Family

By Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor Memories of childhood holidays are some of those that stay with you for life. When I was a kid, our summer days were spent eating chips in cones on the shingle beaches of Leysdown and during the evenings we would career around the caravan park clubhouse, chasing the lights of the disco ball until we were so tired we were lulled to sleep on the bench seats by the Birdie Song. In later years, my parents...

By Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor Let's face it, we've all done it; encouraged the kids to embrace some screentime to get half an hour's peace, but a new survey has discovered that 70% of parents think that their children spend too much time on smartphones and tablets while on holiday. The survey of 2000 people by floridatix.com found that staying inside to play on their gadgets had also meant that 50% of children had missed out on enjoying a sunny day,...

By Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor Like most mums I generally approach a family holiday with a mixture of excitement, endless checklists and yes, perhaps, sometimes a bit of apprehension as well. I was more than embarrassed, therefore, to be worried about traffic jams and forgetting the sun cream when I heard about the turmoil of sadness, fears and hopes that recently-widowed Nikki Scott faced when she decided to take her children on a holiday alone for the first time since...

By Alice Weightman, Founder and Managing Director of Hanson Search and The Work Crowd More and more of us are now deciding to leave the security of a permanent job behind, opting instead for the freedom of freelancing, self-employment or contract work. However, these feelings of independence can suddenly feel very restrictive when it comes to planning a family. This needn’t be the case: freelancing and family really can go hand in hand. Working on a project basis can help...

By Zoe Sinclair The new offer of shared parental leave looks simple enough. New mums take the first two weeks off after the birth, but the remaining 50 weeks can be shared between mum and dad. Finally the UK has caught up with Scandinavia, where shared leave has been working well for decades. But what does it really mean for you, your partner and your jobs? Despite all the supportive noises from employers, a major worry is what their real...

by Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor The general election is now only weeks away and the parties have all been clamouring for your votes. The economy, welfare, housing, immigration, the NHS; all have featured heavily in the debate. However, when they want to attract the female vote, top of the list for discussion through the window of a pink bus is that old chestnut; childcare. Yes, childcare is a key concern. It’s hideously expensive, inflexibility can cause huge problems particularly for...

The decision to relocate to another country for work and take on the life of an ex-pat is unlikely to be a straightforward one for anyone, but it’s particularly nerve-wracking when you have children to consider. Annabel Kantaria, author of novel Coming Home, gives us some tips to make the move as smooth as possible for your kids; both when relocating abroad and when the time comes to move back home. By Annabel Kantaria While moving abroad – or back...

By Dr Joanna Helcké I have the privilege of living in what many consider to be the UK’s sporting capital; Loughborough. With a University that attracts top athletes from across the UK, physical activity and sport is to be seen quite literally everywhere as people jog, run and bike their way around the area. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that as an expert in pregnancy exercise I find myself on the receiving end of lots of pregnancy fitness questions and...

by Jasmine Stephens, Family Editor How well do you actually know your family? I thought I knew mine quite well; my family’s grapevine reliably keeps me updated on all the important things in life like what my Nan thought of the latest episode of Poldark, which jacket my sister finally decided to buy for the spring season and the date on which my auntie’s lawn got mowed for the first time this year. My phone beeps so much with WhatsApp...