'I'm of value to others only when I look a certain way'."

My daughters are beautiful, but I never tell them so

Kasey Edwards

"There are so many annoying, obnoxious things in the world that are permitted with less pushback than the presence of ...

What people mean when complain about noisy babies in public

Clementine Ford

Researchers fail to acknowledge the findings might be different if the study were conducted with children in different ...

The narrow assumptions parenting advice makes

Mark Nielsen

It's predominantly mothers who carry the burden of the great school holiday juggling act.

School holidays need to evolve for modern lives

Jacinta Tynan

Cat Rodie with her children.

The familiar 'mummy war' making an unfortunate comeback

Cat Rodie

Women are primed for motherhood from birth, is it little wonder the experience can let them down?

Regretting motherhood does not mean you're a bad mother

COMMENT
Amy Gray

All parents have their bad days, but what do you do when you realise too late that having children wasn’t right for you?

The women who regret motherhood

Dilvin Yasa

Articles and blogs fed into my worries - not to mention the online "mummy boards" at pregnancy and fertility websites.

How research helped ease my fear of having an IVF baby

Amy Klein

Dads are more likely to sing to their daughters and play rough with their sons.

Fathers sing more to daughters and roughhouse with sons, study finds

Ariana Eunjung Cha

Children learn about gender roles before they are two years old.

It turns out parents hate 'sissy boy' and 'bossy girl' stereotypes too

Jane Gilmore

Hearing my darling seven-year-old using words like "fat" and "skinny" stings.

My seven-year-old daughter wants to lose weight

Linda Green*

My class meets every other day at 5:45am, when my kids are still asleep. My mother's guilt nearly stops me every time.

My morning spin class makes me a better mother. Still, I wrestle with the guilt

Nikkya Hargrove

Do all those trinkets and memorabilia mean anything?

The truth about all those childhood keepsakes you're painstakingly collecting

Lana Hirschowitz

Jenna Price's three children, then aged 6, 3 and 1.

The gift from my children that blew me away

Jenna Price

"I've had a few revelations about how I must have behaved a decade ago."

An apology to my mum friends

Melissa Phillips

A responsible parent takes the needs and care of their children into consideration all the time, not just when an app ...

Text messages for dads show how low the bar for fatherhood is set

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

We are all complicit to different degrees in placing children in rigid gender boxes, including by our choice of gifts.

I threw away my 'parental GPS' and you should too

Jo Hirst

Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Confusingly, Kylo Ren is the fastest growing baby name in America

Annie Brown

It's OK to cry in front of children.

Should we cry in front of our children?

Jacinta Tynan

For many women, Mother's Day is just more work.

If only I had the power to cancel Mother's Day, I would

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

Mesmerising or irritating? The fidget spinner is the latest craze for children and teenagers.

How the fidget spinner origin story spun out of control

Joshua Brustein

I'd hope fervently that when we awoke it would be the day of the name.

The reason why I agonised over naming my daughter

Flip Byrnes

It's important to teach children that "boredom" is a normal state of human emotions.

Fidget spinners detract from the value of children experiencing boredom

COMMENT
Victoria Prooday

Mother's Day should be about your kids showing off the skills and values you have instilled in them.

The minimum standards for doing Mother's Day right

COMMENT
Kelly Cooper

It's an inequality that many schools perpetuate with their outdated scheduling and seemingly limitless expectation of ...

The upside of having a mum who is 'never there'

Kasey Edwards

Mike and Heather Martin have been reported to Child Protective Services.

Are these YouTube's most appalling parents?

Abby Ohlheiser

Cabbage and cartooning with friends on the home-school porch.

I'm home-schooling my kids in Vanuatu, and it's been a learning curve

Rachael Mogan McIntosh

Kelly Cheung and Ava, 5.

Baby Ava cried between 12 and 15 hours a day. Every day.

Jenna Price

I've stopped going to baby showers. It's the least I can do for my sanity.

