When I was 18, I changed my name. Crucially, I gave myself a new middle name — Justine. Actually, it wasn’t new at all. It was the name my birth mother gave me before I was adopted. I can still remember the horror my teenage self felt when I saw my birth certificate and realised [...]
Parent Pages new website
A resource for parents and families with babies, children, kids, days out, education, holidays, teenagers, find a tutor, days out, childcare in the UKSearch your local site: |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Archive | Growing up
Desperate to find the parents who gave her up | Mail Online
Posted on 16 May 2012.
Posted in Adopting and Fostering, Family, Family Law, Growing up, Parents0 Comments
My job interview for altar boy | guardian.co.uk
Posted on 14 May 2012.
I came prepared with a list of my skills. I would be the best altar boy ever. So good, in fact, that he would only need one: just Father Hansen and me, on stage. Blowing everyone away. Our meeting was in the rectory study. Wood paneling, leather chairs, even more Jesus pictures than we had, [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Learning, Parents0 Comments
Private school dominance of top jobs is ‘morally indefensible’, says Gove – Education News – Education – The Independent
Posted on 11 May 2012.
The scale of private school dominance of top jobs in Britain is “morally indefensible”, Education Secretary Michael Gove told a conference of independent school heads today He said it was “remarkable” how many of the positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power in Britain were held by former independent school pupils. “On the bench of [...]
Posted in At School, Family, Finance, Graduates, Growing up, Independent Schools0 Comments
Meet the mother who has spent $160,000 on her daughter’s acting career – and put nothing aside for her college fund | Mail Online
Posted on 11 May 2012.
It’s one thing to encourage your child to pursue their dreams, but sometimes encouragement comes at a price. A mother and daughter who live in Los Angeles told Anderson Cooper that moving to Hollywood so the young girl, Presley Cash, could become an actress has so far cost them over $160,000. Not only that but the [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Just Mums, Media and Celebrity, Parents, Teenagers, Time Out, TV, Theatre and Film, World News0 Comments
LORRAINE CANDY: Just what I need! My five-year-old son’s turning into the next David Walliams | Mail Online
Posted on 11 May 2012.
My five-year-old son has taken to looking me up and down each morning and asking: ‘Are you going to wear that to work. Really?’ He stands at the bottom of the stairs critiquing my style. Yesterday, when I asked him exactly what he thought was wrong with my navy blue trousers and blue blouse, he [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Media and Celebrity, Parents, Time Out, Working Mums0 Comments
Catch up with the Seven Up! kids: They dreamed of being astronauts and jockeys, so where are they now, fifty years on? | Mail Online
Posted on 09 May 2012.
For decades, millions have followed the lives of the Seven Up kids – 14 children who were plucked from different walks in life to take part in a documentary on their hopes for the future growing up in 1960s Britain. The show was originally intended to be a one-off, but after the cameras returned to [...]
Posted in Growing up, Time Out, TV, Theatre and Film0 Comments
Why I’ve made public the films of my kids growing up
Posted on 27 April 2012.
I started filming my daughter Lotte as a newborn in 1999, every week, usually on a Saturday morning. After 12 years of filming her, and nine years of doing the same with her brother Vince, I turned the footage into the two films you see today. While I always had the feeling that this project [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Kids, ParentsComments Off
Who’d be a teen in 2012?
Posted on 26 April 2012.
Most Saturday nights I go out — often to a party. Everyone drinks, and there are drugs around. Though I’ve not tried drugs, I did recently end up in hospital after drinking too much at a school friend’s party, which isn’t like me at all. I went to another friend’s house to get ready, and [...]
Posted in Addictions, Child Protection, Family, Family Health, Food and Diet, Growing up, Health, Parents, TeenagersComments Off
Think you’re all grown up? Remarkable new research suggests young people don’t become true adults until they’re 24 | Mail Online
Posted on 25 April 2012.
