How to Regulate your Emotions: A Critical Skill for Parents and Children
Most would agree that there is not a parent among us who doesn’t have days where they feel overwhelmed by the pressures of being a parent or primary carer. No matter who you are, where you come from or what you do, parenting is a great equaliser and at one time or another, we all have those moments where we struggle to control our emotions during times of stress or pressure. We may end up reacting in ways we do not like and later feel overwhelmed by regret.
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Top 10 Tips to be an Organised Mum
Do you find yourself stressing about everything? Do you wish you could clone yourself or that you could still function on zero hours sleep? Do you struggle to juggle your career, look after your children, manage your house, have a relationship with your partner, and find some ‘me time’? Do you get home from work, after a long day and wish you could just relax, instead of having to tackle another to-do list and prepare a nutritious dinner, which the children won’t pick at?
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Battling the Baby Eczema Blues
Summer is over, autumn leaves have fallen from the trees and winter has arrived. Winter is a challenging time for families. Not only do you worry about making sure everyone is keeping warm, avoiding the sniffles and trying to find activities for those wet and windy days. But trying to manage your family’s skin as well? Especially if any of you suffer from dry skin, eczema or dermatitis.
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5 easy tips for better breathing
Our modern stressed sedentary lifestyle has shifted our breathing patterns away from our natural breath. Many of us have adopted poor and ineffective breathing patterns, negatively impacting our physical and mental health.
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How to add value to your home?
The average Australian lawn is 130m2, so you should pay around $1000-1500 for new grass without any labour costs. Based on around 130m2, you are looking at $2.50-3/m2 for installation if you don’t do it yourself. The cheapest option is to do the work yourself. The only thing it will cost you is your time. Do realise it isn’t simply a case of plonking the turf down and walking away.
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How to Deal with Loneliness in 3 Step Process
Loneliness is a feeling that we try and avoid. The most intense feeling of loneliness I remember was as a child sitting in a classroom full of people. I vividly remember the feeling scared by its power. From that day onward I tried to avoid any negative emotions. But now I understand what created that feeling of loneliness. I know some tools to relieve some of that emotional discomfort and I have learned how to move forward when I feel lonely. I’m going to teach you these things today.
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Say Goodbye to you Inner Mean Mummy
I’ve been there! It’s not fun. I lost my confidence and I felt terrible. It’s time to say goodbye to that part of you. It’s time to let it go. But how you ask?
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LET'S TALK ABOUT POST NATAL DEPRESSION
How often do we hear stories of pregnancy, birth and early parenting all going exactly to plan? More often than not, the ideas we have in our minds of how things should be, do not merge with the eventuating reality, even if it is the second, third or fourth time around. Every pregnancy, birth, and baby is different and this can have a significant influence on how we feel about ourselves, our baby and about our early parenting experiences.
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Flying with expressed breastmilk
The last few years there have been a few highly publicised cases of women being made to discard or taste test their hard pumped liquid gold breastmilk when travelling through security or customs when flying. The vast majority of mum’s encounter no issues but its best to educate yourself on your rights as a breastfeeding/ pumping mother and the rules of travelling with expressed breast milk (EBM), so you are confident if you come across any problems.
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PACKING A HEALTHY SCHOOL LUNCH BOX
Did you know that over a school year, parents will pack approximately 200 lunch boxes per child!! With a third of a child’s total daily food intake being consumed at school, it is important that what you include in your child’s lunch box provides all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals needed for energy, growth and learning. After all, packing a healthy lunchbox every day is one of the most important things you can do to help support your child’s energy levels, behaviour, focus, and ability to learn. No pressure, right?
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Top 10 things to buy before your first baby is born
As I write this, I am almost 19 weeks pregnant with my first child. So I know how you feel. Even for someone super organised, who loves spending hours doing research, Excel tables comparing the pros and cons, it is overwhelming. And if I was given $1 for everytime someone well-meaning told me “you have to get this type of pram, you can’t call them that or you must do this”, my unborn child would have a very healthy trust fund.
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6 Tips for Hosting Your Own Pony Party
Talk with your son or daughter and get an idea of what they expect. You may need to point out that “more” isn’t always “merrier”! Some of the best parties we’ve seen are small in number, that is, less than 10 guests. As the saying goes “their age plus one” is how many invitations should go out! But, if it is going to be the whole class, you may want to organise some extra party activities in addition to the ponies.
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Losing weight isn’t just about eating less!
These are some common pitfalls people can overlook within their journey to losing weight. However, there are over 100 reasons and interactions that can alter weight loss.
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Baby Massage - a way to get to know your baby
Over the past few years I have worked with loads of mums & dads who recognised that they struggled with getting to know their baby! There is so much emphasis placed on getting everything ready for baby; all the material things that may be needed like cot blankets, bumpers, nappies, bottles, dummies, formula, clothes, etc. Then the books and don't forget googling the different colour baby's poop could be and if it is normal, the different skin rashes, etc.
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Story time – when books trump technology
We’re hearing more and more lately about the importance of reading to and with children; and its impact on language and literacy. Whilst more concrete evidence now exists of the impact on a child’s cognitive skills and the associated flow-on effects throughout their lives, it has been no secret that reading to and with children is a good idea. However, an abundance of technology, combined with the increasingly busy lives of families, mean that many simply aren’t finding the time.
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Your Kids Should Not be the most Important in the Family
I saw an article titled “Your Kids Should Not be Most the Important in the Family” and it made me feel lots of things. Defensive, angry, upset but I also agreed with the statement. Parenting doesn’t come with a manual. I’ve tried to follow a few cheat sheets - attachment parenting, conscious parenting, the Montessori approach… No matter how hard I tried, how hard I researched, I never felt like I was the best mum I could be. I just needed to try harder. Right?
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TURNING INTO MUM
I’ve never dreamed of having a baby. My husband did. I dreamed of having a career and being the CEO of a very large corporate by the time I’m 40. I liked my busy lifestyle. Flying around, meeting important people and giving advice on things that were and felt a lot bigger than me. So I agonised over, what everyone assured me, was going to be a complete change in my life and that you can “forget your career”. I was scared.
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Is your baby still eating puree?
Something I have noticed in my every day practice, is that a lot of parents continue to feed their babies pureed food, long after they need to. It’s a tricky time, because we start our babies on solids around 6 months and progress with offering a range of vegies and fruit, and it is easy to get into the routine of making food in bulk and filling up the freezer! Also, you may not be visiting your Maternal and Child Health Nurse until baby is 8 months, so you coast along doing the same thing.
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Is it Possible to Be More Present With Our Kids?
One major obstacle holding us back from being more present with our kids, are our feelings. We feel restless and bored and agitated and frustrated and annoyed and disappointed. Yes, there is fun and enjoyment and love and humour but somehow I don’t think you need help with that side of life.
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5 easy ways you can add exercise into your day
Human beings are routine based animals. We love structure, consistency and making things as easy as possible. So why not start your morning routine off with exercise? To do this I suggest making your environment supportive of this endeavour by setting up your workout clothes in an easy to see place as soon as you wake up, leave your gym shoes close to the front door, set a reminder on your phone.
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