Tag: family

Family life, Features

Help! I’m trapped in lockdown with a professional team-building coach

Sick of being cooped up together at home? Maybe it’s time for you to draw up a family charter. My husband, Mat, and I can’t be the only parents who started lockdown with best intentions. Hunkering down with our children (Poppy, 14, Stanley, 12, and Rose, 10) we’d play Yahtzee; make papier-mâché; pickle things. Well, that was the plan. Four weeks in, we’re shuffling from bed … Continue reading Help! I’m trapped in lockdown with a professional team-building coach

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Family life, Features

B+ for effort: how has your family scored on the big lockdown test?

So, how has it been for you? While it’s too soon to start talking about lockdown as a thing of the past, life is showing signs of returning to some form of normality. We may not out of the woods yet by any means, but it’s starting to feel like the right moment to assess how we’ve all been coping so far. With last Monday … Continue reading B+ for effort: how has your family scored on the big lockdown test?

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Family life, Features

Is it OK to discipline someone else’s child?

Last week, my nine-year-old son came home from the park sporting a huge shiner. Pushed over by another child, he’d let it go (the other boy was younger, the “grown-ups in charge” hadn’t seen) but I was outraged. “If I’d seen that kid,” I blustered, “I’d have…” Done what exactly? Truth is, we’ve all moved a long way from the days when children played in … Continue reading Is it OK to discipline someone else’s child?

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Family life, Features

The 20 questions that will save your relationship

Everyone in a long-term relationship knows there’s a price to be paid for security. All-night sex sessions are traded for a good night’s sleep, and “lovey-dovey” chats cede to logistical briefings. (When did you last have a conversation that didn’t end with: “You forgot to buy BIN BAGS?!”) As the years pass, it’s too easy for partners to take each other for granted – and … Continue reading The 20 questions that will save your relationship

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Family life, Reviews

How to survive a family festival

You know how Nature has a way of making a woman forget the pain of childbirth – until her next labour starts. (“Silly me, how could I forget? THIS IS HELL”) Well, it’s the same with family festivals. Every year, you stagger home – eardrums ringing, spouse catatonic and kids bleeding face-paint – and swear NEVER to do it again. Yet a year later, there you are … Continue reading How to survive a family festival

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