Chatting to your kids is not supposed to be habitual. Communication is an art. So if you want more than a habituated response you’re going to have to be a little more creative in your questions. “How was your day?” is never going to get more than an answer of “Fine”. I’d like to address…
Category: Family
When women become mothers one of their biggest fears is that they will lose themselves. Rather than seeing pregnancy and birth as a learning experience or a series of opportunities, women often feel they have to prove that nothing has changed. That they’re still exactly the same person they were before having a child. For…
For every benefit of the internet of things, such as being able to unlock a garage door with your mobile phone, or find your car keys by sending them a text message, there’s a downside. From web-connected smoke-alarms that can be “unintentionally deactivated” with the wave of a hand to smart light fixtures that, after…
He has not been elected and he cannot vote on policy, but five-month-old Diego was one of many new faces as the Spanish parliament convened for the first time since last month’s inconclusive general election. In the absence of any progress towards forming a coalition government, Diego, son of the Podemos MPCarolina Bescansa, stole the…
There are many children incorrectly diagnosed as being either ADHD or as having oppositional defiance disorder who are really just highly sensitive children that are overwhelmed by the rush of sensory input that they’re unable to filter out. I know, I’m one of them. When I’m in a noisy restaurant I can’t block out the…
“Being robbed is the price we pay for the way we live,” my husband said, several hours after we came home on Saturday to find our front gate jimmied, our front door kicked in and many of our valuables stolen. I’ve been thinking about this for days now. He’s right. Petty theft, smash-and-grab attacks, burglaries,…
On Saturday my daughter readied herself for a Superheroes party. She wore a pretty red party dress with net and a bow, old-fashioned white sandals and a red velour cape. She also asked for red lipstick, which I applied. Not for a moment did it occur to me to moderate her fashion choices, given the…
Children who will be born into poverty need to be enrolled in child support programmes while they are still in the womb, a representative from a Ugandan child support programme told the Psychosocial Support Forum in Zimbabwe on Tuesday. “Lessons learnt from previous projects revealed a need to enrol children into this project right from…
For sure, this topic is complex, and though there are black families who have experienced the absence of fathers and father figures, the notion that most or all black families are navigating that particular experience is simply not true. This absent Black father narrative leaves out the important perspectives and experiences of many, and therefore…
Lesley and John Brown had been trying to conceive for nine years. The failures took their toll: Lesley became depressed, and at one point suggested that John find a “normal woman”. Eventually, she was referred to Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist at Oldham General Hospital in Greater Manchester, Britain. He offered Lesley an experimental treatment he…
Woman has baby. You wouldn’t think that it would make headline news (unless, of course, it was Kate and Will again), but it has. Not because the mother-to-be is a boss at Marks and Spencer; lots of women in senior positions have families. Not because the impending birth was announced on the stock exchange: this…
The meaning of the word “family” is queer to me. Semiotically I know what the word is supposed to signify. Semantically I know what its heteronormative conventions denote. Its symbolism pervades popular representation. The glamorised view paints the traditional family home as a stable and nurturing environment; a safe haven in which the close-knit kin…
One never finds an article that is positive about the government in the Mail & Guardian, so it wasn’t a surprise that last week’s article on the amendments to the Maintenance Act had to have a negative spin (Maintenance courts fail SA’s children). Yes, some claimants do still experience problems, but much has been done…
Perhaps because the alternative is too hideous to contemplate, we persuade ourselves that those who wield power know what they are doing. The belief in a guiding intelligence is hard to shake. We know that our conditions of life are deteriorating. Most young people have little prospect of owning a home, or even of renting…
Here is an assertion with which you will be familiar. After 30, women’s fertility falls drastically. Their chances of conceiving naturally plummet, and they are left relying on IVF or adoption, or – worst of all – consigned to a childless life. These lonely women sit around their laughterless homes, pining for the burbling affection…