We’re back!  After more than two months silence, we dragged out the microphones and recorded an episode, picking up exactly from where we left off.  Today’s topic of discussion: Who watches the kids when Mom and Dad have to selfishly turn away for a moment to answer a phone, or go to work, or visit a sick relative in hospital?  Also, absolutely no mention of why we’ve been quiet for so long. Not even an apology! (Okay so here it is: it’s all work’s fault. Allen has been finishing a major...

Better late than never, here is the eleventh episode of the Now Look Here! parenting podcast.  After a long, sticky, but all round peaceful Easter weekend, we return to discuss the never ending struggle to find some alone time for yourself. Specifically, we talk about how we manage it, how other parents seem to do it, and why it’s so important (spoiler: If you don’t find a little time away from your responsibilities as a parent, you might very well lose your mind.) Whether it’s swapping...

We’re back! Things have been so unsettled that we had to record this episode (How to Transport a Family) in two separate sessions, and then still took extra days to edit it and produce the recording you’re about to listen to.  But we made an extra effort to be a little more interesting than usual, as our way of making it up to you for keeping you waiting. In this episode we talk about transport, and the unique problems of moving a large family around when your school, place of work, and...

This week we take on the thorny problem of the boundaries that we need to build to protect our family lives.  Getting the other adults in your life to take your kids seriously can be hard.  Not the children themselves, as individual human beings, but their needs and the responsibilities they give you as parents.  Popular film and TV like to perpetuate the idea that when a friend gets married, you’ve lost that friend forever.  But substitute “Having kids” for “Getting married”, and it actually...

Head lice. Yuck, right? But there are a few things we want you to know about these little parasites:  They’re far more common than you think, you could be infested without realising it and they present absolutely no health risk at all.  But, they’re undeniably gross.  So what do you do when your kids come home with lice in their hair?  What do you say when the school calls to say that they’ve found nits, or lice eggs, in your kid’s hair and you must fetch them immediately, to avoid infecting...

In which we discuss The Terrible Two’s Our first full episode of the new year!  We’re trying out something new with formatting, so please leave a comment and tell us what you think?  We’ve decided to narrow our focus on parenting and what better place to start than the hugely frustrating Terrible Two’s – that stage of a child’s life which begins sometime near their second birthday and ends when they get their driver’s license.  We look at what’s going on in your screaming little angel’s mind...

This is not a regular episode of the Now Look Here podcast.  It’s only a few minutes long, and it’s just me talking, but it has an important message that I felt needed saying. Don’t worry though, it’s nothing too dramatic or unpleasant.  Rather, it’s our first attempt at responding to feedback and improving the show.  Short version:  We’re tightening our focus on the issues we’re going to talk about, and will be returning to a regular recording schedule. Incidentally, if you have been...

Back from an unplanned hiatus, we’re back with episode six of the Now Look Here podcast! This week, after sharing another story about how tough it is to be the parent of five kids, we launch boldly into a spirited discussion about how the sexes seem to aim right past each other when looking for love. We don’t go very deep, though.  We accuse women of trying to make themselves more attractive to men by acting in very unattractive ways, and we accuse guys of believing in the friend zone....

It took a while to get it out the door, but the fifth episode of the Now Look Here podcast is finally out! The fact that it is almost a full week late is ironic, and you may now begin laughing, because Cathrine leads us on a discussion about ways of getting things done.  Scheduling, procrastination, multi-taking, these are things we consider, discard, and eventually recommend! The problem we all have with our busy modern schedule and non-traditional means of employment is common enough: How...

Sometimes you find yourself forced to make a leap of faith.  Two of the most obvious challenges facing parents of many kids, like Cath and I, are time and money.  As we touched on in the previous episode, each child requires a certain amount of attention, as well as feeding, schooling, clothing, educating, medicating, and a myriad other things that all cost money.  Six years ago we realised that we were running short on both. I had (and still do have) a full time job, while Cathrine was in...