How have you coped with your baby in the later months, after the newborn stage has passed and your partner (and possibly you) are back at work? Do you sometimes feel like your in a rut and what have you done to overcome these feelings?

Do you find that it is difficult to find someone you trust to look after your children? Do you feel guilty asking friends or relatives to baby-sit? Do you feel you often need to pay for a baby-sitter? A baby-sitting club is the ideal way to solve some of these issues.

“So, having a child changes your life, that’s a given. There’s plenty of lists out there with the same heartwarming messages and extreme focus on how your life will never be the same. My experience was great, parenting has been so much easier than expected and it’s come with some awesome perks that I don’t really see mentioned anywhere…”

Q&A: How have you dealt with negative comments made about the important decisions you as parents have made (eg circumcision, ear piercing or baptism) from family and friends who ‘know it all’?

Lessons in being a cool dad, as taught by The Simpsons.

What do you do when your little one learns to read and starts asking about all those words you’d rather they didn’t know existed?

“My first day as a teacher was a day I will never forget and I returned home to announce to my parents that teaching wasn’t the profession for me!  I knew that it wouldn’t be easy but I never really understood that my learning was only just beginning and that the four university years only gave me a foundation with which to start building on…The same can be said for parenting.”

Chris explains why his man-cave is an important part of finding time for himself now that he is a Dad.

Today was one of those days. Where not yelling at the kids (again) seems like a huge achievement and by the time you get to sit down you feel so drained you just stare at the TV but forget to turn it on…

When you’re a parent, days that don’t go pear shaped can be few and far between.

“On television, divorce and separation is all about lawyers and their clients having dramatic confrontations in boardrooms, complete with ultimatums and walk-outs. The reality, not surprisingly, is somewhat different…” Family Lawyer Peter Curry provides some great tips on how to approach separation negotiations so the children come out the winners.

What do you do when you are very pro-vaccination but the mother of your children is heavily against it? Darrell explains how this issue has affected his family and why he supports his wife’s decision.

One of the biggest differences between families and childless couples is the household budget. Chris reflects on his experience while his wife gets ready to start a new job.

When are your children ‘yours’, and when are they ‘ours’?

With each new year comes renewed celebrations.  On our birthday, we celebrate the day we entered this world; on our anniversary, we remember our wedding or the day we met our partner; and on Mother’s Day, not only do we appreciate our mums for the sacrifices they made and the love they continue to give, but our own children remind us about the importance of being a parent…

Seana Smith shares the top 5 holiday destinations on her holiday bucket list.

Often a diagnosis of food intolerance in our children can be a cause of stress and worry, but as Chris reveals it isn’t all bad. Here he reflects on the positive ways it has impacted on their family.

Darrell‘s list of the six things that he believes are the most important parts of being a good and hands-on Dad, and why Mum needs to let go sometimes.

by Sarah Some days just don’t go well. Some are so bad you just have to laugh. Then there are the ones that have people laughing when you tell them, only to exclaim, ‘”what, there’s more?!” when you are halfway through telling it. My girlfriends are still laughing.

When Chris’ wife convinced him that they should swap to cloth nappies, he had no idea that there was a thriving MCN community out there. Or that nappies could be called ‘pretty’.

“I recently returned to work, two days a week, after having my son almost 18 months ago. My return to work has been everything I expected it to be, and nothing like I expected it to be…”

Fathers are often (unintentionally) forgotten when it comes to raising our children in today’s ‘mother’s world’ society, but they are equally as important in our little one’s lives. Darrell shares his thoughts and experiences as a hands-on Dad in today’s society, and why he thinks things need to change.

Long distance travel is always hard with a toddler. Taking three planes and travelling halfway across the world is an accomplishment if you even consider it. In his latest blog, Chris shares how they did just that, and what he learned about his son and his parenting on the way.

When did we start focusing more on our phones than our children?

When I fell pregnant for the first time, I knew my life was going to change. When people told me that the change would be drastic I even believed them. Then the baby arrived and I realised that there was a whole new world of normal that I never knew existed. Here are ten of the things I had no idea about before having my kids.

by Tanya
My eldest daughter Zoe started kindy in 2012, what a year!

I have recently discovered that the vast majority of my mummy friends and I are part of an oddly named club; one that suggests blue-rinsed hair-dos, zimmerframes, and dentures placed in glasses of water next to our beds at night…

It’s become a bit of a cliche, but it really is true that nothing prepares you for whirlwind that is motherhood, especially those first few months. Everything changes: your timetable, your identity, your hair… and it can come as a bit of a shock. Here are the five biggest lessons that I learnt.

Learning to communicate is a step by step process for all children, but many parents wonder if their children’s speech and language is developing normally. Our early childhood expert, Jan Jones, discusses the stages of speech development, the general pattern that most children follow, and when to seek help.

When you are pregnant you can’t wait to meet the little bundle you have been carrying and nurturing and helping to grow, to fall in love at first sight… but what if it doesn’t happen?  describes how she struggled with her mummy-daughter bond and what it took to get it back.