Open relationships are more prone to generating change. Change equals stress. All change equals stress. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
How First-Person Shooter Games Affect Our Kids
As a Mum of three, I confess. The iPad is Mummy’s Little Helper. Quarter of an hour screen time may have been allowed to slip past the thirty minute mark on occasion. Or further.
My Daughter’s Consent And The Boy Next Door
This boy is kind. But being kind doesn’t disguise the fact that he has no knowledge of boundaries. He knocks at all hours of the day. If the back door is on the latch, he’ll come in uninvited and sit on Maya’s bed to await her return until I show him the door. He once tried to force his way in her room to wake her up and play.
TBINAA | 7 Things I Teach My Kids About Consent, Sexual Harassment and Assault
We don’t treat people like we treat oranges because people are not things. No one can treat you like an orange. No one can take your juice aka… your power.
7 Things You Learn Raising in Kids in an Open Relationship
A polyamorous relationship changes the environment your kids grow up in, because polyamory isn’t something you do like badminton on a Thursday night.
TBINAA | #MeToo: Will My Son Grow up to be a Rapist?
And if predatory behaviour is as ubiquitous among men as it appears and as I have experienced it to be, statistically it is likely that my son will violate someone, at some point, in his lifetime. That could be anything from ignorant boundary violation to, god forbid, rape.
TBINAA | How Do We Create Consent Culture For Our Children and Ourselves?
Consent is not true consent where there is a power imbalance. You cannot make a free and retractable agreement about something, if that agreement is made in fear of losing your access to income, and resources–financial, emotional or otherwise.
Now We Are Six
But six does not look as A.A. Milne described it in my childhood. Truth to be told, I now realise that it never looked like that, I only wish it did. Six is brutal and I’m feeling its brutality again through my children. It is not reasonable or rational. It is brutal.
Fighting My Daughter’s Racist Formula
In-groups are formed by what we consider to be ‘relevant’ familiarity. Children, and even adults, process most of our information visually which means that varying skin tones might be not only the first but also the only indicators for who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’.
Is Love just Relief from Anxiety?
It’s less about the dopamine high and more about the euphoria of finally feeling confident and capable. Feeling relaxed. Trusting that my children are safe.
The Story of the High Speed Train
This is what my anxiety feels like. There is a valve which regulates my stress levels and it needs to be maintained, and strengthened through self-care.
Harlot | A Pragmatic Approach to Polyamory and Parenthood
My partners, my partner’s partners and our combined set of resources give me time to recharge, without my children feeling neglected.
Do I Lie to My Teenage Son About Being Open?
You asked… After having been in an “open” relationship with my wife for the past 4.5 years but never had another relationship per se, I have now had a girlfriend for the past 4 months. Originally the two were kept quite separate, mostly due to my wife not necessarily needing to see her, but now she comes over regularly, stays … Read More
How do I Protect My Kid from bullying due to polyamory?
You asked… So far I’ve been pretty lucky – able to mostly insulate my son from changes with partners (I learned that lesson when he was mostly too young to remember, at least). And we’re 90% out, so I’m not worried about him outing us. (By 90% out I mean that friends know and neither my husband nor any of … Read More
When should I introduce my partner to my kids?
You asked… I’ve recently started dating again now that maternity has finished and my daughter has started pre-school. I’ve met someone who I think could be a potential partner. I agreed with my husband a while ago, that we wouldn’t introduce someone to our child unless it was serious, but now I’m thinking I can’t get serious with a partner until … Read More
Think of The Children
At least I thought, I can as much work as possible in the time I have left to prepare myself mentally to lie, as I felt I would have to… for their entire lives.
The Truth About Lying (to Kids)
When I’ve said this in the past, there has always been a follow up question. ‘So you, who believe in honesty… do you lie to your children? Do you expose them to the harsh realities of life?’
Celebrating the Magic of a Coca Cola Santa Claus
I would like to tell them about the wonderful man who gave to the poor. I would like to show them the legend of the Yule Lads from Iceland and get excited at how they have 13 Santas, not just one. I would like to explain how Coca Cola pulled off the biggest marketing marvel of all time and popularized him in red as opposed to blue.
Raf & The Robots by Sarah J. Corner – Alternative Literature for Children
In Sarah’s household, one child prefers blowing kisses to being kissed – a boundary which she has requested that the rest of her family respect as well.
Your Mother Was a Narcissist. Are You One Too?
I’m afraid that my children will grow up in an chaotic, boundary-less world because I had an overly-controlling competitive and critical mother.
Thought Catalog | 40 Seemingly Irrational Moments Only Parents Understand
You make the choice of restaurant based on how big the pram parking area is and the quality of the play activities given to your children beforehand. The food will probably be shit (but that’s not what restaurants are about nowadays).
Huffpo | 5 Life Lessons for My Children
I can’t really sit you down now to talk to you about life lessons because at 4 and 2 years old, you are too young. Besides, who wants to talk about life when there is so much living to do?
Out And Proud: Polyamorous With Kids
Being out has consequences. Like when your ‘friend’ throws out in an argument thatwhat you are, in fact, is a ‘professional slut’.
The Magnificence of Me
I cannot admit I am magnificent in public, or even in private, because doing so would turn me into a person I myself dislike. Someone big headed and cocky. Someone society would hate.
An Anxious Parent
I’ve created routines, bought activity books, depended a little too much sometimes on Peppa Pig. I’ve forced myself to go out, to face the demon.
Huffpo | Don’t Revisit your Childhood, on your Children
As the world evolves, so humanity remains essentially emotionally the same. One part angel, one part devil, all of us suffering from the influences of religion, society and our parents. All of it crystallized in sharp relief within the hellish prison of childhood. I always said I’d never forget…and yet now I have children, I find myself getting annoyed because … Read More
Why Mothers Should be Selfish
The prospect of maternity leave of 12 months for my newborn together with toddler daughter makes me want to curl up in my own foetal position and hibernate.