Do Christmas Lists Encourage Children To Be Greedy? Handling Pester Power!

So it’s coming to that time of the year when the kids start being marketed to by the media. Are your children pester ninjas? Do you feel under pressure to fulfill your child’s Christmas list? Well a survey today by the charity Mothers’ Union has called for an end to “pester power.” Some 84 per […]

Too many Santas “confuse children” – what do you think?

As Christmas approaches, men trussed up in red suits and sporting fluffy white beards become a ubiquitous sight on high streets up and down the country don’t they? Parents of young children can guarantee that several versions of Father Christmas will be doling out presents and sprinkling a bit of festive magic in the shops. […]

Is it a good idea to exclude children as young as 5?

I’m speaking on BBC Radio Sheffield about the increase of young children being excluded from school from as young as 5. Recently I wrote about ‘School Readiness’ as this is a complex subject not easily dismissed by the taxi driver who said to me, ‘All they need is a good smack.’ Here is an article […]

We must stop turning children against divorced fathers.

            I have been working with a Mum going through a difficult divorce who has 3 children. She is bitter, angry and furious that her husband had an affair with his young secretary and split the family up. She is incandescent that she had to leave their family home and […]

Too much – too soon? Should we delay starting school until 7 ?

  As a former Deputy Head and Class Teacher I read with interest today’s article in The Telegraph about a campaign to delay the start of formal education until the age of seven which is backed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. While I can see that we have gone too far along […]

The rise of ‘Motherism’ – prejudice against stay-at-home mums.

I read with interest today about the rise in “Motherism” as new term to describe prejudice against stay at home mums! Stay-at-home mothers are increasingly facing a damaging but unspoken prejudice   that assumes they are stupid, lazy and unattractive, a leading child  development expert has warned. Dr Aric Sigman, a biologist and psychologist, said that what he […]

Are YOUR children being raised in ‘captivity’ due to health and safety paranoia?

Are your kids out in the snow throwing snowballs, climbing trees and having fun – or are they stuck inside on their iPad and watching hours of TV? Prof Tanya Byron said that children’s natural development was being stunted after being refused the chance to play outside, banned from throwing snowballs and prevented from walking […]