Parent Pages new website

Elton John’s mother Sheila reveals she has not met her son’s new baby after three-year rift.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:09 AM on 28th April 2011

A grandmother is usually the first one to visit a newborn, cooing adoringly over the new addition to the family. But when Elton John, 64, and partner David Furnish welcomed baby by surrogate Zachary into the world in December, his mother Sheila Farebrother had no idea it was happening. And after a three-year rift with her famous son, the 86-year-old says: ‘I have no particular interest really.’

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Following Gwyneth Paltrow’s remark about her grandmother, we’d like commenters to tell us about their ‘special’ relationship.

Wednesday 27 April 2011 16.01 BST

Gwyneth Paltrow broke a taboo, shocking viewers of the US TV show Chelsea Lately when she called her grandmother “a real c**t”, adding: ”She was tough. She hated my guts, basically, and tried to poison my mother against me. But it didn’t work because I have a great mother.”

As part of our people’s panel series, we would like to hear from four Comment is free readers who can tell us about being a grandparent and/or a grandchild. Traditionally, grandparents have played a key role in the family, providing moral guidance and support, and being held to high esteem. But is the nature of this relationship changing in contemporary societies?

Source: GUARDIAN

Smiling as they posed up next to each other, Gwyneth Paltrow and her grandmother Katharine Danner looked every inch the picture of family contentment at the premiere of Great Expectations in 1998.

By SARAH BULL
Last updated at 2:43 PM on 27th April 2011

But things were clearly not as happy below the surface, as Gwyneth proved earlier this week when she labelled Katharine a ‘****’ on a U.S. talk show Chelsea Lately. Katharine, who died in 2006 aged 96, was the German mother of Gwyneth’s mother Blythe Danner.

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Zuma and Kingston turn an Easter day out with parents Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale into a catwalk.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:38 AM on 25th April 2011

Their  parents are one of rock’s hottest couples and their mother has her own hugely successful fashion range – so it was hardly surprising that Zuma and Kingston Rossdale had their best bib and tucker on for an Easter day out yesterday. No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, 41, had dressed her sons up smartly for the festival but stopped short at Easter bonnets… The boys certainly looked like they were loving their grey suits as their famous mother took them to lunch at their grandparents’ house in Beverly Hills.

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A grandmother who fell into the Arctic Ocean after being dropped during a rescue from a cruise ship is still struggling to recognise her family, her husband said.

By Caroline Gammell 8:46PM BST 21 Apr 2011

Janet Richardson, 73, has been in hospital in Norway and then the UK for the last three weeks but is still in intensive care. Her husband George said she had received mouth to mouth resuscitation and was sedated after spending at least four minutes in the sub-zero temperatures.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Forty years ago doctors realised a drug used to prevent pregnancy complications could have devastating consequences for babies. Now a new study has found those effects could be felt by a third generation.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:08 PM on 21st April 2011

French researchers report that the grandsons of women who took diethylstilbestrol (DES) are more likely than other men to have deformations in the opening of the penis. Doctors prescribed DES to pregnant women between the 1940s and 1970s to prevent miscarriages and premature labour. It was given to as many as two million women in the U.S and four million women worldwide Then research revealed girls exposed in the womb had a far higher chance of developing a cancer in the vagina. Later studies found that girls whose mothers took DES while pregnant were also more likely to have birth defects and fertility problems.

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What a pity it is that Kate Middleton’s maternal grandmother Dorothy will not be at the Royal Wedding next week.

By SANDRA PARSONS
Last updated at 8:13 AM on 20th April 2011

The matriarch arguably behind one of the great social climbs in history would surely have savoured the astounding fruits of her success as she watched her granddaughter marry a future king. An even greater pity is that she never had the opportunity to meet David Cameron, for there is much that the pushy Dorothy — daughter of a coal miner-turned-carpenter and nicknamed ‘the Duchess’ for the tenacity of her social ambitions — could have taught our Prime Minister. Dorothy, who never had a hair out of place, according to a relative, would, of course, have arrived at Westminster Abbey immaculately and appropriately dressed. As it is, she’s probably turning in her grave at the very idea that Mr Cameron is considering attending the Royal Wedding in a lounge suit rather than morning dress.

