First ever review of childcare fees to target creches overcharging parents
Department of Children says local authorities will check whether creches are breaching funding deal to freeze fees at 2021 levels
Parents
Should young people with a part-time job contribute to the household budget?
Are we doing young people a disservice if we don’t expect them to contribute once they’re earning?
I brought my three boys from England to Sligo to replicate my childhood summer holidays
They loved it: the turf sheds, the Tayto, adults pressing five and 10-euro notes into their hands and the dozens of cousins
How can new parents be better prepared for the impact of sleep deprivation?
Sleepless nights are a harsh lesson in how parents’ lives have to adapt to their baby’s needs
How new parents can improve wellbeing and reduce tiredness
Couples may see bed-sharing as sacrosanct, but some nights apart could save their sanity
‘My 12-year-old son is very reluctant to try anything new’
Ask the Expert: Anxiety usually means a child wants to do something but is stressed about some aspect of this
Holidaying as a single parent: ‘I was conscious of the tables with fathers getting served faster’
Lone parents explain why family holidays need to reflect modern family life, from cost and childcare to confidence and inclusion
‘I love my four adult children deeply, but they won’t leave home, and I am desperate’
Tell Me About It: ‘I’ve told my partner I am not going to retire. Work might save my sanity’
Are school mum friends real friends?: ‘They all disappeared’
A pal of mine was lamenting how contact with mothers of her children’s schoolfriends had dried up. So I solicited other mothers’ experiences
‘My six-year-old girl freezes when people talk to her’
Ask the Expert: ‘She is completely different from her outgoing brother, and I’m worried about her’
Leaving Cert holidays: ‘If you unwisely decide to get a tattoo, please check all spellings with me first’
Jen Hogan shares parenting tips and tricks she has learned along the Leaving Cert holiday way
‘An identity earthquake’: The biological and psychological impact of fatherhood on men
Patrescence, the physical and mental transition to becoming a dad, is a recent concept recognising the isolation men can sometimes feel in fatherhood
Porn before puberty in Ireland: ‘It is horrible, and it’s in every school’
Half of schoolchildren have seen pornography by age of 13, including ‘very, very disturbing images’. Is there a case for a UK-style social media ban for under-16s?
‘You’re almost an afterthought’: Five men on how fatherhood has transformed their lives
From their sense of selves to their social lives and their relationships with their partners, six dads discuss the differences having children made to their lives
Coming from Ireland I initially thought the French way of parenting was selfish
Ça va aller became my not-so-complimentary way of referring to what I felt was the self-absorbed, laissez-faire French style
‘What can we do to help our anxious son through his last exams?’
Ask the Expert: ‘He knows the stuff, but he can panic on the day of exams’
Parents’ stress ‘through the roof’ as Meath creche closes rooms 200 times since October
Mother obliged to change jobs due to necessity to be at home so often to mind daughter
‘It’s relentless’: Mother caring for disabled twin children says respite ‘critical’ for carers
Seventy-one per cent of family carers face financial difficulty, Family Carers Ireland report shows
A quick summer survival guide for parents of Irish teenagers
Jen Hogan: Three months of nothingness lies ahead for some secondary school students
My teenage years: Some of it was fun. A lot of it was traumatic. A good bit of it was illegal
One minute we were drinking flagons of cider in a field, the next we’re wondering what our own children are up to
Marcus O’Laoire: ‘We need to talk more about male fertility’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
‘My toddler constantly touches her baby sister’s head, sometimes roughly’
Ask the Expert: ‘How can we support her to change this habit while waiting for support from an occupational therapist?’
‘Drama can offer every child an opportunity to explore their imagination’
One expert says when children are playing pretend or acting, they are learning to trust themselves – ‘and that builds confidence and self-esteem’
Inside a Quaker-ethos secondary school in Ireland: ‘There is a high expectation of good behaviour’
There are currently 86 boarders in Newtown School in Waterford City, with more than half from abroad
Jen Hogan’s end-of-year school report: B in cake sales, C+ in WhatsApp, E in lunches
Another school year is almost over. How would you score in your parenting end-of-term report card?
I can blame a lot on my children but the YouTube algorithm doesn’t lie
A video search history is no idle plaything, but a deep and probing X-ray of one’s soul
Summer Camps: A guide to the best and most popular sports camps in Ireland
A guide for parents to the best Irish summer camps, from badminton and basketball to rock climbing and surfing
Summer camps for children: The best and most popular non-sports camps in Ireland
From singing or learning a language, to archaeology and cookery, here are some of the camps on offer this summer
‘My husband wants our child in mainstream schooling, but I want to look at alternatives’
Ask the Expert: She’s quite artistic, funny and highly emotionally intelligent, but struggles academically at school
I tried to tell the GP I was seeing things but he ‘gave me eczema cream’
Survey results suggest about half of children in Ireland live with a parent with poor mental health for at least part of childhood
Surrogacy leave should match that for maternity and adoption, conference hears
John Hickey knew what his managers would say when he asked for additional leave
Séamas O’Reilly: I met my son crying at the school gates and felt like a war criminal
None of the responsible, loving, joyous acts you carry out as a dad soothe you very much on those occasions you mess up
Seán Moncrieff: My new granddaughter has advantages most other kids don’t
Globally, about 380,000 babies arrived on the same day as Granddaughter Number Two. A fifth were born into poverty
‘My daughter gets anxious and overwhelmed, and it can escalate into angry outbursts’
Ask the Expert: When the meltdown is over, she doesn’t understand why she was so angry
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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