Parenting

Childcare is mothercare

6 July 2024 9:00 am

When I was a small child, my mother left me in the charge of an elderly neighbour so that she…

Stella Creasy is wrong about the ‘motherhood penalty’

17 December 2023 8:39 pm

If you find yourself frazzled by the Christmas rush, spare a thought for Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow, who is…

Dear Mary

9 September 2023 9:00 am

The dangerous cult of ‘toxic parents’

5 August 2023 9:00 am

Complaining about ‘toxic parents’ has been a viral hit on TikTok with videos on the topic racking up several billion…

Parents must resist Stonewall’s gospel

16 July 2022 9:00 am

I think by now it’s becoming horribly apparent to parents of every political persuasion that we can’t sit out the…

What really happened when my wife left me in charge

12 March 2022 9:00 am

I’m currently standing at the top of Brownie Point Mountain, having spent the past two weeks looking after our three…

Why Chinese women don’t want more children

5 June 2021 9:00 am

Chinese women can’t afford a large family

Bad news, Boris – childcare has cost me £500,000 (and counting)

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Welcome to the cripplingly expensive world of childcare, Boris

A meditation on everyday life: Early Morning Riser, by Katherine Heiny, reviewed

1 May 2021 9:00 am

There were many moments in Early Morning Riser that made me laugh out loud in recognition. An episode where the…

The moral debate over Covid jabs for children

6 March 2021 9:00 am

The ethics of Covid jabs for children

The conservative appeal of drug gangs

6 March 2021 9:00 am

According to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, the easing of lock-down will be accompanied by a rise in crime…

How middle-class is your dad?

20 February 2021 9:00 am

The politics and posturing of ‘middle-class dads’

My kids think my move into the garden shed means divorce

28 November 2020 9:00 am

I’ve moved out of my home. No, Caroline and I haven’t broken up. It’s just that we’re having the house…

children

Children of the revolution

3 June 2020 4:07 am

Some steal their luxury leisure goods, but others take their leisure by the luxury of right, and all of it…

Lockdown used to be the norm for new mothers

9 May 2020 9:00 am

I laughed when my Spanish midwife mentioned in passing that in Latin American countries they have a custom for new…

The world of make-believe is stranger than we realise

28 March 2020 9:00 am

Last summer, in the bc era, I took my then three-year-old to a new group play session: ‘Lottie’s Magic Box.’…

If you want children to love reading, don’t tell them what to read

7 March 2020 9:00 am

If you want children to love reading, don’t tell them what to read

In defence of pocket money

11 January 2020 9:00 am

Our grandchildren are penniless. They have pretty much everything their hearts desire and they have parents with wallets full of…

It’s possible to talk to children about politics without leading them in one direction

7 December 2019 9:00 am

My six-year-old son announced, from the back of the car, that he was backing Boris Johnson. My wife, who’s voting…

Why do we keep pretending that children are wiser than adults?

12 October 2019 9:00 am

We’ve begun to behave as if young people are special; more virtuous and wiser than adults. It’s wrong and it’s…

At last, the TV-hogging space invaders have returned to university

5 October 2019 9:00 am

‘Hands up which other university parents are bloody glad to have got rid of their lumpen, food-gobbling, space-invading kids…’ When…

The reason middle-class parents are so anxious

10 August 2019 9:00 am

On that record-breaking, sweltering day at the end of July, my three-year-old son did a pirouette in the paddling pool…

My daughter’s gone to Magaluf, and it’s hard not to worry

13 July 2019 9:00 am

At the Leavers’ Ball held to mark our daughter’s last day at boarding school, there were only two topics of…

The dad revolution hasn’t helped our children – or us

15 June 2019 9:00 am

When I was growing up in the late 1960s, boys like me craved the admiration and approval of our dads;…

Parent trap: WhatsApp groups are feeding our fears

25 May 2019 9:00 am

The mother of a little girl in my son’s year at school recently committed suicide. On the surface she was…