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A four-year-old girl who was hit in the face by a brick thrown through a van window suffered “horrendous” injuries, police have said.

20 April 2011 Last updated at 14:10 GMT

The girl’s father, 23, had confronted a group of up to 20 youths for kicking a ball at his vehicle on Hildyard Street, Grimsby, on Thursday. The brick was thrown as he tried to drive away and came through a window, hitting Jersey-Lou Perry in the face. Grandmother Mandy White said she was “in tears” when she saw her injuries. The youngster suffered a broken nose, a swollen lip and lost two teeth. She was taken to Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, in Grimsby, where she was kept in overnight.

Source: BBC NEWS

Children in life-threatening situations are being let down by social services staff who fail to listen to their concerns, a report warns.

By Richard Garner, Education Editor

The report, by Ofsted, the children’s services watchdog, says they place too much stress on the needs of parents. Often, they do not even see the children or listen to concerns expressed by other adults – including grandparents. The report looks at serious case reviews conducted into 93 children last year, 39 of whom died.

Source: INDEPENDENT

25 abused children die under the noses of social workers.

By SARAH HARRIS
Last updated at 12:47 AM on 13th April 2011

Twenty-five children have died and dozens more been seriously injured despite being known to social services, an Ofsted report reveals. Vulnerable youngsters are let down in ‘too many’ cases by professionals who fail to listen to the concerns of grandparents, neighbours and even fathers, it says. In four of the cases, grandparents reported concerns but this did not lead to effective action. Local authorities and other agencies failed to learn lessons from the Baby P scandal, the report shows. He was found dead, aged 17 months, in a blood-splattered cot having suffered a broken back and fractured ribs in August 2007.

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You’ve no doubt heard of the bank of mum and dad but what about the building society of granny and grandad?

Sunday, 10 April 2011

A new report by Friends Life (the new name for Friends Provident) highlights the trend of middle-income people in their thirties and forties, with families of their own, desperately turning to their parents for cash handouts to see them through the recession. It’s not about buying a first home – aka bank of mum and dad – these middle-income middle-aged people already have one of those, it’s more about trying to keep their heads above the financial water. Job loss is the most extreme example of situations that trigger the need to call in the cavalry, but the report reveals it can be as simple a matter as the rising cost of living.

Source: INDEPENDENT

When Anstey Spraggan’s daughter Lucy came out aged 14, it came as no surprise. Lucy had been wearing boys’ clothes and going by the name Max for years. What was surprising was the joy Anstey felt at becoming part of a ‘special club’.

By Anstey Spraggan

My mother wouldn’t have the “H” word in the house. She had met a homosexual man called Hugh in the 1950s and hadn’t liked him at all. From that moment on, all homosexual people (and, to be fair, anyone called Hugh) were persona non gratae.

She adored my brother’s best friend, but only as long as we all fiercely ignored that he was, openly, the gayest man alive. I wonder how her attitude would have changed had she lived beyond the mid-90s. I am inclined to think there would have been an uneasy truce born of her being a more committed grandmother than a homophobe.

My daughter was 14 when she first told me she was a lesbian. We were walking up the drive to our house when she began to chant: “I’m gay, I’m gay, I’m gay!” I’d had a long day at work, and my reaction was to chant back: “I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care!” followed by a brief explanation that my other two children hadn’t felt the need to shout: “I’m straight, I’m straight, I’m straight!” And then I went indoors to make the dinner.

Source: GUARDIAN

Three quarters of families with young children intend to go on holiday this year with the grandparents in tow, according to a survey.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

Holidaying with three generations might be some people’s idea of hell, but the concept has taken off with an increasing number of families not only as a way of saving on childcare costs but also as a way of keeping disparate family members in touch.

The survey of over 1,000 families with young children, undertaken on behalf of netmums, the parenting website, found that 75 per cent were planning a summer holiday with grandparents this year. The survey was backed up by booking figures from Eurocamp, the upmarket chalet and camping company, which said it had seen bookings from extended family groups increase by as much as 325 per cent over the past two years.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Tamara Beckwith’s daughter launches blistering attack on socialite.

