Some children thrive in the playground and make friends easily. For other kids, friendships are tricky to navigate.

When your child comes home sad about the fact that no one played with them today, or that someone was unkind to them, we feel their pain viscerally and it can feel like our own heart might just break in two.

The thought of our kids feeling left out or hurt emotionally without anyone there to help them can light a fire under us. We want to jump into action - call the school, drill our kid to find out the names of the kids who did this, or dive into a monologue of advice about ‘playing with someone else’.

While these responses come from a place of love and protectiveness for our child, they are often more about how we are feeling than our kid.

The truth is all kids will have days where things don’t go right in the playground and not all of these struggles need a parent to intervene. But what point do you step in, and what should you do to support your...

When one of my boys was in Kindy I would  check in with his teacher to see how he was going and hear nothing but positive reviews.

 Apparently, he was a “joy” to have in class. His teacher wished more kids were as attentive and quiet......

I wondered if she had the kids mixed up because his behaviour and emotions at home was off the charts difficult. He was picking on siblings, struggling at afterschool playdates with neighbours and falling apart over dinner he would normally have loved.

What was happening with my son is called after-school restraint collapse and it’s common at the beginning of the new school year as kids are all adjusting to new things.

What’s really happening here is our child working so hard to keep it together away from their parents all day long. At childcare or school, they need to share, take turns, listen and follow directions. They are also away from us; their safe base and it can take time to settle.

This...

Separation is tough for kids.

As a mum to four boys I have had my fair share of tricky farewells and I am no stranger to bursting into tears in the carpark after yet another awful drop off.

When my youngest son started kindy, he was struggling with drop off. He would start to delay or struggle from the minute he woke, cling to the inside of our van and beg for a day off, he would cry at the gate in front of EVERYONE.

We talked about how saying bye to mum was hard and we workshopped what might help.

He came up with an idea that brining his beloved ‘Sonic toy’ with him to the gate would help. He wanted me to mind it for him and then bring it back at pick up. We went to the gate with Sonic for two weeks before my son stopped asking for him and was able to go into school without anything. He’s never looked back.

While this may seem ‘too simple’ the reason this worked is well documented. My son’s behaviour of struggling to separate as he adjusted to...

Most kids in Australia are going back to school in just over a week.

The shift from the long Aussie summer holidays into the back-to-school routine can be tough for children and let’s be real here - their parents too!

Beyond adjusting to new routines, the transition back to school involves a mix of emotions. Some kids might feel excited about new teachers, subjects, and classmates, while others may experience anxiety, sadness or uncertainty about the upcoming school year.

This can be exacerbated if there is significant change happening like starting school for the first time, starting high school, or moving to a new school. In times of transition kids are more likely to have big feelings about seemingly small things because there is a lot to process.

Things can be harder when kids experience social struggles or anxiety, if they are neuro divergent, or if they find the environment of school overwhelming to the senses. The below helps with the return to school for all kids,...

“If you kids don’t knock it off I’m calling Santa” is the calling card of many patents at this time of year. 

Are you even a parent if you haven’t said at least one of these things:

“If you don’t settle down, we are turning this car around”

“if you don't eat your dinner there will be no dessert” or

“Santa is just a phone call away”

My hubby used the Santa one this week. One of my boys was mucking up and he said “if you don’t settle down Santa won’t get as many gifts.” Most parents dabble in these thinly veiled threats, especially at Christmas when everyone is heightened.

We use these things to get our kids to cooperate.

To get kids into or out of the bath, or just some days to survive. Sometimes they do work in the moment.

But there is a significant catch, they simply don’t work to teach our kids HOW to do things differently and as a result we wind up on a treadmill of threats...

My eldest was a biter…. Among other things.

He was also a hitter, a pusher, and a snatcher.

I once got a call from his small preschool that he’d pushed 15 small children over.

My son was two. His lovely teacher Emily had announced to the class there was a ‘real rabbit’ for them all to look at to celebrate Easter at the front of the room. My son was so excited he tore his way to the front of the class, pushing past everyone and 15 children were left crying in his wake. The teacher said, ‘she’d never seen anything like it’.

Unfortunately this wasn't a stand alone incident. My son tended to struggle to share in the sandpit at preschool, and also at home playing with his cousin. Hitting, pushing and biting were happening more often than I felt i'd been warned about in the baby books. 

It never feels good when your child is hurt by another child, but it feels just as awful when you are the parent of the child who has hurt someone. I...

The photo below was taken of my kids 8 years ago.  

A moment that will be etched in my brain forever because of both the beautiful magic of it....and the horrible chaotic-ness of it all in one.

It’s etched in my brain because I was finally out of the trenches of having my fourth baby. He’s pictured here at bottom of shot finally at that beautiful age where he could start to join in, and life was getting a bit less hectic.

But this moment was really special for me because it was the first time all four of my boys were playing nicely together.

IT WAS PURE MAGIC.

They’d been playing with their LEGO DUPLO for about 45 mins in absolute harmony. Anyone who is a parent knows these are the moments we almost don’t want to breathe because they seem too good to be true. My boys were building a tall tower together…… TOGETHER!

There was teamwork, creativity, innovation, special skills, negotiation skills all happening at once. These moments in...

I wish I was the natural and instinctive mum I pictured I would before I was a mum.

I have had to work hard to filter the information overload, and dial down fear based parenting to find my groove. As a girl I always wanted to be a mum more than anything else. I had very strong visions of the mum I’d be: kind and loving, fresh cookies on the table after school every day. Instinctively fun, loving, and gentle.

I thought instinct was looking at your baby and knowing that a certain cry meant food and another meant cuddles. How hard could it be?

We tell new parents to ‘trust their instinct’ I find when I teach my classes at hospital parents look at me with confusion about what that is. When there is so much pressure and so much noise around how to get this job done right it can feel absolutely daunting that we should have ‘instincts’ about what our baby needs.

I think as our kids grow, finding the instinct about what they need can get harder....

There are few things in the world that hurt more than hearing your child say, “I hate you.” 

Our child's words can cut deep.

We would literally sacrifice everything for our kids and they are yelling that they hate us?

Here is the good news. When kids yell harsh words this is actually a good thing. But before we get there, we need to look inwards about how these moments impact us as parents.

When your child screams:

“I hate you, you are the worst parent ever”  

“I wish you were dead”

“You’ve ruined my life”

“You’re a poo poo head”

These words leave us feeling hurt.

Then we worry… “would I have dared speak to my parents that way?”

Which can lead to more anxiety about whether we are actually failing at raising a good kid, a kid who respects their elders.

This is a spiral that can have us responding in ways that don’t help like yelling, over reacting or using...

Most parents really struggle with the idea of their kids struggling socially because we all relate to that feeling of being left out.

When your child comes home and says they are sad about the fact that no-one played with them today. As parents this can be one of the most triggering things to hear, bringing up feelings of being left out we can quickly and easily go to wanting to fix or solve it pronto.

Common responses might sound like:

1. “Tell me their names! I am calling your teacher immediately and we are going to tell all of their parents”; or
2. “If I’ve told you once I’ve told you twice, if you don’t share and work to get along these kids will leave you out!”
3. “You’re fine, just play with someone else when that happens.”
4. “Just tell them “sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”

We kind of know neither of these reactions are what our kids need, but sometimes they just pop out.

...