Parent Pages new website

This new three-part series explores the sprawling lives of some of the UK’s biggest families. In tonight’s opener we meet Sue Radford from Morecambe in Lancashire, mother to 14 children. Sue is expecting another child in just a few months, and doesn’t rule out still more after that. “It’s usually when they’re between six and [...]

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Jenny Genge was 34 when she made the decision to have a hysterectomy. For nearly two decades she’d suffered the agony of endometriosis and, after trying everything from hormone therapy to laser surgery, this dramatic solution was all that was left to her. ‘I’d had years of terrible pain,’ says Jenny, an administrator from Minehead, [...]

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The Fifties and Sixties radically changed British couples’ habits — sweeping away time-honoured traditions of how people ate, raised their children and behaved socially. Women tried to keep fashionably slim, took office jobs, bought convenience meals, had babies in quick succession, spurned breastfeeding and felt the pressure of their fast-paced lifestyles. To our parents’ generation [...]

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Teenagers are prone to being moody, self-centred and reckless because their brains function differently when they do something they enjoy, say scientists. A study of rats found more neurons were activated in adolscents’ brains as they received tasty treats than those of adults – meaning they ‘over-process’ rewards and become vulnerable to addictive or impulsive [...]

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A baby’s relationship with their mother during the first 18 months of life affects their behaviour in future romances, a study has shown. The ability to trust, love and work through arguments is defined early on in childhood. A mistreated infant becomes a defensive arguer while the baby whose mother was attentive and supportive is [...]

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Some people’s lives are almost unimaginably hard, stricken by bad luck. The welfare state is there to mitigate misfortune, or it was. Emma and Chris Ford have three severely autistic children below the age of eight. Emma was once a well-paid PA, but that life is a world away, as both parents have given up [...]

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A 15-year-old girl has died during a school trampoline lesson in Stowmarket. Lily Webster, a year 11 pupil at Stowmarket High School, was taking part in the PE lesson at Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre when she collapsed. The ambulance service was called at 14:30 GMT on Monday, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. [...]

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A teenager fell to her death from a bridge after being peer pressured to drink vodka in the playground and wandering out of school. Wendy Maguire, 16, was allowed to leave the school grounds even though her teachers realised she had been fed alcohol by other pupils, it is claimed. Her family say she had [...]

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A doctor in Sweden has come under fierce scrutiny after he glued a 22-month-old child’s eyes together. The youngster whose parents had initially checked him into a hospital after he sustained a gash on his forehead, ended up needing corrective surgery to counter the error. It is not yet known whether the physician who works [...]

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The distraught family of a 17-year-old girl killed by a disqualified drink-driver who lied about being behind the wheel have branded his prison sentence ‘a joke’. Banned Zahoor Hussain, 25, was driving his father’s Mini Cooper at 50mph on a 30mph road when he lost control, causing the death of his friend and back-seat passenger [...]

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All children under five in care in London should be sent a free book a month to boost their reading and prospects later in life, the Commons was being told today. Senior Labour MP John Healey urged Mayor Boris Johnson and his Labour challenger Ken Livingstone to back the Imagination Library scheme, already running in [...]

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Sky-high tuition loans are turning more college-aged girls to the internet in hopes of wrangling in a wealthy suitor through an online dating service since it appears to be more profitable than an extra shift at the local coffee shop. One such woman, Christine Morris, added herself onto a site called SeekingArrangement.com in hopes of [...]

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It’s been suggested women and children were not given priority for lifeboats when the Costa Concordia capsized. But are there rules governing who leaves a sinking ship first? It’s a famous moment in the Titanic story. “Women and children first!” went the cry as the liner listed ever more precariously. It’s too early to know [...]

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As more and more women dress in pricier versions of their teenagers’ skinny jeans, chunky knits and LBDs, dressing like you mother is no longer the embarrassment it once was. And, to celebrate, savvy school-goers are raiding their parents’ wardrobes, a new survey has revealed. In an indication of how young people are being hit [...]

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Taxpayers are forking out thousands of pounds a year on DNA paternity tests after mothers seeking maintenance wrongly identified the father of their child. Last year, around £100,000 went on tests which turned out to be the wrong man because the mother has slept with so many men that she has no idea who the [...]

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Sallyanne Jones is cradling her seven-month-old baby on her lap, smiling at her little face. But how would she feel if she had to give her child up this afternoon, knowing she wouldn’t see her again for at least 18 years, and possibly never? It’s not a question you would usually put to a new [...]

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The great tragedy of modern parenting is that we’ve forgotten its history – and mothers are paying the price. Contrary to popular belief, the superdad who takes on a serious share of childcare and housework is not a new invention. Before the industrial revolution – a mere couple of hundred years ago – most men [...]

