In an article from the Tasting Table, entitled 20 Foods Every Twentysomething Should Learn to Make, Baily Bennett looks at simple alternatives to freeze dried noodles, take-out, and Mac n Cheese that all adults should know how to cook.  We’d like to drop the age bracket just a little and say that these are recipes a teenager […]

One of the biggest issues facing teen girls today is not drug or alcohol abuse, or peer pressure to engage in risky behaviour, nor is it the proliferation of social media and having to look super-model perfect in every “selfie”, instead it’s the damage girls can do to each other in their own friendship groups. In an article […]

In a recent TED talk by one of our favorite authors,  Julie Lythcott-Haims urges parents to consider letting go of the notion that we need to be our kids “Concierge” and “Personal Handlers”. That our efforts to micromanage every aspect of their lives is putting them under enormous pressure to lead a life of perfection that […]

I’m fast asleep and I’m dreaming about a time when I walk through my house and into the kitchen and there’s not a dish in sight.   And, I haven’t had to step over one of the many obstacles that have been left in my path as I navigate the treacherous path to the sink, nearly breaking my neck tripping on a displaced shoe, slipping on someone’s homework, […]

This photo came through in my Facebook feed the other day and I felt compelled to share it. Well not just share it, but write something about it too. This teen’s name is Addison Quinn and his mum, Lisa, posted the attached to help her son find casual employment. As I read (and was admittedly […]

There’s been a big climate change taking place in our house recently.  The weather system of “here are all the dinner options” and “oh, you don’t want this I’ll make something else”… has changed to that of “take it or leave it”. I am a full time working parent and a full time stay at […]

Having just reflected on the pitfalls of screen addiction, it was refreshing to come across the following article in The Wall Street Journal, written by Christine Rosen, entitled Teens Who Say No to Social Media.Who’d have thought? Yes, apparently there a small number of teens out there (only 8% actually) who would rather talk to their […]

The irony of blogging about this subject is not lost on us. We sit here, somewhat addicted to screen time ourselves, and begin to write about why we should really be ‘de-teching’. And yet that appears to be the conundrum of the modern world. So how much is too much when it comes to technology use in the home? That’s about as easy […]

So this week was one of those weeks when two great parenting stories landed straight in my lap. No Facebook trolling, no researching, just some real time interactions featuring two teens from two different families. On meeting a girlfriend for coffee the other morning she arrived frustrated and exhausted having only just survived the first week back at school. […]

We have to confess that the term “Snow Plow” parent isn’t ours. We came across this description provided by a fellow reader in response to the article Have American Parents Got it All Backwards? by Christina Gross-Loh that appeared in the Huffington Post in 2014. It recently popped into our Facebook feed and as per usual we felt […]