Getting plastered every Saturday night before heading back to a respectable office job on Monday morning has become the norm for a lot of young adults in Britain. Now scientists have discovered a possible reason for such childish behaviour – people don’t become true adults until they’re 24. Scientists believed adolescence started with the onset of [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Parents, TeenagersComments Off
Mother love: Parents adopt friendship over guidance as latest parenting technique | Mail Online
Posted on 25 April 2012.
If your daughter is your best friend forever, you’ve hit upon the latest parenting technique. Gone are the days when parents believed their offspring should be seen and not heard. Today, mothers and daughters are more likely to be trading dating advice on Twitter, plundering each others wardrobes and partying together. Once mothers had little more to [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Parents, Random articlesComments Off
Home stretch: What happens when twentysomethings move back in with their parents? – This Britain – UK – The Independent
Posted on 23 April 2012.
When stand-up comedian Nat Luurtsema hit the ripe old age of 28, she found herself living back in her parents’ house in the Hertfordshire town of Watford. For six long months she languished amid the teen magazines and boy-band posters of her childhood bedroom, pretending to her parents that she didn’t smoke and traipsing round, [...]
Posted in Family, Graduates, Growing up, ParentsComments Off
The guide on how to raise teenagers – written by teens – Telegraph
Posted on 22 April 2012.
Parents of teenagers will know that there is no greater mystery than what is going on in their children’s minds. Now, however, help could be at hand, with the release of a new parenting guide on how to raise adolescents – written by two 17-year-olds. Megan Lovegrove and Louise Bedwell, schoolgirls from Cheam, south west London, have [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Family, Growing up, Parents, TeenagersComments Off
Parenthood: the final moments | The Guardian
Posted on 22 April 2012.
That winter’s day in the park, although we weren’t to know it, was to be the last time I ever played football with my son. The memorable two-a-side match featured Peter and his cousin William, with a combined age of 20, against his uncle and me, each aged more than twice that. The half-time score was: sons [...]
Posted in Family, Growing up, Kids, ParentsComments Off
Bradley McAnulty’s home gatecrashed after party details were posted on Facebook | Mail Online
Posted on 17 April 2012.
The moment teenager’s home was gatecrashed by 400 revellers after 16th birthday party details were posted on Facebook Hundreds of gatecrashers smash windows, doors and kids’ playhouse Girls urinate in neighbour’s garden as yobs tear down street on scooters Two teenagers arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly By DAILY MAIL REPORTER PUBLISHED: 13:18, [...]
Posted in Child behaviour, Growing up, Parents, Tweens and TeensComments Off
Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright – The Guardian
Posted on 17 April 2012.
Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright When my second child reaches my age I fear the NHS, along with the tiger and rhino, will be part of a mythologised arcadia Three weeks old, warm and gently snoring on my shoulder as I write, you are closer to nature than you will ever be [...]
Posted in Family, Finance, Green Parenting, Growing up, ParentsComments Off
What ever happened to the original Matilda?As musical dominates Olivier awards, we look at cute child movie star Mara Wilson, 24, as she abandons acting | Mail Online
Posted on 17 April 2012.
What happened to the original Matilda?As musical dominates Olivier awards, former child star Mara Wilson, 24, rants about how film acting ‘is tedious’ She will always be remembered as the adorable seven-year-old with a magic finger able to move items around the house. But like several child stars before her, Mara Wilson has shunned an [...]
Posted in Child heros, Gifted Children, Growing up, Media and CelebrityComments Off
Zach Avery: the boy, 5, who wanted to be a girl – Telegraph
Posted on 21 February 2012.
But as her son became increasingly upset at being referred to as a boy, and expressed a desire to wear girl’s clothes, she decided to seek the guidance of experts. After months of consultations, doctors diagnosed Zachary with gender identity disorder, making him one of the youngest children in Britain to have the belief that [...]
Posted in Growing up, KidsComments Off
A ban on playground slang? Not bloody likely! – Telegraph
Posted on 16 February 2012.