By SIMON CABLE
Last updated at 10:56 AM on 5th April 2011

When your mother mixes with Hollywood stars and regularly graces the newspaper pages, it might appear to have the makings of a glamorous childhood. But the daughter of notorious socialite Tamara Beckwith has launched a blistering attack on her upbringing with claims that she was neglected. Anouska Beckwith, 24, spent many of her early years with her grandparents while her mother pursued a hard-partying lifestyle.

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It is the moment grandfather Elias Konstantopoulos has been dreaming of after losing his sight – ‘seeing’ his grandson for the first time.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:01 AM on 4th April 2011

Now he is a step closer after revolutionary technology has allowed him to see flashes of light which has given him hope he will one day be able to distinguish the boy’s features. The breakthrough has come almost five years after he went totally blind from the incurable condition retinitis pigmentosa which affects one in 3,000 people in the U.S.

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Dominic Murphy talks to three high-profile gardeners and their mums about what they’ve learned from each other. And what they’ve rejected…

By Dominic Murphy

Joe “I didn’t do that much gardening as a child. I wanted to play football and my mum gardened around us. I remember once growing an apple tree from a seed and it got to 6in tall, then mum got landscapers in and my tree disappeared. I remember going mental with everyone when I got back from school, but Mum wasn’t very sympathetic. ”In those days, the 1970s, everybody’s garden was unbelievably traditional. There was a lawn, cottage-style plants and traditional climbers round the outside. I remember thinking it was a bit twee and dull, but looking back, ours was very nicely planted. ”When I began gardening, I started to take over. Being a professional and still living at home, I was a little bit more gung ho. I thought of it as a lab, pruning things a bit drastically, and Mum would come home and say, ‘Oh my God!’

Source: GUARDIAN

Campaigners for fathers’ rights tonight branded an official review into family law a ‘sham’ and a ‘cover-up’.

By JAMES CHAPMAN
Last updated at 8:44 PM on 31st March 2011

The importance of maintaining relationships with both parents should be underlined in legislation, but there should be no guarantee of equal access to children when a relationship founders, it said.

A report for the Government did say it was ‘unfair’ where parents who are continually refused contact with their children by their former partner have to pay maintenance.

Courts should be able to order reductions or suspensions in payments where the resident parent is not abiding by an access agreement, it said.

As the Daily Mail revealed this morning, the report also said grandparents should be included in agreements on the future of children following a divorce.

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A grandmother has told an inquest her daughter should never have been resuscitated after being pulled from a house fire which killed her children.

30 March 2011 Last updated at 14:25 GMT

Maddie Hudson, three, Anthony Hudson, five, and William Beale, nine, died in the fire in Bridlington on 11 November. Their mother, Samantha Hudson, was starved of oxygen but survived. The children’s grandmother, Susan Hudson, told Hull Coroner’s Court that her daughter now had “no quality of life”.Paramedic Simon Leeson fought back tears as he told the court that he was the first on the scene and he decided to work on the 27-year-old mother as she was showing signs of life.

Source: BBC NEWS

Inge Franken is a sprightly 70-year-old who lives in an apartment on two floors in Berlin. She has a task, a mission. She tours schools educating children about her – and their – country’s dark history.

By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin

She shows the class a photograph of two young boys – they can barely be 10 – who pose in Nazi regalia, and she seeks reaction. One has his chest puffed out in pride, the other seems reluctant and shame-faced. It is for today’s children to decide which they would rather be. If the school visit goes well, she says, a child will say that he or she is going home to ask the parents and grandparents what happened in the war in their family. It makes Inge feel that she has set people thinking and asking.

Source: BBC NEWS

Seven million grandparents adopt the role of ‘second Mum and Dad’ to their grandchildren as families struggle to cope without their support.

By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent

The financial pressures on Britain’s families means parents are struggling to cope with looking their children because they both need to work. It leaves grandparents stepping in to help out with everyday jobs, from childcare to cooking family meals, saving parents £33 billion every year. Charities warned that without their assistance, more families would find it difficult to survive.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Family and friends of the student jailed for dropping a fire extinguisher from a roof during last year’s protests against tuition fee rises are to join today’s huge union demonstration against spending cuts.