I'm happy for you, but I won't attend your baby shower

Kelsey L. Munger

Researchers fail to acknowledge the findings might be different if the study were conducted with children in different ...

The sad reason why many mothers take selfies with their kids

Kasey Edwards

Frankie at 10 weeks corrected.

From heartbreak to hope: watching my baby girl fight for survival

COMMENT
Chloe Adams

Ilaina McKenzie has gone online to find a man to help her make a baby.

Swipe right for a baby: social media network help to find would-be father

Neelima Choahan

I have my hands full with my grandchildren.

Why I refuse to feel guilty for sending my kids to childcare

COMMENT
Kasey Edwards

No prizes for assuming the gender of this child.

The small way I'm flipping gender stereotyping in the baby clothes aisle

COMMENT
Clementine Ford

The Murchison family, Mia (far left), Hamish, Peta and Toby.

What living with a dying child taught this mum about living

Jacinta Tynan

An ugly pattern is emerging of young men spewing bigotry, and yearning for safe patriarchal spaces to do it in.

What your son needs to know before he leaves the house tonight

COMMENT
Jenna Price

There are a few signs parents can look out for that may indicate your child is bullying.

What if your child is the bully?

Kasey Edwards

Sharon Verghis and her twins.

We sent our twins to school when they were four. This is why

COMMENT
Sharon Verghis

The Kiwi spoof pokes gentle fun at the viral BBC interview ... and has subsequently gone viral.

Kiwi spoof of BBC interview goes viral

Robert Kelly and his wife, Kim Jung-A, said they were mortified at first but found the video funny "like everybody else".

Korea expert speaks after his kids crashed BBC interview

Rachel Olding

Adele performs at ANZ Stadium on March 10, 2017 in Sydney, Australia.

Why I took my daughters, aged 5 and 7, to see Adele

Cat Rodie

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Jacinta Tynan: The BBC dad interview did us all a favour

COMMENT
Jacinta Tynan

Jill and Jeff Smokler early in their relationship. The couple behind popular blog Scary Mommy have announced their ...

Husband of 'Scary Mommy' blogger comes out as gay

Annie Brown

There's no 'sick leave' for stay-at-home mums.

Becoming a single mother was one of my best decisions

Julie Kohler

"Raising children in a sexually healthy way in our over-sexualised world is a challenging task."

What parents can do to help kids develop healthy sexuality

Bella Ellwood-Clayton

Geena Davis

The parenting advice I'm taking from Geena Davis

Jacinta Tynan

Good parenting isn't always about talking everything through, this mother found out.

When silence is the best way to show your support

Nancy Star

Instilling these skills into tween girls will give them confidence at a vulnerable time and develop skills they will ...

How to make sure your tween will grow into an empowered woman

Phyllis Fagell

"Whatever you face on your route to adoption, the smile on your child's face will be worth it."

Adopting our foster child was worth the wait

Tara Montgomery

Carolyn Tate worried about giving her 12-year-old a smartphone – but found surprising benefits.

I gave my tween daughter a phone, and I have no regrets about it

COMMENT
Carolyn Tate

If we did more to remove barriers to quality of life for disabled people, abortion might cease to be seen as the only ...

'I told my brother that if his child is like me, it's OK to abort'

COMMENT
Naomi Chainey

There's an assumption parents will want at least a child of each gender, so why the scorn for those who feel disappointed?

Parents who feel 'gender disappointment' deserve sympathy, not judgment

COMMENT
Jacinta Tynan

The type of birth I planned felt like a definitive statement about the kind of person I am.

A C-section and the shame of a thwarted birth plan

COMMENT
Shannon Kelley

Her only crime is being on the precipice of puberty.

Dear men, it's not OK to comment on a pre-teen girl's looks

COMMENT
Tracey Spicer

Language such as calling a little girl 'princess' or 'bossy' can have negative effects.

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

Children can't consent to their faces and antics being shared with millions of people.

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

There are a few signs parents can look out for that may indicate your child is bullying.

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

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