When social work researcher BrenĂ© Brown discovered the crucial importance of vulnerability for human wellbeing and connection, she had a breakdown. Well, she says in her 2010 TEDx talk, ‘I call it a breakdown, my therapist calls it a spiritual awakening.’ She was a perfectionist who wanted to clean up messes of all kinds. She […]
One of the perils of parenthood is believing we’re in charge. I’m talking about how we can overestimate the influence we have on our kids. They look like blank slates when they come out, right? Gunky, wrinkly blank slates. Ready for us to clean up and write the story of their lives on. But of […]
I don’t think I was a perfectionist at kindergarten, but certainly by my first year or two of primary school I had begun the fear-based behaviours associated with the word. I was afraid of trying new things in case I couldn’t do them. I never learnt to play elastics or skipping or handstands at lunchtime, […]
You can tell by the volatile weather, road closures and slow news days that it’s the middle of the summer holidays (in the Southern Hemisphere, obviously). When I was a kid, we spent every summer at a campground or two somewhere around the country, in our trusty Camp-O-Matic. And every summer, we would visit a […]
This is part of a series aiming to help us all go easier on ourselves and make our parenting lives more enjoyable and satisfying. The whole series list is here and more links are at the bottom of the post. [Update: 2.5 years later I’ve revised this and added some stuff in. Feel free to suggest […]
Just in case you are under the impression that I, the Self-Appointed Patron Saint of Lent Resources for Kids, am currently utterly absorbed in meaningful, transformative Lenten practices with my small children… think again. I’ve managed a few things, but good golly, not a very large percentage of all my wonderful ideas for households. As […]
‘Feisty’ is one. ‘Bossy’ gets a lot of press. And don’t get me started on ‘working mother’. How many men have you heard described as ‘working fathers’, let alone ‘dadpreneurs’? Subtly sexist words about women and girls. Not the obvious, awful insulting words (which are depressingly many and varied), but the ones that fly […]
Rest like an All Black: take a sabbatical Richie McCaw, the All Black captain some call the best rugby player ever, has a plan for winning the next World Cup. It has included a long holiday from rugby. What a wise and counter-cultural choice. In a society that is not only getting busier, but feeling prouder of […]
You might remember wedding celebrant, community worker and all-round high-quality human being Laura Giddey from this cool post about buying locally-made Christmas presents. We’re lucky to have her back with some reflections on being single. Please make her welcome in the comments below! I’m 26 and single and this has many great perks. I’ve learnt […]
I don’t have much of my own to say about ANZAC Day. Like many of my generation I am deeply ambivalent about how to commemorate some of the most horrific events of the twentieth century. Rather than muddle around in my own thoughts, I thought I’d share some beautiful and brutal things from friends that […]