Tag Archive | parenting
What does ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ teach young women?
I have three daughters. The oldest is married and thirty-something (she’ll kill me if I quantify the “something”). The next in line is twenty and still relatively new to western civilisation although adapting remarkably well. The youngest is twelve. I remember some discussion when ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ first came out. Now the movie […]
How Apple plus school made this parent grumpy
School started this week. So off went Mr O Jnr 2 (fourteen) and Miss O 2 (twelve) with their mandatory iPads. As you may be aware, in order to download apps from the iTunes store, the customer has to login. To login the customer has to have an ID. When we got the iPads I […]
Sexual predators can go to hell
This may well end up being a nonsensical rant, but I’ve just read Prince Andrew is named in a lawsuit in the US over under-age sex allegations. In the last twelve months we’ve had SO MANY high profile convicted or alleged offenders. To name a few, it started, if I recall, with Rolf Harris, arrested […]
Parental Controls and the Internet
When I was a child my parents never had to worry about me getting into trouble on the internet. We didn’t have a TV until I was about ten, let alone computers or mobile phones. This is what I did for entertainment: Now the internet is a parenting challenge. Everything connects: laptops, iPads, phones to […]
Another life needlessly taken
A life was not lost. A life was taken. Stolen. Jordan Davis did not live to celebrate his 19th birthday today. He was shot by Michael Dunn. Michael Dunn drove away from the scene like this was a normal event. I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of it. The jury verdict is in. Dunn has been […]
Is our children’s generation addicted to electronics?
I went to the hairdresser this morning (YAY for me!) and we were talking about the looming election and I mentioned we need to invest adequately in education for our future. “What we need to invest in”, she declared, “is get the computers out of schools and get them off phones!” My hairdresser’s admittedly anecdotal […]
Motherhood, sexism, feminism, rap and the whole damn thing
Last week, as an afterthought, I popped this short statement at the end of Feminism can be frivolous fun: A parental afterthought – please stop calling each other “bitches”. You are just popularising the images from rap songs which glorify mistreatment of women. Parents battle to teach their sons to respect women and this undermines all […]
Equality does not mean sameness
On my recent article Bullying isn’t cool, Nancy of Spirit Lights The Way commented: When we accept ourselves “as is,” we are more able to shrug off the irrelevant opinions of others. Instead of poisoning ourselves by internalizing the hate, ignorance, and fear demonstrated by the bullies of life (who are trying to make themselves […]
Random Observations of Life 