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Here’s the best thing you can do for your kids, parents. (Pssst: It’s easy.)

(Elliot Haspel, The Washington Post)

Modern parenting has become an anxious business. As the writer notes, making sure children are healthy and safe have been universal concerns for time immemorial. But things have become tougher, thanks to a suite of uniquely modern anxieties summed up as, ‘How is my child stacking up?’ This essay offers a simple antidote: relax, breathe and embrace the idea that children who have loving, predictable, secure relationships with adults are set up to thrive.

More than one in four Aussie kids are overweight or obese: we’re failing them, and we need a plan

(Alessandro R Demaio, The Conversation)

In 1980, few Australian children were overweight or obese. Jump forward to today, and the condition is affecting more than 25 per cent of children. These shocking statistics were laid out by Australian doctor and academic Alessandro R Demaio in a recent address to the National Press Club. He makes a call for urgent action: ‘If this were any other serious, debilitating, rapidly rising health challenge, we would be calling a national emergency.’

‘Profoundly dangerous’: A generation at risk from ‘concierge parents’

(Jordan Baker, Sydney Morning Herald)

When her child got a detention, her mother contacted the school offering to take it for her. The mother said she was the one responsible for the forgotten uniform, because she was late washing it. This is one of several examples of the phenomenon of ‘concierge parents’, as one principal describes it. ‘They are sitting at their little desk waiting for any problems, and sort them out.’ The article quotes Dr Judith Locke, author of The Bonsai Child, who wrote for us arguing against letting children choose their class.

 

The parenting milestone I wasn’t prepared for

(Kasey Edwards, Essential Kids, via The Age)

The first school camp is a rite of passage for both child and parent. It can be a time of tears and worry, mainly for parents. The author takes us through her experiences, having learnt to parent in an age of hyper-awareness, of always knowing what’s happening with their child. So the radio silence once the bus departed for camp was hard to cope with –would her daughter be okay?

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