Teens and Swearing

The days of washing out the mouths of children who swear are thankfully behind us, but what is the right way to react when your children curse?

Adventures in Parenting – Why is my Daughter Responsible for Boys’ Behaviour?

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My daughter comes home with a badge pinned to her school uniform: DEPUTY, it says in proud capital letters.

“I’m a deputy teacher”, she tells me.  “Miss Jamieson* moved me to sit next to Jack and Max because they don’t behave and I do.  It’s mostly the boys who don’t behave so we need to model good behaviour for them.”

She’s not wrong: it is the boys. “Boys will be boys”, they are told. It is the boys who talk during quiet time, wrestle when it comes time for silent reading, tear the art supplies and shout out at assembly.  The girls’ learning is interrupted again and again while the teacher deals with their male companions.  They are asked to change seats to calm the boys.  They are asked to lay down their advanced reading books to help their male friends catch up.

Meanwhile, my daughter is proud of her role as gatekeeper.  She stops what she’s doing to shush the boys when they get rowdy.  She reports to me after school that Jack is sounding out longer words now, but she’s worried because Max had to sit in the quiet corner and maybe the teacher will take her coveted title away.

Being a Role Model

In the past years, I’ve become aware of a growing trend, an ever increasing number of young mums are becoming entrepreneurs. Beyond the yummymummy mumpreneur stereotype (two words that make me want to spit, by the way, but that’s a topic for a later post!), there are thousands of women who are taking the scary step into self-employment.
For some it is due to the cost of childcare, as they can schedule their work around the sleeping and playing patterns of their children. For other mothers, the time out after the birth gives them an opportunity to re-evaluate their life and career path, and to take a different route. We spoke to Nisha Patel, co-founder of Natural Health Star, a new online health store, who has taken that first step.