Youth mental health: ‘What we need to try and do is break the stigma attached to talking about it’
Limited funding, staffing pressures and increasing demand make provision of mental health services to the public a major task
Parenting
Stories related to parenting
Terry Prone on allowing son Anton Savage to be in her publicity as a child: ‘I think it was the wrong thing to do’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
From screentime to dinner time: how parents can improve family life, diet and relationships
The Healthy Families programme helps parents to implement gradual but significant improvements to family wellbeing
‘Be an adult’ we tell our older teenagers but the Irish school system treats them like children
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
Reusable cloth nappies vs disposables: would you put €500 a year in the bin?
Disposables are hardly without their ick factor, and the cost savings and environmental benefits of reusables are compelling
Ivan Yates: ‘The lack of affection from my parents’ generation was a huge mistake’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
‘My daughter enjoys college, but it is getting her there consistently that is the problem’
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?
How is childless Clare getting on, I wonder? Is she happier? Hungover?
Perhaps wondering about whether my childless counterpart is happier is fruitless
Victoria Smurfit: ‘Postpartum depression had me manically sobbing in the middle of Ranelagh’
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
‘There are times I regret having kids. They’re adults, and it’s now that I’m regretting it, which seems strange’
Parenting Taboos: Regretting parenthood, or wishing you hadn’t had some of your children, is a deeply guarded secret for some parents
Some ideas for parents that may make the week a little less ghastly for all
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
‘How should I talk to my teens about masturbation?’
Surely it’s vital to tell them to discover what pleases them and to get to know their bodies, or is this still taboo?
Maïa Dunphy: ‘I was terrified of becoming a single parent. Now I am one’
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
‘I went to a CrossFit session on her due date’: Julie-Ann Russell on pregnancy as an elite athlete
Parenting in My Shoes: Working and training, the Republic of Ireland and Galway United player suffers from the dreaded parental guilt
Only mothers who find recognition in professional life seem to be guilty of ‘having it all’
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
‘Our 16-year-old daughter has stopped going to school regularly – should we take her phone away?’
Ask the Expert: Her school says she is always on her phone and not getting enough sleep, but she disagrees
Having a favourite child: ‘Unfortunately, it impacts on them, but they do it all to themselves’
Parenting taboos: If parents are aware they have a favourite child, there are things they can do to address the situation
Tony Cantwell on ADHD: ‘I just thought is this what parenting is, a big fog?’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
Baby loss: If they had said to me, ‘you can keep him in there forever’, I would have done it
For Gill Lee, October will always be the month she lost her son Danny, in her sixth month of pregnancy
Loneliness in your 40s: ‘As a parent, your friends are often other parents ... they’re not your tribe or people you’d choose’
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
Ireland set to be one of first countries in world to allow women pause maternity leave if seriously ill, Minister says
Roderic O’Gorman introduces Bill that also entitles Oireachtas members to maternity leave and will regulate non-disclosure agreements
Are you entitled to go on maternity leave a second time straight after your first ends?
Some employers may not be ‘best pleased’ about a second maternity leave being taken so soon after the first
‘We’re lucky she has a place. It’s not what she should have’: Brendan O’Connor’s daughter unable to secure special class in mainstream school
Radio presenter says his daughter, who has Down syndrome, experienced less inclusion as she progressed through the education system
Brendan O’Connor in a new parenting podcast: ‘I was mad. I was mental’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
The ‘gender disappointment’ taboo: ‘That’s it, I’m never going to have a little girl’
Parenting taboos: Experiencing gender disappointment is understandable, and parents shouldn’t feel guilty for having those feelings, says expert
‘My nine-year-old is starting to be self-conscious about her body, which worries me’
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
Stop framing breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding as a question of mothers at war
Our culture is not breastfeeding friendly. We should focus instead on changing that instead
What does the widespread use of Botox and fillers say to our daughters?
Make-up, moisturisers and keeping fit used to be enough. Now there should be no evidence of lived experience etched on your face
‘I am keen on making my kids deal with uncomfortable situations, but my daughter is struggling’
Ask the Expert: 'Is there something we should do to boost her confidence?'
Do students really need homework? A new study has come up with the answer
Researchers at Maynooth University find short-tasks, lasting up to 15 minutes, are just as effective as longer assignments
It’s a pity so many adults ruin sports for children
Jen Hogan: Adults seem to forget that childhood sport is about inclusion and being part of a team
As a teenage girl in the 1990s there was a level of harassment that I hope is unthinkable now
I’m a parent, tolerating worry is in the job description, and so is the gradual handover of physical safety from parent to child
‘My six-year-old talks about the same thing over and over. It’s alienating him from his peers’
Ask the Expert: Is there a way of stopping him doing this without being critical?
Why Sweden recommends that very young children should not have access to any digital devices
Swedish public health authorities aim to promote healthy development but some experts wonder whether parts of the guidance are unrealistic
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