Parenting

The Weekly’s associate editor Michael Sheather spent his weekend pretending to be a robot because he wants to be involved in his children’s lives. I love my kids a lot: I must, otherwise I’d never have dressed as a robot. That’s a sentence I never thought I’d ever write. But it’s also the truth. I […]

Julius is four years old, he has Down syndrome, and he is featuring in his second advertising campaign. Here, his mum Catia Malaquias tells us what makes him unique, and what makes him just like any other kid. “So, what is different about Julius?” I asked my 5 year-old daughter Laura, trying hard to sound […]

To smack or not to smack, that is the question. Bad puns aside, it is a regular discussion of modern parenting: whether giving your offspring a quick slap on the hand/leg/bottom should be allowable. For this parent, it has been tried and tested with very different results. My firstborn was a rare tantrumer, but when […]

It’s a scenario that is only too familiar to many mums — your 12-year-old daughter needs a bra, but the racks are packed with lacy, push-up, padded contraptions that leave them looking like a Victoria’s Secret model. With two tween daughters, Melbourne mum Jo Konstandinou was looking forward to taking her girls shopping for their […]

Ewan McGregor has battled Darth Vader, Somali warlords and a killer tsunami but it's the fight against body demons that has him rattled.

Like many modern mums the Duchess of Cambridge has unwittingly found herself at the centre of one of the most contentious issues that burden new parents — to breastfeed or not to breastfeed? Royal mothers past have shuddered at the thought of breastfeeding a little Prince or Princess, but like the Queen and her mother-in-law […]

Children from wealthy families may do better at school than their poorer classmates because of superior genetic “inherited abilities”, according to a new Federal Government report. The controversial claim is made in a Productivity Commission research paper, published today, that examines the reasons behind the cycle of disadvantage in Australia. Parental brain power and inherited […]

Women can be astronauts and prime ministers but watch a music video and you could be convinced ladies are only capable of two things: gyrating and licking phallic objects, writes Zoe Arnold. I’m one of those people who hears a song on the radio, knows half the words, but has no idea of the artist. […]

A mother has told of her horror of realising an online predator was grooming her teenage daughter on Facebook, sparking renewed warnings from safety experts. The WA mum-of-four became suspicious when she read a message from a user called “Sarah Jamesy” while monitoring her 14-year-old’s page. Related: What your kids are really up to online […]

Parents at a New York City private school are shocked at an assignment asking their kids to write a suicide note for their English class. Students as young as 14 were asked to write a farewell missive in the voice of a character who takes her own life in novelThe Secret Life of Bees. “Channel […]