My extended family gathered together recently to celebrate Christmas. It was wonderful! There were 29 of us – 12 adults and 17 kids. We spent a few blissful days in the country, swimming in dams and creeks, riding bikes, tubing behind a jet ski, eating leftovers in the shade, sleeping sprawled on spare spots on the floor and enjoying each other’s company. I reluctantly said goodbye, wishing the togetherness ...

I enjoy the school holidays (most of the time). Over the summer, I usually allocate dedicated time to hang with the kids. Sometimes we stay in PJs all day. Sometimes we visit friends and family and enjoy a spontaneous dinner at a park. Sometimes we go on outings. There are key goals I’ve developed over the years to ensure successful school holidays, especially over the long summer break. By successful, I me ...

I am sitting at the dining room table as I type this. The younger children are watching Bondi Vet while my husband and our eldest are huddled over a computer on the loungeroom floor, discussing her biology assignment. Our eldest recently celebrated her 17th birthday and that means my husband has been a father for the same time. With Father’s Day recently done and dusted for another year, I was curious to as ...

I’m going to come right out with it. I didn’t want a pet. It’s not that I don’t like animals, but our family has had to move a lot, so we are limited in what sort of pets we can have. Plus, I figure, I’m flat out trying to look after four kids so don’t need another thing in the house to look after, right? Things changed when my daughter turned seven and asked for a bird. I noticed her desire for a pet was m ...

My fifteen-year-old daughter is in a key phase of schooling where there’s a lot of pressure to pick subjects that will (apparently) shape the rest of her working life. The thing is, her interests are varied and she does not know what career to pursue...yet. And that’s okay. My husband and I have been pondering about how to shape learning to align with life goals, and we’ve come to believe this: you have to ...

I have a great team working with me to manage the Be A Fun Mum community. When putting my team together, there is one quality I look for in members: initiative. Interestingly, I followed a thread on a business Facebook group about interviews to ask a potential employee, and initiative came up time and time again as a desirable quality. According to the Oxford Dictionary, initiative describes the ability of ...

We actually do want a day off. A lazy day in bed with a good book and tea on tap, maybe? A trip to the day spa might be nice. Or a long uninterrupted lunch with friends. But... at the heart of Mother’s day, I don’t think ‘a day off’ is what most mothers really want. In the countless interviews I’ve done about Mother’s Day over the years, what I want always comes up in questions. I’ve thought about this, and ...

Having someone to exercise with keeps me accountable and it makes the process more fun. That someone for me is my teen daughter. A year ago, I asked my then 16-year-old if she wanted to come with me to group exercises classes down at the park. My motivation was to invest in my daughter’s health and fitness, particularly during the senior schooling years. The fact is, young women are dropping out of physical ...

Recently, I researched various journal articles about what people associate with the concept of "home". It was fascinating. There was one response that repeated time and time again, and it was this: home is a special place where you are loved and can be yourself. I thought, yes, that is something I strive for in my own home. To create an environment where each person truly feels loved and therefore is free ...