Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing ..read more

As a child I was taught “You can relax once you’ve finished all your jobs” Learning to get the unappealing, but necessary things done and out the way was helpful when I was younger and the main things I needed to do were tidy my room, do my homework and a few chores. However, as an adult this has not served me well.  When I was a teacher the job was never finished. There was always more to do.  The same goes with fostering, parenting, running a home and a business.  There is never a point where everything is done!  Yet, even though my circumstances changed ..read more

Supermum (and dad) is a myth. There is always a cost to doing it all. Scratch beneath the surface and no mum or dad is doing “everything” brilliantly and single handedly. It’s one of the privileges of listening to lots of parents – however good it looks from the outside, everyone makes compromises. Health Self care Friendships Intimacy with their partner Connection with their child Career Pursuing their interests What they eat Money Joy Sleep and rest Feeling guilty for missing their child’s activities Somewhere along the line they will have had to compromise because having a child doesn’t fit ..read more

Crochet, crosswords and an alarm! An unusual combination, but these are three things which have, for me been the most effective way to reduce my pointless social media scroll – a habit I’ve been working on for a LONG time. Changing habits can be hard to sustain – you start of great and then something comes along and throws you off course or the motivation just goes.  As a coach my work is all about helping people to make change.  It doesn’t mean I have everything sorted (wouldn’t that be lovely), but I do know that some extra thinking space and exploring can make all the difference w ..read more

How are you finding your child’s behaviour at the moment? This time of year can bring an increase in behaviour which feels challenging. Whilst we’re all supposed to be jolly, happy families, the odds are behind the scenes you may find everyone is struggling more than usual and consequently there’s a lot more short fuses, conflict and stress! It’s easy to end up wondering if your child has turned into a complete nighmare or you’ve epically failed as a parent. In truth it’s neither. This is a full on time of year and at this point everything tends to slip! Sometimes there are simple explanations ..read more

The language we use is significant. As anyone in a listening profession will tell you – the words we use matter. In all seasons these   are words worth paying attention to: Should Ought Expected to Sometimes these words can be clues as to where your expectations of yourself or your boundaries may need attention.  It may be that you’re carrying responsibilities you don’t need to or which aren’t helpful right now. In this particularly intense Christmas season these words can be really helpful signposts to areas where you’re taking on things which you might not need to. This is ..read more

Challenging behaviour is a bit like a smoke alarm. It’s noisy, distracting, uncomfortable and you just want it to stop. The alarm itself isn’t the problem. The real problem may be a fire or simply burnt toast – but the discomfort of the alarm is telling us we need to pay attention. Challenging behaviour is a call to take notice. It can even be a helpful nudge to take make change. However it’s easy to get focused on the behaviour itself as the problem and miss what it’s telling you, especially if you don’t know where to start. Based on some of the common themes I’ve seen crop up numerous times ..read more

Does the start of the new school year often mean a challenging time for you and your family? If your child struggles with school and you feel the fall out of it at home, then September can be a difficult month. You know you will have to navigate some big emotions as you support your child adapting to new teachers, new classrooms, new routines and the pressures that come from a school environment. There is a lot about the school system that is immovable, even with the most supportive schools. Resources are stretched and it can be a really difficult to find a way through. It’s also difficult whe ..read more

What’s your worst family holiday or day out? In amongst some lovely trips we’ve had as a family there have been those which have brought more stress than joy. One example was a few years ago when we paid a significant amount of money to go on a holiday abroad with a combination of our foster and birth children. The place we were going to was familiar and we were excited – we’d had some fantastic holidays there previously. Only this holiday was anything but fantastic. One of our children who hadn’t been before really really struggled. It was very difficult being away on holiday with a child wh ..read more

Once upon a time we took one of our teenagers (and friend) on holiday. We were based on a brilliant site about 40 mins outside Amsterdam – it’s got a swimming pool with amazing slides and a theme park on site as well as a whole heap of other activities. We spent the bulk of the week on the site or visiting one of the local beaches. It was great – totally teenage friendly. As we were so close to Amsterdam I wanted to grab the opportunity to spend a couple of hours visiting the Anne Frank house. We booked tickets in advance to avoid the queues and in the spread of a whole week away I felt that a ..read more