6:00AM GMT 26 Mar 2011

The mother, grandparents, sister and friends of Edward Woollard will travel to London from Hampshire to take part in the TUC-organised march and rally. Up to a quarter of a million people, ranging from students and union activists to pensioners and community groups, are expected to march through central London in the biggest union protest for more than 20 years and the largest since the anti-war protest in 2003.

Source: TELEGRAPH>> Read full article and comment

The father of a young British boy who was kidnapped in Pakistan has welcomed reports a member of the gang has been jailed for 60 years.

25 March 2011 Last updated at 14:51 GMT

Sahil Saeed, of Oldham, was visiting his grandmother’s home in the Punjab region when he was snatched during a robbery on 4 March 2010. The then five-year-old was released after being held for 12 days when a £110,000 ransom was paid by his family. Gang member Imran Husain was sentenced on Thursday, said the AP news agency. It quoted court official Fayaz Haider who said the court also ordered that all of his belongings and property should be be seized.

Source: BBC NEWS

A young woman and her grandmother were stoned to death by a gang of teenagers in South Africa who accused them of being witches.

By STEWART MACLEAN
Last updated at 5:08 PM on 22nd March 2011

Cynthia Lemaho, 26, and her 81-year-old grandmother Mupala Motopela were dragged from their home at 5am yesterday by a gang of youngsters who pelted them with rocks until they died. Today police launched a murder investigation following the tragedy, which happened near the town of Tzaneen in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.

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Boy of nine who saw his family swept away goes searching for them with a homemade sign.

By RICHARD SHEARS
Last updated at 2:36 PM on 19th March 2011

He has become a poignant symbol of the human tragedy in Japan. Day after day, nine-year-old Toshihito Aisawa walks from shelter to shelter looking for his family. Clutching hand-written signs bearing the names of his missing relatives, the schoolboy has spent the past week wandering the corridors of refugee centres in his ruined home city of Ishinomaki. The boy last saw his mother, father and grandmother when they piled into their car in a desperate attempt to escape the tsunami. But the car ran into a dead end and was swallowed by the killer tidal wave. Toshihito escaped by smashing a window before being pulled, unconscious, from the water by rescuers.

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Source: DAILYMAIL

In a moving and tearful funeral service, seven children who died in a farmhouse blaze were laid to rest today.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:36 PM on 16th March 2011

Above the white caskets, pictures were displayed of each child who perished as fire tore through their home in Blain, a rural community 20 miles north of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. Their devastated parents, Ted and Janelle Clouse, sat silently as his mother Betty and her sister Carolyn gave personal tributes to the children.….Continue Reading

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The letter you always wanted to write.

Saturday 12 March 2011

It’s nearly three years since I heard your voice on the telephone, nearly two years since I heard your voice from the other side of your front door. A small, frightened whisper, which, though I knew it to be in your voice, didn’t seem like you at all. I sat for nearly three hours in the rain on your doorstep, hoping we could talk, if only through the door; I hoped you would come to the station to find me before I went back. Through that door, I also heard the grandson I have never met. I came to know he existed because a dear friend, talking to a mutual acquaintance, found out they had been sent a Christmas card two years ago, with a photograph of my grandson in it – a beautiful baby boy. It was a shock to find out, through her, that I am a grandmother, and even more of a shock when I looked at the photo of that beautiful child, to see what a strong resemblance he bears to my father, who died when I was seven. You see, you might want to deny your heritage, but you never can. Such things are always within us. You will notice all these little signs so deeply embedded within us in the years to come.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

A grieving mother whose 21-year-old died after a nightclub fight is preparing to become a grandmother – using his sperm.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:24 PM on 11th March 2011

Marissa Evans began her quest to have a grandchild after a judge ruled in 2009 that a doctor in Austin, Texas, could collect the sperm of Nikolas Evans. Now Mrs Evans has announced she’s found both a surrogate mother and an egg donor. She said: ‘We’re hoping that by the end of April our surrogate is pregnant. And I just know it’s going to work.’ Nikolas died in March of 2009 after he was punched by Eric Skeeter outside an Austin club. He fell to the ground, hit his head and died ten days later.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Besse Cooper, a great-great-grandmother from Georgia, USA has been officially recognised as the world’s oldest living person at 114 years and six months.

