Category Archives: Parents and parenting

Bog standard? Study seeks most effective toilet training methods

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UCL team is inviting parents to share their experiences, as age at which children in west acquire the skill rises

Storybooks about potties, underpants featuring superheroes, rewards for doing a wee: toilet training is a rite of passage for any child. But with the average age of toilet training steadily creeping upwards, scientists are now hoping to crack the question of which methods are most effective.

A team at University College London is inviting people from across the world to share their experiences and techniques as part of the Big Toilet Project. The ultimate aim is to uncover evidence that could help parents toilet train children earlier and reduce the massive contribution that disposable nappies make to landfill waste.

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Most school leaders in England, Wales and NI say pupils’ parents have abused them

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Parents banned from school sites after leaders spat at and trolled, poll finds

Four in five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland say they have suffered abuse from pupils’ parents in the past year, according to a poll that found they had been spat at, trolled on social media and even physically attacked.

The problem has become so serious that more than two out of five (42%) of those who took part in the survey said they had been forced to ban parents from the school site in the last year. Nearly a third (32%) have reported parents to the police and almost three-quarters (72%) have issued a warning letter or email.

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UK judge warns women about sperm donor who ‘fathered 180 children’

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Judge takes rare step of naming Robert Charles Albon, who subjected mothers to ‘nightmare’ of controlling behaviour

A sperm donor who subjected a couple to a “nightmare” of controlling behaviour over their child has been named by a judge as a warning about the dangers of unregulated sperm donation.

Robert Charles Albon claims to have fathered more than 180 children in several countries after advertising his sperm donation services under the name Joe Donor.

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Australia’s largest childcare provider faces activist pressure to give staff paid parental leave

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Shareholder lobby group says parents trust G8 Education to look after children but carers ‘are not supported to look after their own’

Australian employers commonly offer paid parental leave – in addition to the government scheme – to attract and retain workers in a competitive jobs market.

But the largest listed childcare provider in Australia, G8 Education, has no such policy, drawing the attention of activist shareholders who want to pressure it to change.

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‘A real lack of empathy’: women’s experiences of expressing milk at work

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From showers to unlocked rooms, types of spaces offered to mothers wanting to express have been a source of dismay

An employment judge has ruled that a healthcare worker suffered “harassment related to sex” after a suitable private space for her to express breast milk was not provided to her by an NHS health board.

Robyn Gibbins told an employment tribunal that she was not given a room that she could lock and felt let down by the trust in Cardiff. A trust spokesperson said the Cardiff and Vale university health board was committed to ensuring all colleagues are treated respectfully, with dignity and without discrimination or prejudice.

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Sibling rivalry: parents favour older children and daughters, study finds

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International research also reveals conscientious or agreeable children are likely to receive preferential treatment

As Philip Larkin once noted, your mum and dad have a lasting effect on you. Now, researchers have revealed which siblings in a family are more likely to be favoured: it is bad news for sons.

Researchers have found daughters, older children and those who are more conscientious or agreeable are likely to receive preferential treatment.

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IVF clinics brace for Christmas rush after sudden rebate change in NSW

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‘Abrupt’ announcement will affect many women who have been planning their conception journeys to begin in early 2025, provider says

IVF providers are bracing for an influx of patients scrambling to access fertility treatments over the Christmas break after the New South Wales government said it would cut a rebate for fertility treatments for many patients from February.

The $2,000 rebate, an Australian-first program, was available to all NSW women accessing fertility services for the first time to cover some out-of-pocket expenses. It was introduced in 2022 by the former Coalition government.

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Finnish fathers taking nearly double length of paternity leave since 2022 reform

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Dads say rule change granting both parents equal time off has helped build bond between children and fathers

Paternity leaves in Finland have nearly doubled in length after a 2022 reform of the parental leave system, the social benefits agency has said.

The change granted both parents equal amounts of leave for the first time: 160 days each of paid leave, to be used before the child turns two. Sixty-three of the days can be transferred to the other parent, if desired.

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‘He felt absolutely lost’: the crisis behind the rising number of UK children being homeschooled

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Anxiety is the most common reason why parents choose to take pupils out of school

Steve Bladon has been a headteacher for a decade. Yet when he found himself temporarily home educating his 11-year-old daughter, who had such severe anxiety that she couldn’t leave the house, he admits he felt “absolutely lost”.

“Initially we had no idea what to do,” he said. “All we knew was that she needed time and space, so we weren’t compounding her anxiety.”

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Widely advertised hormone test unreliable as fertility prediction tool for women, researchers say

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Experts warn women are making ‘significant life changes’ based on the anti-Müllerian hormone test, which they say is not reliable for many of its advertised uses

Accredited fertility clinics are among companies misleading women about a blood test used to indicate fertility, resulting in women potentially making misinformed health decisions, researchers say.

