This is Small family fun

This post in inspired by the recent news of MP Stella Creasy bringing her baby with her for a debate. Being a mother is hard, being a working mother is harder. The struggle between wanting to continue your job and still being a present parent is a dilemma most mothers feel. Many jobs offer paid and covered maternity leave so the mother can take that initial time to bond with her baby and usually hire someone else to cover the workload during that time. But what if you do not have the employment rights for that maternity leave? Unfortunately for Labour MP Stella Creasy, she has had to bring her baby to work due to lack of employment rights.   Stella in parliament with her son @itv.com Politics  On Tuesday, the MP had brought her three-month-old son with her to a debate in Westminster. Without adequate maternity cover Stella has been trying to balance working after giving birth, to continue representing her constituents who she says, 'still have a right to be heard.’ MPs are entitled

  The importance of emotional intelligence. Many researchers over the years have emphasised the importance of emotional interactions in the parent-child dyad and the great impact it has on a child's well-being. Parents need to take an active role in teaching their children key skills in developing emotional intelligence. The consequences of failing to learn the basics are intermingling dire, for example, an inability to handle anxiety or depression can increase the chance of children abusing drugs or alcohol later on in life. However, children who are taught by their parents to be emotionally intelligent are more able to regulate their own emotions. They were better at focusing their attention, and could relate more to other people and performed better academically in school. Parents who offered empathy in the face of their child showing negative feelings such as anger, sadness or fear, actually built bridges of loyalty and affection between themselves and their child. For years th

When a person or couple decide to try for a baby they usually have a basic idea of how they will parent their child and how they will be as parents. These thoughts are usually based around their own experiences with their parents and how they were raised. Some will have had a positive childhood and the parent will want to raise their child as they were. However, some experiences may have been negative and the parent will then express that they do not want their child to have to go through what they did.  The strategies parents use can fall into categories or ‘styles’. There are four main styles and there are some that are more modern. I will give a brief summary of the main ones and how these styles may affect the outcomes for the children.  Authoritative This style is characterised by reasonable demands that are combined with high responsiveness to their child’s needs. The parents that use this style will have high expectations for their children but will also give the