In the UK, over the past three decades or so, there has been a tenfold increase in the number of people diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. This astonishing rise is a cause for concern, autism (and other associated conditions, Asperger’s syndrome included) having emerged from nowhere to trouble our children and threaten their...Read More

In a recent post on our blog, we wrote about risk. It was our contention that, in the main, young people aren’t exposed to it enough. It’s far better, our argument goes, to climb a tree (and risk falling out) than it is to spend days on end glued to a screen, watching the TV,...Read More

Let us be clear about this right from the start. Our intention is not to criticise, to denigrate or to find fault. There has been much finger pointing – in the main at police forces in England and Wales – in response to the Inspectorate of Constabulary’s report on how child abuse investigations are conducted....Read More

Perfect bodies. They’re everywhere. In adverts. On Instagram. Television. Magazines. They’re impossible to avoid. Last month, Protein World’s ‘Beach Body’ billboards hit the headlines after being plastered all over the London Underground. These have since been banned. Taken down. Never to be seen again. Yet damage has been done and there are countless other offending...Read More

This means that, right across the country, young people are, at this precise moment, under the most extreme pressure imaginable.   The resulting stresses and strains have been much discussed in the media in recent times. This is good and bad. Good in that talking about such problems is always the all-important first step to...Read More

Does YOUR child use the internet to access pornographic images? No? You’re sure now? The reason for asking (and for asking again) is that research has been released in recent days that makes for uncomfortable reading. The subject is online porn. The findings are troublesome. You see, thanks to the internet, young people have never...Read More

Young people today don’t know the difference between right and wrong. This is something that we hear said quite often. Certain sections of the media, in particular, would have us all believe this to be beyond question. The problem is that – in our experience, at least – it simply isn’t the case. Some young...Read More

In health terms, there is nothing that concerns parents more than a child’s emotional and mental state. This is a subject that we tackled in a recent post on our blog following some in-depth research into the subject. Not long after the report that prompted this post, further figures were released. These underlined some of...Read More

Got children? Got concerns? To be a parent is to fret. It’s part of the job. Not much makes us more anxious than the health of our children. Serious illnesses such as cancer. Long-term conditions like asthma or diabetes. Health, weight and diet. There’s so much to perturb parents. Few things, however, worries us much...Read More

You can’t have it all. That’s the message the Government appears to have for modern mothers. Like to combine a career, motherhood and beauty? Forget about it. You can’t have the cake and eat it. This is a subject that stems from a recent report that Jo Swinson, the Coalition’s Minister for Women and Equalities,...Read More