Dr Tessa Copp, from the University of Sydney’s school of public health, says she and her colleagues are concerned by an increasing number of advertisements that overstate what the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) test is useful for.

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The childcare desert sucking the life out of Australia’s regional towns

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One in three Australians live in an area where there is just one childcare spot for every three or more children, study finds

For psychologist and mother-of-two Tegan Podubinski, a lack of childcare access will leave her community 20 weeks poorer in mental health services this year.

“We have a very limited mental health workforce,” Podubinski told AAP.

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Woman loses appeal over child’s birth certificate after ex-wife had sex with donor

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Judge dismisses challenge over removal of woman’s name and warns against risks of informal conception arrangements

A woman has lost a court of appeal challenge over her name being removed from a child’s birth certificate after her ex-wife admitted she secretly had sex with their sperm donor.

The “unprecedented” and “unusual” case centred on the question of who were the legal parents of a girl, now aged six.

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Doctor behind trial of HIV prevention drug recounts breakthrough moment

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Prof Linda-Gail Bekker receives ovation at Aids summit after presenting trial results of ‘miracle’ drug lenacapavir

When the doctor behind the trial of a new HIV prevention drug heard the results, she could not contain her emotions. “I literally burst into tears,” said Prof Linda-Gail Bekker.

“I’m 62, I’ve lived through this epidemic … I had family members who died of HIV, as did many, many Africans – many people around the world,” she said.

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Heatwaves increase risk of early births and poorer health in babies, study finds

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Research that looked at 53 million births says Black and Hispanic mothers and those in lower socioeconomic groups most at risk

Heatwaves increase rates of preterm births, which can lead to poorer health outcomes for babies and impact their long-term health, a new study found.

Black and Hispanic mothers, as well as those in lower socioeconomic groups, are particularly at risk of delivering early following heat waves.

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Babbling babies may be warming up for speech, say scientists

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Squeals and growls tend to occur in groups, finds study of infants aged up to 13 months

It might sound like a stream of jolly nonsense, but the peculiar sounds babies produce could be an attempt to practise the vocal control necessary for speech, researchers have suggested.

A study analysing the sounds made by infants during their first year of life has found squeals and growls tend to occur in groups.

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All parents, working or not, should have access to childcare, say experts in England

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Rescue and reform manifesto from Early Education and Childcare Coalition calls for overhaul of model

A manifesto calling for an overhaul of childcare provision in England, including making early education accessible to all children regardless of whether their parents work or not, has been backed by dozens of leading employers and unions.

Thirty-five national organisations have joined forces to call for the reform of the current childcare model, including the Federation of Small Businesses, the Early Years Alliance, the Fawcett Society, the Joseph Rowntree Trust, and National Children’s Bureau.

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Teasing children about weight increases risk of self-stigma as adults, study finds

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Research reveals ‘long-lasting effects’ caused by pressure from parents, families, bullies and the media

Parents who tease their children about their weight are putting them at greater risk of feeling bad about their bodies decades later, regardless of whether they grow up to have obesity or not, a groundbreaking study has found.

Thirteen-year-olds who felt pressure from family members to shed pounds and endured weight-based teasing showed higher levels of internalised weight stigma when they turned 31, according to research by the University of Bristol published on Tuesday in the Lancet Regional Health Europe journal.

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Labour under pressure to say whether it would keep free hours childcare system

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Gillian Keegan asks Bridget Phillipson to clarify after party refuses to commit to sticking to plan if it wins power

Labour is under pressure to clarify whether it would keep the government’s free hours childcare system, after the party refused to commit to the plan beyond the next election.

A shadow cabinet minister said on Monday that Labour “will not reduce” the number of free childcare hours parents were entitled to in England if it entered government.

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UK mothers earned £4.44 less an hour than fathers in 2023, finds analysis

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‘Motherhood penalty’ appears to be worsening, with pay gap for median hourly pay growing by 93p an hour since 2020

The “motherhood penalty” is wreaking havoc on women and the economy, according to campaigners, as fresh analysis reveals that the pay gap between mothers and fathers in the UK has grown by nearly £1 an hour since 2020.

A study of the hourly earnings of mothers and fathers, released on International Women’s Day, found that on average mothers earned 24% less an hour than fathers in 2023 – a “motherhood pay penalty” of £4.44 an hour.

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Fines for unauthorised absence from school in England to rise by 33%

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Daily registers will also be shared online with DfE as part of government drive to improve attendance

Taking an unauthorised family holiday is about to get more expensive, with the government announcing that fines for children in England missing school are to rise by 33%.

The education secretary, Gillian Keegan, is to overhaul the way local authorities fine parents for unauthorised school absences by bringing penalties “under a national framework to help tackle inconsistencies”.

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