Early Years
Toddler tantrums are a developmental stage, not a discipline failure
A two-year-old having a meltdown in a shop is doing something neurologically normal. That does not make it easier, but it changes…
Things Parents Know — The stuff nobody tells you until you need it
Early Years
Newborn sleep is not a problem to be solved in week one
Almost every piece of newborn sleep advice assumes a baby that has already developed a rhythm. In the first weeks, none exists yet.
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School Years
Reading with a child beats reading to them
The gap between the two is small in effort and large in outcome, and it is one of the better-evidenced things in early education.
School Years
What homework is actually for, by age
The evidence for homework varies enormously with age, and the arguments at home usually ignore that.
Teenagers
Teenagers pull away on schedule, and it is not about you
Increased privacy, peer orientation and irritability at home are developmental features. The relationship survives them if the door…
Teenagers
Talking to teenagers about money before they need it
Financial habits form earlier than most parents expect, and the useful conversations are specific rather than moral.
Running a Household
The mental load is a scheduling problem with a name
The invisible work of noticing, planning and remembering is real work, and it is distributed far less evenly than the visible kind.
Early Years
All early years →Early Years
Newborn sleep is not a problem to be solved in week one
Almost every piece of newborn sleep advice assumes a baby that has already developed a rhythm. In the first weeks, none exists yet.
Early Years
Toddler tantrums are a developmental stage, not a discipline failure
A two-year-old having a meltdown in a shop is doing something neurologically normal. That does not make it easier, but it changes…
Early Years
Starting solids is a skill, and milk is still the food
For the first months of eating, almost nothing is swallowed. That is the point, and it changes what counts as a good meal.
School Years
All school years →School Years
Reading with a child beats reading to them
The gap between the two is small in effort and large in outcome, and it is one of the better-evidenced things in early education.
School Years
What homework is actually for, by age
The evidence for homework varies enormously with age, and the arguments at home usually ignore that.
School Years
School readiness is mostly the coat, the toilet and the lunchbox
Teachers of the youngest classes are close to unanimous about what makes a first term easier, and it is almost never reading or…
Teenagers
All teenagers →Teenagers
Teenagers pull away on schedule, and it is not about you
Increased privacy, peer orientation and irritability at home are developmental features. The relationship survives them if the door…
Teenagers
Talking to teenagers about money before they need it
Financial habits form earlier than most parents expect, and the useful conversations are specific rather than moral.
Teenagers
Social media and teenagers: what the evidence actually supports
The public argument runs a long way ahead of the research. What is reasonably established points at specific uses and at sleep, not…
Running a Household
All running a household →Running a Household
The mental load is a scheduling problem with a name
The invisible work of noticing, planning and remembering is real work, and it is distributed far less evenly than the visible kind.
Running a Household
Feeding a family on a week that keeps changing
Meal planning fails when it assumes a predictable week. The version that survives is built around flexibility rather than schedule.
Running a Household
A house with children will be untidy, and the fight is about which mess
Tidying competes with everything else that hour could do. Deciding which surfaces you actually hold is more useful than trying to…
Parent Wellbeing
All parent wellbeing →
Parent Wellbeing
You are allowed to not enjoy every stage
Some phases of parenting are genuinely harder and less rewarding than others. Saying so out loud is not a confession of failure.
Parent Wellbeing
Couples after children: the maintenance nobody schedules
Relationship satisfaction reliably dips after a first child. Knowing that in advance changes what you do about it.
Parent Wellbeing
Broken sleep is a health problem, not a test of character
Fragmented sleep does a different kind of damage from a merely short night. Treating it as something to be endured stoically is the…
Family Life
All family life →
Family Life
Sibling conflict is practice, not a problem to eliminate
Siblings argue at rates that alarm parents and are entirely normal. What matters is what the adults do with it.
Family Life
Grandparents, different rules, and the conversation worth having early
Most intergenerational friction is about undiscussed defaults rather than about disagreement. It resolves better before it…
Family Life
A holiday with small children is not a rest, and planning for that helps
It is the same job in an unfamiliar kitchen. Expecting a break is what turns a tiring week into a disappointing one.
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- Sibling conflict is practice, not a problem to eliminateFamily Life
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- Starting solids is a skill, and milk is still the foodEarly Years
- Potty training runs on readiness, not on a date in the diaryEarly Years
- The normal range for talking is wider than the milestone charts implyEarly Years