Thinking about what gets in the way of making wonderful family traditions.
A simple hack to be less grumpy
A little trick that always works.
I 'used to be naggier'. Thanks son.
I’m a naggy dad. I don’t want to be but I’m glad I am. It’s weird but realising this has made my life better.
How to set your expectations at the right level.
Setting your expectations is the key to patient parenting.
Parenting solice and why we'll get through all this.
Glimmers of hope on the horizon, but they’re still a long way off. We’ll get there though, us parents, here’s why.
Learning life lessons from parenting
Life lessons I’ve learned from parenting.
Coping with lockdown parenting
How I’ve learned to cope with lockdown parenting.
Lockdown parenting building stronger relationships
What you do in lockdown could help your kids for the rest of their lives.
Seeing gaps and choosing struggles of fatherhood
Everything is a struggle, so choose what to struggle at.
Parenting can give you more confidence, if you do it right
Why and how parenting makes you more confident.
Sherlock Holmes shows why your kids wind you up
Sherlock’s insights on how the brain works reveals one reason why we get impatient with our kids.
What it's like being a dad
What it’s really like to be a dad.
Grayson Perry, a milkman, fatherhood and relationships
Really understanding what a relationship is, so you can build better ones.
How COVID19 brought me my first kiss
How being at home more changed this dad’s relationship with his son, by Noah Bernstein.
Lockdown living: what busy working parents might mean for kids.
Lockdown with busy working parents might be laying down unhealthy and potentially disastrous mindsets in our most loved ones.
If they're bored, it's your fault
What it’s like being a children’s artist keeping a room full of under-fives entertained.
Being a more patient parent and making life easier.
Being a more patient parent makes life easier
“never good enough” - words no parent wants to hear.
‘Never good enough’ are words no parent wants to hear
A summary of all the parenting lockdown advice
I did a talk this week for City Parents. Normally, they're 30 – 40 people in a London City office. The lockdown version had 130 people online. 5 mins before it started my internet went down, so I hot-spotted from my phone. Then my phone shutdown from overheating, but my wifi was back up then. Lockdown joys. What can you do?
In prep, I’ve been looking a lot at parenting in lockdown. I wanted to know what the best tips were for parenting in lockdown. I read SO many articles. No earth shattering insights, just good common sense. Here’s the summary.
Hold a routine, set boundaries flexibly.
Routine creates structure, structure creates certainty, certainty avoids stress. Boundaries keep things apart, like working and family, phones do the opposite. Treat them like a work tool, leave them in the workspace.
Make sure it’s got exercise, a bit of learning for them while you work, together time, quiet time for them while you work again, play time, you time. Design it with the kids.
All the things a family needs. How you put them together is up to you. Build the routine together. Adjust it together. That way everyone has skin in the game, gets what they want, has control and certainty.
Be kind to each other.
Ease off. Be kind, especially to yourself. Lower your expectations, especially about how much you’ll get done each day.
Perspective. Remember what really matters.
Use one of my previous question to put life in perspective. When you remember what really matters, you realise what doesn’t actually matter too.
Why you're finding it so hard to be focused right now
Understanding why we’re struggling with being focused is the first step towards fixing it.