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Do you love change?

I'm great with change when I am in a good emotional state but if I'm feeling at all wobbly, which often happens, then I start to get anxious and difficult to be around.

Not long after Nico, my eldest, had started in reception*, he came out of school in a really foul mood.
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As summer draws to an end, it is also hard for children to get back into a normal routine and in my experience, it’s good to put things in place in advance of the first day. 

Children don’t think ahead in the way we do so we need to do our best to help them adjust to changes...

Do you ever feel jealous?

It’s not a great feeling, is it?

But it is a normal, human feeling.

We need to remember that children's feelings are raw and they are learning to regulate them.

I was working with a client recently who was having such a struggle with her toddler adapting to life...

We were once returning from a trip to Italy many years ago when we just had the two boys.

Felix was 2 and Nico was 4 ½.

Felix had missed his nap and the flight was delayed so we were fairly doomed from the get-go!

He wouldn’t eat any of the food at the airport and by the time we...

I was really irritated a couple of days ago. I’d had a spat with my husband and I was feeling so annoyed with him.

It is a pretty rare couple that doesn’t argue but boy is it hard when you do, isn't it?

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes. SO I was really preoccupied by this argument and...

My mother’s favourite expression is ‘A mother’s place is in the wrong’.

It makes me smile and it is so easy to slip into guilt around motherhood and be tempted to fix things when they’ve gone wrong.

It has certainly felt like that for me.

I remember my daughter...

I remember my parenting coach telling me that it wasn't my job to make my child happy and I felt really shocked by that.

What's the point in having kids if we don't want them to have a happy life?

If you want to raise a well-rounded, emotionally well-balanced child then you’ll want to read...

I was listening to a great podcast today - I highly recommend it - by Erin Royer and is called 'Your Village, Parenting Beyond Discipline'.

I wanted to tell you about something Erin suggested - it's especially helpful if you have a child who is prone to emotional outbursts but it could be lovely...

I always hoped I'd be the kind of parent who was patient and encouraging.

I mean when my kids were learning to walk, I was right there saying 'come on.... you can do it!'

Did I ever say ‘Aren’t you a bit too old to still be crawling?'

or 'Look, your brother was much younger when he...

I felt a tap on the shoulder at school pick up

'Can I have a word Mrs McGill?'

My heart sank.

In these situations you know it can only be bad news and you immediately start to doubt your parenting abilities and blame yourself for whatever your child has got up to.

My son Nico's teacher...

One day on the way back from nursery when my daughter was little, I sensed something wasn't right. We stopped to sit on a park bench and her eyes welled up with tears.

'Nobody would play with me today, they said I was a baby and couldn't join in their games'.

I felt a terrible stab in my heart...

Have you ever had the horrible realisation that you might be in danger of raising a 'spoilt child'.

I'm not crazy about the word 'spoilt' what I mean is over-indulged by us - but here's a little check list:

• Are they overly demanding and scream or hit out at you when they don't get what they want...