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A mother who has just given birth to twins – bringing her number of children to 11 – refuses to claim benefits despite the size of her family. Tania Sullivan, from Hoo, Kent, gave birth to twins Elizabeth and Anna in October. Amazingly, the 37-year-old only gave up work as a recruitment consultant after the [...]

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A 12-year-old boy found guilty of murdering his 11-year-old sister said he was forced to confess to the murder after hours of ‘terrifying’ police interrogation – although he had nothing to do with it. Police suspected Thomas Cogdell, now 18, had strangled his sister at their Camden, Arkansas home after his shock at her death [...]

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The 22-year-old said her father, Bob Geldof, was “overwhelmed” when she told him on Boxing Day that she was expecting a baby boy with her fiance Thomas Cohen. She told Hello! magazine: “Oh my God, he was so happy, especially as I’m having a boy. The poor man’s been surrounded by women up till now. [...]

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A 30-year-old, who last year became Britain’s youngest grandfather, has been dumped by his girlfriend who claims he is a useless parent and regularly drinks up to 14 pints of lager a night. Unemployed Shem Davies, from Bridgend, Wales, hit the headlines after his daughter Tia gave birth to baby girl Ava Grace a week [...]

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A teenager’s pancreas was ‘falling apart’ after she drank six litres of strong cider a day from the age of 14. Two major operations saved the life of the young girl after years of cheap alcohol consumption led to her developing severe acute pancreatitiis, her doctor revealed. She ‘only just’ recovered from the serious alcohol [...]

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Jean Gross, a former teacher, was appointed Communications Champion after a review led by John Bercow before he became Speaker of the Commons. In a report published today she argued that checks on the language of toddlers needs to become as routine as health assessments of weight and growth. Those with poor speech at two [...]

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Jean Gross, the outgoing ‘communication champion’ for children, said parents should be advised by text to switch the television off, if they had it on all day, and reminded to speak to their babies. She raised the idea in her last report on how to improve the speaking, reading and writing skills of children. Gross [...]

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tem cells harvested from an infant’s umbilical cord may be used to save the life of the baby’s brother who is suffering from cancer. Nathan Shorey, 3, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in 2010 and may need a stem cell transplant if his condition deteriorates. The stem cells from the umbilical cord of his [...]

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Talking to other fathers at a kid’s party is awkward. I go to pick up Ed from a friend’s birthday bash. The party bags are still being distributed and the other dads and I mill around the kitchen waiting to whisk our offspring away. I don’t know why, but I always feel like an outsider [...]

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Bob and Anne Sears look out at the walled garden from their two-bedroom cottage in a “retirement village” near Maidstone in Kent, and say: “We’ve never regretted moving here.” Three years ago they sold their five-bedroom house in Essex and became the first people to move to Mote House, then still under construction by Audley, [...]

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My father is turning 90 soon, and, though he is sprightly for his age, I worry that time is running out for him. He fell out with my brother more than 50 years ago, and they rarely meet. It upsets me and I’d like to find a way for them to be reconciled before it’s [...]

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This story struck a chord with me because I once participated in a work experience programme. This was in 1980. I’d left school at the age of 16, having failed all but one of my O-levels, and my father suggested I join this scheme whereby I had to do unpaid work as a condition of [...]

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It’s a question some new mothers and fathers may secretly wonder about, but when asked who her favourite parent is this adorable baby showed little hesitation. The video of Australian Mick Tippett quizzing his young daughter Maddie is one that many fathers can probably relate to. During the hilarious video Mick repeatedly asks one-year-old Maddie [...]

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For the first time, a moms-only catwalk show, featuring fashion styles targeted at busy mothers and modelled by moms, will be included in the New York Fashion Week line-up. Strut: The Fashionable Mom Show will, according to WWD, give women inspiration when it comes to wearing outfits that are not simply kid-friendly but can be [...]

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Teenager Cassie McCord was killed by an 87-year-old motorist who drove into her as she walked on the pavement – three days after he refused to surrender his licence to police. Colin Horsfall had been in a minor accident and failed an on-the-spot eye test but held onto his driving licence, an inquest heard. Cassie, [...]

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He’s done just about everything: flown hot air balloons in the Arctic and crashed them in Morocco, sailed in storms across the Atlantic, set up more than 400 Virgin companies, appeared in Friends and worked with legends such as Nelson Mandela on saving the world. So what’s left for Sir Richard Branson to do? The [...]