By Nick Collins 7:00AM GMT 11 Mar 2011

Since her birth in 1896 Mrs Cooper has seen 21 different presidents from Grover Cleveland to Barack Obama, and lived through two world wars and the great depression. The hendecagenarian was officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest person on earth at a ceremony at her nursing home on Thursday.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

The granddaughter of a woman who died the day before she was due to be appointed an MBE has collected the award from Buckingham Palace on her behalf.

10 March 2011 Last updated at 20:36 GMT

Barbara Alexander was recognised in the New Year Honours list for helping to establish the Red Cross in Lancashire. The 81-year-old lost her battle against bowel cancer at a care home in Carnforth on 30 December. Her 16-year-old granddaughter Louise and son David attended the palace. Mrs Alexander, a retired teacher from Bolton-le-Sands, received the news of the award on her 81st birthday.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

With his winning smile and sharply-cut blazer, Jack Langlands seemed to be a promising young pupil with a bright future ahead of him.

By CLAIRE ELLICOTT and NATASHA COURTENAY-SMITH
Last updated at 12:10 AM on 10th March 2011

But just a few years after this picture was taken, drug and alcohol abuse had transformed the former grammar schoolboy into a psychotic murderer who stabbed his grandmother to death. Now his parents have spoken out for the first time since the 27-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for the attack to warn others of the dangers of cannabis, cocaine and alcohol, saying: ‘Drugs have ruined his life – and ours.’Doris Langlands, 83, had taken in her homeless grandson only months before her appalling death while he looked for work.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

A married mother-of-two died after having a gastric bypass she hoped would allow her to play with her three grandchildren.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:55 AM on 9th March 2011

Carole Gildart, 58, who weighed 20 stone at the time of the surgery was left with four holes in her bowel following the surgery, an inquest heard. She died just days after undergoing the £10,000 weight-loss operation at The Spire private hospital in Southampton in June 2009.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

The average age at which children start smoking in Merthyr Tydfil and the surrounding area is just nine, according to Wales’ clinical smoking prevention group.

9 March 2011 Last updated at 08:15 GMT

One child started before he was three after his grandparents thought it was funny to give him cigarettes.The figures come as people are being urged to quit the habit as part of National No Smoking Day. The average age of taking up smoking across Wales is closer to 12 years old. Tougher steps covering the sale and promotion of tobacco products are due to be unveiled by UK government ministers later on Wednesday.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

She gave birth at 13 to daughter who fell pregnant at 11.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:40 PM on 7th March 2011

• She says marrying young is ‘tradition’ in Romanian gypsy circles
  

A gypsy wife has become the world’s youngest grandmother – aged just 23. Rifca Stanescu, from the village of Investi, Romania, told how she gave birth to her daughter, Maria, while only 13. Despite her mother’s pleas to stay in school, Maria gave birth to son Ion at the age of 11.….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

His mum was being hit by her boyfriend. Jake Arundel felt scared and angry. He started lashing out at school, and things seemed bleak. But now he has turned his life around.

Saturday 5 March 2011

My dad walked out when I was two, but it didn’t change my life much. I don’t even remember him being around; and as we lived close to my mum’s family, I was always out with my grandad, going with him to football and fishing. And Mum and I were really close. It was a great childhood, until I was nine. That year, my mum found a new boyfriend. She’d had others, but they had never affected my life much. Joe was different. He seemed a charmer – he used to take Mum out and try to impress her. But he didn’t like me being around. It was always the same. He would come round and then send me off upstairs. I felt left out, but Mum obviously liked him. Then one day she told me we were moving in with him. I didn’t like the sound of that: all my friends lived near my house, and Joe’s house was in another part of town. I didn’t have to move schools, but I was much more isolated in the evenings and at weekends. And I didn’t see as much of my grandad.….Continue Reading

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Sinking under an ever-growing pile of family photos? You’re not alone, says Michael Hewitt – we’re all suffering the legacy of too many snap-happy generations.

By Michael Hewitt

Why do we so value images from our past, and how much of a genuine loss would it be if many of them simply disappeared? Certainly, the world would be a worse place without, say, Yousuf Karsh’s portrait of Churchill or Robert Capa’s war photographs. But my grandmother holidaying on the Isle of Man? My father’s disastrous attempts at home movies? Even if these are worth preserving, how should we go about it?

