parenting

Here’s a map of the best and worst countries to be a mother

A new report by Save the Children, a London-based NGO, gauges and ranks the conditions for mothers in almost every country in the world.  The Mother's Index, measures conditions for mothers using five different metrics: risk of maternal death, infant mortality rate, the number of years an average child will spend in school, gross national income [...]

Limit teens’ web access to two hours a day, parents told

Teenagers should spend no more than two hours on the internet each day, doctors warned as they advised parents to remove laptops and gadgets from their children’s bedrooms. Many mothers and fathers remain “clueless” about the impact excessive media exposure can have on their children and need to “get with it”, it was suggested. Dr [...]

The reason why we have ridiculous beauty standards

Another day, another Photoshop horror story. In a matter of weeks, Kate Winslet and Naomi Campbell have been featured on magazine covers looking nothing like the real-life versions of themselves. We've seen that men aren't immune to a heavy handed edit either, and, almost a century after her death, news has surfaced that Jane Austen was airbrushed within an inch of her [...]

The disturbing world of ‘pretty or ugly’ videos

When I was a teenager I would spend hours in my room singing into my hairbrush microphone in front of the mirror.  Go on, admit it, you probably did the same.  Indulging in some self-love is a fundamental right of childhood. For the kids of today the mirror has morphed into a small pixelated screen [...]

Adolescence: When drinking, genes may collide

Many negative effects of drinking, such as transitioning into heavy alcohol use, often take place during adolescence and can contribute to long-term negative health outcomes as well as the development of alcohol use disorders. A new study of adolescent drinking and its genetic and environmental influences has found that different trajectories of adolescent drinking are [...]

Teenagers Are Still Developing Empathy Skills

The teen years are often fraught with door-slamming, eye-rolling and seeming insensitivity, even by kids who behaved kindly before. Some parents worry that they're doing something wrong, or that their children will never think of anyone but themselves. New research shows that biology, not parenting, is to blame. In adolescence, critical social skills that are [...]

Being Bored is Good for the Brain!

Recently, my 5 year-old son has started proclaiming, “I’m booooorrrrred.”   My reaction?   Good. When I was a kid I distinctly remember my gran telling me that, “Only boring people get bored.”   She never really elaborated, and I’m still not too sure what she meant, but I like it. And I’ve started saying [...]

“Smacking never did us any harm!”

How often have you heard that line? How often have you said it?   I’m not here to tell you how to parent your kids. I’m learning every day just how hard a job it is. But I can’t help thinking to myself, whenever I hear this:   “Yeah, smacking never did us any harm, [...]

Why do teenagers start smoking?

Eighty per cent of adult smokers start smoking before 18 years of age, at an average age of 15 years. (1) Young people assume that they will stop before they experience any serious health problems. However, nicotine dependence can develop very quickly and most regular teenage smokers are soon unable to quit, often before they [...]

Dads with smaller testicles are better fathers, study shows

Men who have smaller testes are more likely to be better dads to their toddlers, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from Emory University in Georgia set out to determine why some fathers invest more energy in parenting than others, after prior research has shown that [...]

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