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A little girl, who underwent life-saving surgery aged nine days old, is today celebrating her first birthday. Weighing just 3lb 5oz, Eleana Hasting, was the smallest baby in Britain to have open heart surgery. She arrived six weeks prematurely with a missing valve, a hole between two chambers of her heart and dilated pulmonary arteries. [...]

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Losing one’s hair at any age would be hard to cope with. But high school years, already blighted by teenage insecurities and potential bullies, must surely be more challenging still. Now one young alopecia sufferer has described exactly what it feels like to go through life without hair. Olivia Rusk, 14, from Fishers, Indiana, has [...]

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Lakisha Myers was found dead by her younger sister Savanna at their family home in Tooting on the morning of August 8 last year. At an inquest yesterday, family GP Bernard Ogoe said there were concerns she had not been using her inhalers properly since she was diagnosed with asthma in February 2003. Savanna, 11, [...]

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Julie Jones describes the day her best friend died as ‘the worst day of my life’. But she didn’t have time to grieve. The single mum-of-three had agreed to adopt Caroline Atkin’s three boys and two girls who had been orphaned by the loss of both their parents within six months of each other. Caroline [...]

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A mother has expressed her outrage after she found out the brain of her six-week-old baby who died 13 years ago had been found in a jar at Southampton General Hospital. Julie Middleton, 40, buried her son Regan in 1998 but has now been told that doctors removed his brain during a post-mortem at the [...]

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Your 17-year-old daughter tells you she’s getting into the idea of public nudity. You worry she’s not old enough to think through all the consequences and that not every man and woman who sees her naked will be admiring her freedom of expression. So what do you do? Nothing, and hope it’s a passing phase? [...]

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A teenage boy claims he was thrown out from a notoriously rough high school after turning up to class dressed as a girl. Jamie Love, 17, arrived at Govan High School wearing tights, mini-shorts, a high-waisted belt, hair extensions and make-up – shortly before he was ordered to leave. Jamie, a dancer, who asked schoolmates [...]

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Turkish authorities have asked the British government to help obtain evidence to prosecute the Duchess over allegations that she breached the privacy of children living in state-run institutions. The Turkish government accused the Duchess of trying to smear the country’s image three years ago with an investigative television report about conditions in its orphanages. On [...]

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A 23-year-old died of cervical cancer because doctors said she was too young for a smear test, her devastated family have claimed. Mercedes Curnow, from Cornwall, first went to her GP at 20 years old but her mother says her symptoms were ‘ignored’ because of her age. After a year of doctors visits, Ms Curnow [...]

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It could well be the last time this troubled teenager crosses his feisty mum after she decided to serve up some harsh punishment. Frustrated by her wayward son’s criminal ways, she decided to publicly humiliate him. The 14-year-old was forced to stand for two hours on a busy street with a sign reading ‘I lie, [...]

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Job hunters seeking work at 100 of Britain’s biggest firms may be asked to avoid listing their school on application forms under rules to end the influence of the old boy network. The blue chip companies – which  employ two million staff – have signed up to a voluntary code under which application forms will [...]

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An IT worker who feared he might never have children after being paralysed from the waist down in a rugby accident is celebrating the birth of his daughter. John Power, 34, was just 18-years-old when he broke his neck during a heavy tackle whilst playing his first professional rugby match. The 6’3” sportsman, who was [...]

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Anyone who remembers Pulling, the fabulous and fabulously filthy comedy that Sharon Horgan co-wrote and starred in (and which was criminally not recommissioned by some eeeediot at the BBC), might be surprised by this. How to be a Good Mother with Sharon Horgan (Channel 4)? Really? Isn’t that a bit like How to be Sober [...]

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Screaming, crying and waiting for hours to have her photo taken with celebrities, Tyler Sercombe is a typical starstruck fan. Except for one thing — she is just a year old. Her mother, Donna, has taken her to about 60 film premieres, and Tyler has already met 130 A-listers. Judging by these pictures, they were [...]

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Screaming, crying and waiting for hours to have her photo taken with celebrities, Tyler Sercombe is a typical starstruck fan. Except for one thing — she is just a year old. Her mother, Donna, has taken her to about 60 film premieres, and Tyler has already met 130 A-listers. Judging by these pictures, they were [...]

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Week three in the Big Brother house and the adults have lost their sense of humour. Their New Year healthy eating regime is making them even less patient than normal, especially since they found out dry roasted peanuts aren’t good for you. The seven-month-old baby is teething (but only during the night) which is also [...]

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The study published by the Children’s Society following interviews with 30,000 under-16s claims those who have deeply negative feelings about their lives are at higher risk of bullying, depression and eating disorders. It says those who suffer instability, moving from one family member to another, are twice as likely to be unhappy although household structure [...]

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