Family and Child Consultants

  Dear Kids, There are some joys in life so deep, so unexpected, that words can barely hold them. Becoming a grandparent to your children is one of those joys—a gift that has touched me in ways I never could have imagined. When I look at your children—my grandchildren—I see echoes of you. I see your eyes in their smiles, your laughter in their joy, your stubbornness in their determination. It takes me back to when you were little, and suddenly I’m holding the past and the present in my hands, both at once. It’s overwhelming, and it’s beautiful. I wish I could bottle every moment: the way tiny arms wrap around my neck, the sound of their giggles in the early morning, the way they reach for my hand without thinking. These moments are fleeting, but they fill my heart with a love so fierce it aches. Sometimes I find myself tearing up, grateful for the chance to love this deeply all over again. Being a grandparent has given me a second chance—not to redo the past, but to savour it. I am...

  By Niki Gent – Mum of Four, Grandma of Two, Survivor of Bedtimes Everywhere There are moments in parenting where you look around and think: Surely… this can’t be normal. The toddler lying face down in Woolworths because you bought the wrong yoghurt. The preschooler who sobs because their toast was “cut the wrong way.” The eight-year-old who forgets everything except Minecraft. The teenager who communicates exclusively in grunts and fridge visits. And somewhere in the chaos, you whisper: “Am I completely messing this up?” Let me tell you something I wish someone had told me when I was deep in the trenches of raising four children: Oh thank goodness… it’s normal. The Great Toast Crisis of 1995 I once made toast “incorrectly.” Not burnt. Not raw. Just… diagonally sliced instead of straight. You would have thought I’d committed a crime against humanity. Tears. Screaming. “I CAN’T EAT THIS.” Existential despair. I remember standing in the kitchen thinking,   How will this child s...