Archiving family photos used to mean simply sticking them in a hard-backed album. Today, however, we all seem to need something approaching an information technology degree. It’s a problem that will become increasingly common as we gradually entrust all our photos and home movies to digital media. Not just because of disk crashes. Format obsolescence won’t help either. For example, if you saved your pictures to 5¼in disks (remember them?), good luck finding a computer that will now read them. Even if you had the foresight to transfer everything to DVDs, who is to say this format will be around in 10 or 20 years?….Continue Reading

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The County Antrim grandparents of a severely disabled 14-year-old girl who died in 2001 are to stand trial accused of unlawfully killing her.

4 March 2011 Last updated at 16:41 GMT

David Johnson, 87, and his wife, Sarah, 84, of Carwood Drove, Glengormley, deny harming Rebecca McKeown, who was blind and unable to speak. A post-mortem examination revealed that she died from shock and extreme blood loss after she was sexually assaulted.….Continue Reading

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With more and more adults finding they’re too busy to see their elderly parents, we ask you to share your experiences.

Wednesday 2 March 2011 17.59 GMT

“We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone,” a less than cheery Orson Welles once remarked and, if a survey published by the Mature Times is anything to go by, he may well have a point. According to the research, more than 10% of 55- to 60-year-olds with parents still living haven’t seen their mother or father in the past year, with many of those questioned saying they were simply too busy to stay in touch with ageing relatives.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Baby boomers are often too busy to see their ageing parents or relatives, a survey has revealed.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:28 AM on 2nd March 2011

More than one in ten people over the age of 55 admit not having seen their mother or father for at least a year. The report also found that a smaller number make phone contact only every two to three months. Half of the 3,000 polled admitted not trying hard enough to stay in touch.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

One in ten baby boomers has not seen their ageing parents for more than a year, according to research suggesting that the generations may be losing touch with each other.

By Tim Ross, Social Affairs Editor

Charities warned that many older people feel isolated because their middle-aged offspring fail to stay in regular contact. But the poll of 3,000 members of the post-war “baby boom” generation found many were “too busy” or lived too far away to see their ageing parents as often as they would like, leading many with a sense of guilt. The survey underlined concerns that many working people in their 50s, with children of their own as well as elderly parents, are simply too busy to stay in touch with their ageing relatives.….Continue Reading

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Judges’ ruling against devout foster couple.

By TAMARA COHEN
Last updated at 2:02 AM on 1st March 2011

A Christian couple facing a foster parenting ban because of their views on homosexuality were told by a court yesterday that gay rights ‘should take precedence’ over their religious beliefs. Owen and Eunice Johns heard that their values could conflict with the local authority’s duty to ‘safeguard and promote the welfare’ of those in foster care. The grandparents have already fostered 15 children and were praised by social workers as ‘kind and hospitable people’ who ‘respond sensitively’ to youngsters.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

‘He won’t go short of love’

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:38 PM on 28th February 2011

The grandmother of orphaned toddler Morgan Matts has revealed her promise to his dying mother that she would care for him. The 18-month-old boy was orphaned on February 7 when a freak accident killed both his parents minutes after they had dropped him off at nursery. Diane Miller, the mother of Teri-Ann Barnett, who died with her partner Thomas Matts, says she made a promise to her daughter as she lay dying in hospital that she would care for her grandson.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

A woman who is set to become Britain’s youngest grandmother at 29 said it was ‘her worst nightmare’ when she discovered her 14-year-old daughter was pregnant.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:40 PM on 27th February 2011

Kelly John said she always hoped Tia would not repeat her mistake and become pregnant at 14. But after getting over the shock, the grandmother-to-be has vowed to do ‘everything’ to bring up the new baby. Schoolgirl Tia and her baby-faced 4ft 11in 15-year-old boyfriend Jordan Williams have vowed to prove they can be good parents despite their age. But Tia’s father – Shem Davies – who split with her mother years ago, said at the same age he had expected to stay with Kelly forever and bring up his daughter.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

For one curious toddler, a visit to see grandma ended in an evening of high drama and tears that nearly brought a town to a standstill.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:29 PM on 26th February 2011

The 14-month-old girl got locked inside a heavily-fortified bank vault after wandering away from her mother inside a Wells Fargo branch. After a desperate search, emergency services were called but police and firefighters were helpless Eventually a locksmith with a heavy-duty drill was brought into the bank in Conyers, Georgia, and after four terrifying hours the girl was rescued, tearful but unharmed. The girl, who has not been named, went with her mother on Friday to see her grandmother, who works at the bank.….Continue Reading

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Alexis Shearn has an unusual problem for a nine-year-old: what to do with the £100,000 she was left by her grandparents.

