I’m delighted to add new resources to my website: the self-compassion videos and tip sheet from the Mothercare studies. The Mothercare resources are for mothers of babies and they were developed by Dr James Kirby and Dr Stanley Steindl. They have been used in two studies, one a micro-RCT. In the RCT we found benefits for mothers in terms of self-compassion, ability to receive compassion from others, depressive symptoms and birth trauma symptoms. In the other study, a pre-post study, we also found benefits in terms of breastfeeding experiences. The fact that we found these effects is amazingly ..read more

Today was an historic day – the first COVID19 vaccine in Australia, with phase one of the national roll out to begin tomorrow. And do you know what we did in our family to mark the occasion? We baked a cake. Two cakes, in fact, one representing COVID19 and the other the vaccine. Back in 2020 during our very first week of lockdown we coped with the rapidly spiralling situation, the uncertainty for the future and the general anxiety by baking COVID19 pattycakes/cupcakes. We also learned about viruses, transmission, the importance of washing hands and social distancing, the development of the sma ..read more

2020 has been quite the year. And, like many of us, I felt the need to see it out the door and begin 2021 well. It was the right year to begin a new New Year’s tradition with the kids, and here is what I came up with: We each created three drawings: Everything about 2020 that we’d like to see come to an end. There were lots of drawings of COVID-19 and stress monsters! Everything about 2020 that made us happy or that we are proud of achieving. This was wonderful to reflect on. And once we took the time to notice, there was so much more than we would have guessed. Our hopes and dreams for 2021 ..read more

What a year 2020 has been for all of us. As we all stumble out of 2020 and look blinkingly and hopefully to the future, I’d like to take a moment to wish you and your family all the best. I hope you find a moment’s pause in all the holiday excitement for a little self-care, and for a little connection with your children. I hope you find a moment to take a deep breath and acknowledge how far you’ve come. We’ve been living history this year. And if all you’ve done is live through it, you have done enough. Pause a moment and let it be enough. My news is that my website has had an upgrade. You’ll ..read more

We are living in challenging times, extraordinary times. Challenging times to parent. As, like everyone, I reel with the shock of the pandemic and its implications I’ll share with you a few of my thoughts: The great blessing of COVID 19, as horrific as it is, is the fact that all the evidence to date suggests that for children it is usually mild and rarely fatal. What wonderful news for parents! I keep reflecting on how different, how much worse, this situation would be if that wasn’t the case. Of course, this doesn’t mean that a child surviving COVID 19 is guaranteed (the survival of our chil ..read more

“But that’s not fair!” It is a favourite phrase of children everywhere. But how should a parent respond? By righting the injustice? Or by explaining that life isn’t always fair? Well, firstly it is important to understand why your child is saying “but that’s not fair!” As in the function of the behaviour. The phrase is so favoured by children because it works. It is more successful in getting adult attention than simply saying “I don’t like this!” After all, most of us want to be fair. But when they yell out “that’s not fair!” do children always mean that there actually is a lack of fairness ..read more