Pupils must use standard English and no slang inside the gates of Sheffield Springs Academy, the school has decided. It would be more sensible if they used standard English outside the gates, and enjoyed the vivacity and iron laws of slang in the playground. Given a chance, children make up their own language in their [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Children denied opportunity to live up to their potential – Telegraph
Posted on 15 February 2012.
What is your worst fear as a parent? Catastrophic illness, but thankfully it is uncommon. More subtle, but perhaps more important, is the tragedy of children being denied the opportunity to live up to their potential. It is happening in England today. How can children be helped to master basic skills? Parents should take sole [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Why a happy childhood can make you an unhappy adult | Mail Online
Posted on 09 February 2012.
Was yours a happy upbringing? Not many can say this, but I am one of those rare people who had a perfect childhood. I had two young, funny, happily married parents, a lovely younger sister, and an extended family who lived close by. We lived in a beautiful house in a leafy suburb where we [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Parents ‘blamed for underclass’
Posted on 01 February 2012.
Parents who fail in basic duties such as cooking meals and putting children to bed were today blamed for creating the “underclass” who rioted last summer. Charlie Taylor, the Government’s behaviour czar, criticised families where children grow up “without boundaries and often without love”. The lack of basic parenting led children to fend for themselves [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Look mum, my new trick is SMASHING! Young brothers become YouTube hit with tablecloth stunt that goes badly wrong | Mail Online
Posted on 24 January 2012.
The stunt was risky enough when only the family’s crockery was at stake. But no one – least of all the unwitting child stars of a YouTube hit – could have anticipated that a traditional tablecloth stunt could go so wrong. The incredible video, watched 1.3million times, shows how the trick caused a bookcase to [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
I don’t want my children to be happy just to be content and have self worth, says Kirsty Young – Telegraph
Posted on 24 January 2012.
The presenter of Desert Island Discs said that “life is complicated” and that that her children will be “bloody lucky” if they even glimpse true happiness. The 43-year-old, who has two daughters and two stepchildren, was speaking as the BBC radio programme, the world’s longest running, celebrated its 70th year. The fourth presenter of the [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
BBC News – Army of 20,000 Volunteers needed to boost outdoor play
Posted on 22 January 2012.
An army of 20,000 volunteers will be needed for a new initiative to help children play safely outdoors, say campaigners. They will be asked to help build new playgrounds, staff existing ones, run play schemes and street parties. The government has given £2m to help local groups boost outdoor play in their communities. Campaign group [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
NHS pays for six children to have controversial puberty-delaying drugs to aid sex changes in later life | Mail Online
Posted on 22 January 2012.
Six children in Britain will be given jabs to delay the puberty on the NHS because they are convinced they were born the wrong sex. The injections – to be administered monthly – will postpone the physical changes of adolescence giving them more time to make decisions about their identity. It will also make any [...]
Posted in Growing up, Teenagers, ToddlersComments Off
Boy or girl? The parents who refused to say for FIVE years finally reveal sex of their ‘gender-neutral’ child | Mail Online
Posted on 22 January 2012.
His fairy wings, pink tutu and ballet pumps suggest this little boy has raided the dressing up box. But if five-year-old Sasha wanted to wear this every day, his parents would have no problem at all. In fact, as they are bringing him up to be ‘gender neutral’, they would see it simply as their [...]
Posted in Growing up, Music, Dance and DramaComments Off
Families forced to rent whose children pay the price | The Observer
Posted on 22 January 2012.
Jasmine Smith is just nine years old but she has already moved schools three times because her family has been forced to live in insecure rented accommodation. The Smith family, parents Paul and Joanna, and their daughters Jasmine and Enya, spent four years living in short-term rented accommodation. Each time a tenancy ended and the [...]
Posted in Finance, Growing upComments Off
My parents think my new boyfriend is too flash – Telegraph
Posted on 22 January 2012.
