Being a Parent

What is the most valuable thing a parent can give to a child. For me the answer will always be their attention. Love is often the first answer to such a question but love is involuntary and is never a conscious decision. Ask a parent if they love their child and they will always, almost without exception say "of course" but ask how much of their attention they give to their children and they have to stop and think. The giving of attention can require a conscious effort on the part of the parent whether busy or not. It is very easy to perform the basic tasks of feeding or nappy changing whilst carrying on a conversation with ...  Read the complete review

For as long as I can remember I have always loved children, at parties all the other kids would be dancing and playing but not me, I would be sat holding babies. When my sister who is 7 years older than me came home pregnant at 17 my mother was upset, I on the other hand was over the moon. When she finally gave birth to my nephew I couldn't wait to see him and give him a hug, I would even sleep in her room with her to be close to him. As I got older then more children I wanted, I even used to go as far as saying I wanted enough for a football team. June 2006 I was 21, two weeks later I realised I was missing something, a test revealed I was ...  Read the complete review

Being a parent, in my eyes, is a full time job in its own right and the most difficult one at that! I knew from a young age that i wanted to become a Mum and when i met my partner (5yrs older) it kind of set the wheels in motion as he was desperate to be a Dad and i knew together we would be a good team! After 2 long years of trying to conceive, 40weeks and 2days of pregnancy and 12hours of labour, we had out little miracle in the form of Ryan aka Baby Boo! As a baby, they require your full and undivided attention which is extremely stressful if you have had 2hours sleep in a few days but i think its adrenaline and lucozade that kept us going! Our ...  Read the complete review

I always liked children and adored babies from an early age so I couldn't wait to start my own family. I met my partner when he was 27 and I was a gym slip of a girl at 18 (cradle snatcher!). We lived together after a year and married five years after that; and straight away people assumed we would have a baby next. Though we weren't kids ourselves we didn't feel ready to have children just then as we wanted a few 'alone' years where we could go on holiday or even a night out without it being a military operation and having to plan everything. When we decided to start trying I had just come off the pill when my husband came home from work with the news he had ...  Read the complete review

I had always wanted to have children but hadn't fully considered when this would happen - it had always been one of the things on the list of things to do but had not been properly planned so three years ago my husband and i decided that we shouldn't leave it too much longer - we got married and then soon after that tried for a baby - in April last year i found out i was pregnant and now have a four and a half month old baby who is the best thing that can ever happen to anyone! I think that before she was born i had a clue about children and i work with children professionally - giving advise and support to parents so you would imagine that i knew what i was ...  Read the complete review