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kia ora friends, week two of the spring school holidays, here. Although my kids are older and well’n’truly capable of self-management, they still like hanging out with me. I ask myself: “will they always??” and so I make myself as available as possible, and THUS the work juggle gets a…

Kia ora friends, I’ll try to be efficient, today. Body and brain and eyes could use a break from sitting and screens. Biggie, yesterday, getting stuck in to the report I shared last time … the Systematic Analysis about the impacts of our screen-dependent lives on the rapidly developing brains…

mōrena e te whānau it’s like a blossom festival around here. I love the visuals, but jeepers there is some sneezing going on. Not gonna grizzle, though, I’ll just continue to be grateful to live in an era of quality tissues. In a tangential observation, I do love the idea…

Kia ora friends, The photo accompanying this post was a slightly performative selfie, taken on a Monday morning a few weeks ago, when I was about to deliver a zoom based presentation. I’d prepped my slides, checked my content. All good. And there’s nothing like a bold red lip to…

Kia ora friends, For years I had a quote displayed in my bedroom – I can’t completely remember it, but it was about the notion that a step forward followed by a backward step is not a disaster. It’s a cha-cha. I’m working to embody this understanding today, as I…

Kia ora friends, The two major political parties in NZ have some kind of agreement going on that we need legislation to restrict Big Tech’s access to our children. I tend to agree. I’m also aware that there are people whose opinions I respect and whose work I admire thinking…

Alrighty friends, On Saturday I did the Parenting hour on Newstalk ZB, and we wound up veering off my area of expertise and stumbled into the realm of having conversations about sex with your kids. Now, I’m quite comfortable having such conversations, and I’ll offer my opinion where appropriate, but…

Kia ora friends, Seems to me, there are two types of people in this world. Those who get excited about a pot of dahl, and those who don’t. I guess you could say lentils are in my blood. My parents had a health-food shop in the early 80’s called “Whole…

Kia ora friends,Some months ago, I submitted abstracts to present my work at the forthcoming World Association for Infant Mental Health conference in beautiful Toronto. When I was accepted to present I promptly registered, finding that the special deal for accommodation had already filled up. Mild panic, pushed to the…

There’s a lot of hubbub in the news about the sexism of a kiwi politician and the idea of maternity leave and laziness (ha!) when a female MP took her allocated leave in order to spend time with her new baby. The previous week there was reportage (arguably not enough) about…

Sheesh but I’ve been working hard, friends. Risking poor spinal health with all the hours at my desk (putting my body on the line, like an athlete!) and modeling both poor work/life balance and questionable screen habits for my family. Good times! I’m about to call good enough for a…

Kia ora friends, Big day – release day for episode five of Nadia Maxwell’s excellent six-part series “under the influence”. My work and I are in there, I am so grateful for the opportunity to bang the drum for babies. Also loved seeing Rangiora, the A&P show, and the lovely…