My newish boyfriend is always smartly dressed and has a penchant for suit-wearing even at weekends. My parents dress casually and I know they find his style a bit ‘flash’ and judge him for it – to their mind it’s verging on a moral failing. Do I talk to him or to them? VICKI It’s [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Cotton wool children: Just one in 5 plays outside every day, one in 3 has never climbed a tree or made a den and one in 10 has never ridden a bike | Mail Online
Posted on 20 January 2012.
Parents are now so over-protective towards their children that one youngster in five does not go outside to play. A third of youngsters have never climbed a tree, or built a den, and one in ten cannot even ride a bike, a study found. The figures were released by the Play England charity, who asked [...]
Posted in Child behaviour, Growing upComments Off
Of course children are unhappy. They live here too | The Guardian
Posted on 13 January 2012.
One in 11 children are unhappy, according to a survey by the Children’s Society. I thought it would be more. Children aren’t stupid, and happiness and an interesting life are not always the same thing: misery, at certain times, is as important to the development of the psyche as rage. Only imbeciles claim to be [...]
Posted in Child behaviour, Growing upComments Off
Unhappy childhoods afflict one in 10 youngsters, finds Children’s Society | The Guardian
Posted on 12 January 2012.
Almost one in 10 children over the age of eight are unhappy, according to a landmark survey by the Children’s Society, which questioned more than 30,000 youngsters aged eight to 16 in the UK. The charity’s researchers found that family had the biggest impact on children’s happiness. Relationships within a household rather than the family [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
The secret of children’s happiness? Church charity cites everything from iPods to designer trainers… but not a single word about marriage | Mail Online
Posted on 12 January 2012.
Over 64 pages, it sets out to provide a detailed analysis of what makes children in modern Britain happy. Yet the traditional family unit is given such little importance in the report by the Children’s Society that the word ‘marriage’ does not merit even a single mention. The charity insists it is the quality of [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Half a million children unhappy, says church-backed report – Telegraph
Posted on 12 January 2012.
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 [...]
Posted in Family matters, Growing upComments Off
Payout for child asylum seekers held in detention – Telegraph
Posted on 07 January 2012.
The Ay family, Kurdish refugees from Turkey, was detained for 13 months in 2002 as the Government attempted to return them to Germany, where they had first made a claim for asylum. Among those detained at Dungavel immigration removal centre in Scotland were four children aged between seven and 13. The case gained celebrity attention [...]
Posted in Family Law, Growing up, Parents in prisonComments Off
Meet Britain’s Chinese Tiger Mums: Practice makes perfect! | Mail Online
Posted on 05 January 2012.
Every week day after school, Nathan grabs a quick supper and then completes two hours of demanding piano and violin practice, followed by at least another two hours of homework. Television and play dates are both outlawed during term-time; it is simply too difficult to fit them in. Nathan is ten-years-old. He is polite, articulate, [...]
Posted in Growing up, Homework, Just MumsComments Off
January 4 birthdays have been running in one Ohio family for four generations | Mail Online
Posted on 05 January 2012.
January 4 birthdays have been running in one Ohio family for four generations. Richard Stiff of the Toledo area turned 65 on Wednesday. The day is also the 34th birthday of his daughter, Julia Gonyer, and it’s the first birthday of Gonyer’s daughter, Kourtney. Birthday bonanza: Julia Gonyer (left) poses with her father, Richard Stiff, [...]
Posted in Growing up, World NewsComments Off
BBC News – Viewpoint: Children have never had it so good
Posted on 04 January 2012.
Many people have the impression that British children are increasingly troubled, but the truth is different, writes researcher Paul Flatters. “The internet is creating a generation of lonely children” “The pursuit of trendy possessions is mentally damaging our children” “Video games blamed for a surge in rickets in children” These are all newspaper headlines about [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Poppy Burge gets liposuction voucher from ‘Human Barbie’ mum Sarah for Christmas | Mail Online
Posted on 04 January 2012.