By Jill Papworth

Finding the best use for a lump-sum inheritance to secure a child’s financial future can be daunting for a parent with little investment experience. This was the case for Ruth Shearn, a creative designer from Cheshire, when her nine-year-old daughter, Alexis, inherited £100,000 from her grandparents (Ruth’s parents), who left their estate split between three grandchildren.

“Having never dealt with that much money I was absolutely stunned at first, and had little idea what to do with it for Alexis,” she says. “I got as far as thinking it would be good to invest it somehow to help fund her through university and perhaps get her a car later on, but it was only when I spoke to independent financial advisers I realised, that if the money was invested sensibly now, it could grow enough to actually set Alexis up for life.”….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Seven out of the top ten authors borrowed from British libraries last year were children’s writers, underlining how the local institutions are relying increasingly on young visitors.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

Five years ago just four out of the top ten most borrowed authors were children’s writers. The figures, released by Public Lending Right, which monitors library borrowing, highlight Britain’s love affair with trashy thrillers, celebrity biographies, American fiction and the occasional modern masterpiece.

Frances Osborne, the wife of the Chancellor, even makes the list of the top five most borrowed non-fiction books, with The Bolter, her widely acclaimed biography of her great-grandmother Idina Sackville, the socialite.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Baby Noah is cradled in his granddad’s arms as his father is one of five soldiers to be repatriated from Afghanistan.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:44 PM on 17th February 2011

The bodies of five soldiers who died within a week in Afghanistan were repatriated today – including one who had never met his newborn son. Private Robert Wood, 28, was one of two men from the Royal Logistics Corp who perished in a blaze at Camp Bastion on February 14.He had been looking forward to returning home to Marchwood, Hampshire, to see his new son Noah when the tragedy happened.….Continue Reading

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Hillary Clinton on Chelsea, grandchildren and other women’s handbags.

By JENNIFER MADISON
Last updated at 6:18 PM on 15th February 2011

As U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is familiar with navigating personal and political minefields in the public eye. But there’s one milestone she’s anticipating with apprehension: becoming a grandmother. Speaking in the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Mrs Clinton said that she’d probably be an ‘unbearable’ grandmother, but she’d love it if her newly-married daughter, Chelsea, were to have children.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

The silent menace of carbon monoxide gas.

By PAT HAGAN
Last updated at 12:00 AM on 15th February 2011

His mother buried him with his teddy bear and wearing the new shoes and clothes she had bought him for Christmas. ‘I wanted McCauley to look smart,’ says Adele Forbes. ‘It was the last thing I could do for him.’ McCauley was just five when he died, poisoned by carbon monoxide. His great-grandparents, Patrick, 71, and Hazel Chidgey, 68, with whom he was spending the night, also lost their lives. An inquest established that a blocked chimney caused toxic carbon monoxide to build up inside the house. Odourless and tasteless, the gas went undetected as it crept into the three victims’ lungs.….Continue Reading

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Sita Brahmachari’s Artichoke Hearts, inspired by her ’60s babe of a mother-in-law’, takes £5,000 award.

By Michelle Pauli

A debut novel about a teenager coming to terms with life, death and first love has won the Waterstone’s children’s book prize. Artichoke Hearts by Sita Brahmachari, which was inspired the author’s “extraordinary boho artist, eco- activist, 60s babe of a mother-in-law”, beat Rebecca Stead’s Newbery award-winner When You Reach Me and Candy Gourlay’s much-feted Tall Story along with six other shortlisted titles to the £5,000 prize. Brahmachari’s mother-in-law is honoured in the book as Nana Josie. She’s 12-year-old Mira Levenson’s beloved grandmother, and she’s dying of cancer.….Continue Reading