​I’ve just seen this doing the rounds on Facebook, and I love it.
 
I love it for two reasons.
 
Firstly, because a time out is exactly what parents need sometimes.  And a time out that feels like a treat, like something special, is just what our overwhelmed, stressed out selves need to regroup.
 
I’m not (necessarily) advocating getting drunk to cope with parenting.  But I want to emphasise the concept that a time out for a parent should consist of something that that parent likes! And that helps that parent to feel restored and revitalised. 
 
Time out should FEEL GOOD!
 
And the second reason I like this picture, is because the idea of time out being a chance for a treat, can be equally applied to children as it is to their parents.
 
Children (just like us adults) act out when they are overwhelmed. 
 
Think about the moments that you snap at your partner? Are you tired? Hungry? Feeling unappreciated? Facing unrealistic expectations? Still processing a stressful day at work?
 
We act out when we are overloaded and overwhelmed, and our children are exactly the same.  Every time there is some seemingly purposeful negative behaviour from our child, have a think as to what the underlying reason might be.
 
I have a list of five things that seem to be at the heart of every single problem behaviour I see in my kids:

​I love the collaboration that the world cup brings, the random hugs from strangers, the joy of communal celebration. It's awesome.

The reality is that so many human beings have literally zero emotional outlet, emotional intelligence, emotional IQ (call it what you like) - and football and the widespread excitement gives an opportunity to project all emotion outward. This is fine if the emotion is happy and collaborative. It's not so much fun if it's anger, frustration or anxiety - often fuelled by a shit load of alcohol, drugs or both.

With the impending clock change, a few parents have been in touch asking how to cope with it. So we've written down a few top tips to help you navigate it without too much disruption. 

Self-care. Urgh. Those 2 words. I hate them. I can (almost) literally see them dripping with guilt, oozing with indulgence and selfishness. I hate it when people bandy about the term, telling us that we must practise ‘self-care’ with the underlying accusation that we aren’t enough. We aren’t doing enough. We’re doing it wrong. Whatever that ‘it’ is. ​