Parenting

A degree in this area opens a vast array of career pathways and is highly valued around the world

Limited funding, staffing pressures and increasing demand make provision of mental health services to the public a major task

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan

The Healthy Families programme helps parents to implement gradual but significant improvements to family wellbeing

Our 18- and 19-year-olds, who can legally drink and vote, sit in school uniforms, call other adults ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ and must ask permission to use the toilet

Disposables are hardly without their ick factor, and the cost savings and environmental benefits of reusables are compelling

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan

Ask the Expert: Our daughter has autism and would not attend school for three years. Now at college, her attendance has improved greatly, but we walk on eggshells around her. How can we better support her?

Perhaps wondering about whether my childless counterpart is happier is fruitless

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan: In this episode Hollywood actor Victoria Smurfit talks about how her children are coping with their mother’s steamy role in Rivals

Parenting Taboos: Regretting parenthood, or wishing you hadn’t had some of your children, is a deeply guarded secret for some parents

Jen Hogan: Halloween and midterm are coming but don’t be afraid, because there’s plenty that you and the kids might enjoy, from a haunted trail in north Dublin to a ninja course in Galway and a book with ghost stories from every county

Surely it’s vital to tell them to discover what pleases them and to get to know their bodies, or is this still taboo?

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan: The writer and TV star on having a one child, needing her mum and à la carte Catholicism

Parenting in My Shoes: Working and training, the Republic of Ireland and Galway United player suffers from the dreaded parental guilt

Society considers mums suspected of working by choice to be playing a zero-sum game where career ambition comes at the cost of motherly love

Ask the Expert: Her school says she is always on her phone and not getting enough sleep, but she disagrees

Parenting taboos: If parents are aware they have a favourite child, there are things they can do to address the situation

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan

For Gill Lee, October will always be the month she lost her son Danny, in her sixth month of pregnancy

Jen Hogan: Social media links us in a non-physical way and is frequently fake or superficial. People who live close to us and who are available to meet up with are vital to middle-aged wellbeing

Roderic O’Gorman introduces Bill that also entitles Oireachtas members to maternity leave and will regulate non-disclosure agreements

Some employers may not be ‘best pleased’ about a second maternity leave being taken so soon after the first

Radio presenter says his daughter, who has Down syndrome, experienced less inclusion as she progressed through the education system

Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan

Parenting taboos: Experiencing gender disappointment is understandable, and parents shouldn’t feel guilty for having those feelings, says expert

Ask the Expert: The best way to check if your daughter’s development is healthy is to measure her height and weight so you can assess her BMI

Our culture is not breastfeeding friendly. We should focus instead on changing that instead

Make-up, moisturisers and keeping fit used to be enough. Now there should be no evidence of lived experience etched on your face

Ask the Expert: 'Is there something we should do to boost her confidence?'

Researchers at Maynooth University find short-tasks, lasting up to 15 minutes, are just as effective as longer assignments

Jen Hogan: Adults seem to forget that childhood sport is about inclusion and being part of a team

I’m a parent, tolerating worry is in the job description, and so is the gradual handover of physical safety from parent to child

Swedish public health authorities aim to promote healthy development but some experts wonder whether parts of the guidance are unrealistic

Ask the Expert: Is there a way of stopping him doing this without being critical?

Two women describe their experiences of becoming mothers again over the age of 35

For those of us trying to protect children from online harm, it’s been like bailing a boat with a soup ladle while big tech is filling it with a fire hose

Online safety charity says there is ‘vital need’ for online safety education in schools

Jen Hogan: We need to prepare them for the world they will live in and enable them to navigate that space

Following the backlash Kirstie Allsopp received over her 15-year-old son’s inter-railing trip, we asked parents how they feel about teens travelling alone