A seven-year-old who received a voucher for a boob job on her last birthday has received yet another inappropriate gift from her surgery-obsessed mother: A £7,000 voucher for liposuction. Little Poppy Burge received the gift in her Christmas stocking after her mother, a 51-year-old plastic surgery addict known as The Human Barbie, decided it would [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Sarah Burge: ‘Human Barbie’ gets daughter Poppy, 7, liposuction voucher for Christmas | Mail Online
Posted on 03 January 2012.
A seven-year-old who received a voucher for a boob job on her last birthday has received yet another inappropriate gift from her surgery-obsessed mother: A £7,000 voucher for liposuction. Little Poppy Burge received the gift in her Christmas stocking after her mother, a 51-year-old plastic surgery addict known as The Human Barbie, decided it would [...]
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Let children play in the street to prevent them getting fat, says Diane Abbott | Evening Standard
Posted on 03 January 2012.
Over-protective parents must let their children play in the street to save them from obesity, Labour’s Diane Abbott has told the Standard. Ms Abbott, the shadow public health minister, said: “I think London kids are especially at risk because so many mums and dads are fearful about letting them play in the streets. I think [...]
Posted in Growing up, ObesityComments Off
Unstable homes hit GCSE grades: How family support is vital to success at school | Mail Online
Posted on 03 January 2012.
Young people who grow up in an unstable household are twice as likely to leave school with no good GCSEs, according to the Prince’s Trust. Those without a good education are also more likely to have been read fewer bedtime stories and to have had less support at home than their more successful peers, its [...]
Posted in At School, Child behaviour, Growing upComments Off
Growing up fast: Cute baby panda filmed being fed by and playing with its mother at Chinese zoo
Posted on 03 January 2012.
Despite the growing fears over the future of the panda, these pictures show that all is well for one adorable cub.
Posted in Growing upComments Off
iPhone Siri software tells boy, 12, to ‘shut up’ in Tesco – Telegraph
Posted on 30 December 2011.
A 12-year-old boy was subjected to an obscene tirade by a new iPhone when he tested out its new voice technology in a supermarket, according to reports. Charlie Le Quesne was trying out the iPhone 4S at a Tesco store in Coventry when it told him: “Shut the f*** up, you ugly t***.” The boy [...]
Posted in Growing up, Internet KidsComments Off
British children growing up in ‘celebrity-dominated, materialistic world’, warns minister in blistering attack on values
Posted on 17 December 2011.
British children are growing up in an ‘empty’ and ‘destructive’ celebrity-obsessed society that is breeding unrealistic expectations of wealth, an education minister warned today.
Posted in Growing upComments Off
Children to take control of Sikh temple once a month
Posted on 07 November 2011.
A Sikh temple in London is handing control over to children for one day a month.
Posted in Food and Diet, Growing up, Internet KidsComments Off
PM demands more limits on web sleaze
Posted on 12 October 2011.
Moves to curb child access face new year review
Posted in Growing up, ParentsComments Off
All grown up: Baby on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album turns 20
Posted on 27 September 2011.
His was the baby face that adorned one of the most iconic music albums of all time.
Posted in Growing up, Media and Celebrity, ParentsComments Off
Parents – if you want your child to grow up, do nothing
Posted on 23 September 2011.
As an Italian couple resort to legal action to evict their son, 41, why are more and more ‘kidults’ refusing to leave home?
Posted in Growing up, ParentsComments Off
Miranda Hart writes advice book for youngsters
Posted on 16 September 2011.
Comedian Miranda Hart’s book Is It Just Me? will be ‘a rallying cry against the unexpected pitfalls and horrors of growing up’
Posted in Growing up, Just Mums, Time Out, TV, Theatre and FilmComments Off
Girl, 4, has rare disorder that means tripping over could leave her locked in her own body
Posted on 18 August 2011.
Bumps and bruises are part of every child’s life growing up – but one young girl she has to be more careful than most.
Posted in Family Health, Growing up, HealthComments Off
Support our site by advertising here
- 85 Banner Ad slots open
- Intext Links are available
- Paid Reviews are available
