Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When your little one goes to nursery one of the most common things that any parent or carer has to deal with, is your little one crying when you drop them off. For some it can start before even leaving home and your little one saying they don’t want to go or getting very upset (I was this child and my parents still remember it now!) and for others it is once you are at nursery and having to say those goodbyes.

I spent 10 years working in nurseries and have supported hundreds of families through this difficult stage, it does get easier and there are some things that you can try to help…

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Do you have a toddler or an older child who, every time you are speaking with other adults on the phone or in person, or even to your other children, continually interrupts you or generally doesn’t let you speak to anyone else?

This can be a very common situation and can lead to frustration from both sides when it is happening frequently. However, we also need to keep in mind that this can be a skill which even some adults can struggle with ;-).

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant.It is very often the case that your child, who loved having a bath all of a sudden stops wanting to go in! We often see bath time as that ‘wind down’ opportunity before bedtime and when our little one refuses to get in or gets upset we can worry that this might affect bedtime etc.

Please be reassured that some children will go through this phase, it can be normal and it is all about their stage of development at the time.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Our children can be very set on things at times and this can even be in relation to wanting one parent to do everything for them and to be with them all the time. We can often find in these situations that we have one parent who seems to be favoured over the other.

This behaviour can be extremely draining for the ‘preferred’ parent at the time and can be very difficult (and upsetting at times) for the other parent (the ‘rejected’ one) who feels that they are not wanted or, sometimes, not even liked or loved.

We must remember that this is not about who your child does or doesn’t like, it is all about your child learning and developing, which includes learning what relationships feel like and how to manage them. They are practicing something that they will have to deal with for years to come through friendships, relationships and also with work colleagues. It is all about making sense of how and why we feel what we do!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. It has been a long 12 months, but we are just starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel (keeping everything crossed) and the thought of being able to do things and see people again is a really exciting one. However, for our babies and children (and even some adults) this new phase is something that we need to adjust to, and this might not just be a case of ‘getting back to normal…’ in some cases we will need a plan to gradually re-introduce other people back into our lives.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Hitting, like biting, can be a very normal part of a child’s behaviour. However, just because it’s normal it doesn’t make it right, but it’s important to understand that your child is not doing this to be unkind or to hurt anyone, it is often linked to how they are feeling or what they are experiencing at the time.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. As I am writing this blog we are in lockdown 3.0 - back to home schooling and trying to come up with ways to keep our children entertained all day long! Even before lockdown I think we were all coming to accept that screens are a part of our everyday lives. They aren’t going anywhere, and I think we would all agree that they’ve been really valuable through lockdown in keeping us all connected with friends, family and with work or school.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Co-parenting or shared parenting are terms used when two people who have been in a relationship, have had children together but then separated. The important thing to remember about co-parenting is that you don’t stop being a parent, you just stop being in a relationship with the person that you have had children with. You both still have a responsibility to your children to provide them with a stable and secure environment in which they can grow and develop.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. In recent weeks this is a question that I have been asked several times and so I thought that I would write a blog on the topic! Headbanging is a behaviour which often causes adults great distress - seeing a child repeatedly banging their head is very hard to watch and to understand.

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. A question I often hear being asked, particularly around this time of year, is “Why don’t my children appreciate what they have?”. Naturally children ‘expect’ to receive gifts and presents around Christmas, Birthdays or perhaps when on days out etc., but some children appear to never be fully grateful or appreciative of the gift, the thought that went in to getting it or sometimes the cost of the gift.