House-swaps instead of holidays, three generations living under one roof, adults living off the ‘bank of mum and dad’ – is this how our living habits will adapt to the current economic, political and environmental climate over the next year? Caroline McGhie of the Telegraph makes her predictions.

Queen Elizabeth’s speech this Christmas placed great emphasis on the importance of family and community life. As she stated: “We’ve seen that it’s in hardship that we often find strength from our families.” True, conflict often causes humans to draw together for strength, comfort and survival. McGhie believes that we will see this happening to a greater extent over the next year, with the home itself becoming a central point in our lives.

House swaps

According to LoveHomeSwap.com, house swapping is becoming an increasingly popular and cheaper alternative to traditional holidays. House swapping is where families exchange houses for a short period of time at no cost. For example, if you own a large four bedroom house with sea-views in Devon, you might be able to arrange a house swap with a family who owns a large villa and pool in LA. Whatever the type of property you own, it is usually possible to find a match willing to swap.

Family homes

The idea of a ‘family home’ is set to change this year. According to McGhie, 2012 will see many more cases of parents, grandparents and children all living in the same house. With mortgage deposits setting an unattainable goal for many couples on the UK, teaming up with other family members may be the only feasible way forward. Parents benefit from having the help and support of their own parents, which children benefit from having their grandparents around for extra wisdom and perspective. The harder times become, the more young people will need the wisdom and experience of older generations.

Bank of mum and dad

It is becoming more and more difficult for young people to get onto the property market, what with deposits currently so high. Parents will continue to feel uncomfortable with the idea of having equity in property while their children struggle. It is becoming common practise for parents to help their children buy properties for the first time.

If you would like to make improvements to your living arrangements over the next year, whether for financial, relationship or health reasons, you may benefit from visiting a life coach. A life coach can help you to realise goals by applying expert techniques. To find out more about these techniques, and how they could help, please visit Life Coaching Areas. Alternatively, you could search for a life coach near you.

View and comment on the original Telegraph article. 

Health experts at the National Obesity Forum have warned that now is the time to tell your loved ones if they are carrying a little too much weight.

With the evidence piling up as fast as the chocolate wrappings, the message this Christmas is simple: face the flab. Abdominal fat is increasingly thought to be strongly linked to diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

A recent survey involving over 2,000 people found that nearly half of 18-24 year olds, one third of 25-44 year year olds and one quarter of over 44 year olds would not tell a loved one if they were fat incase it hurt their feelings.

The poll also revealed that men found it harder to tell their partners that they were fat than women did. Women were fine telling their husbands, but less likely to want to tell a friend.

Experts believe that Christmas, what with all the family gatherings, offers a fantastic opportunity to breech the subject.

Professor David Haslam, chair or the NOF, said: “Suggesting to someone that they should consider losing a few pounds may not be a comfortable conversation to have. But if someone close to you has a large waistline then as long as you do it sensitively, discussing it with them now could help them avoid critical health risks later down the line and could even save their life.”

When the modern commercial icon for Christmas is a chubby old man with a soft spot for mince pies and brandy butter, it would come as no surprise if sometime within the next few decades, a popular global brand unveils a healthier, slimmer version of our old pot-bellied friend.

Weight can be an awkward subject to breech with friends and family members. If you find the idea daunting, you could encourage your loved ones to visit a life coach. Life coaches aren’t there to lecture you, or make you feel stupid or bad – they are simply there to educate, guide and motivate. Life coaches  use expert techniques to make people feel good, change lives for the better and help overweight people become not only slimmer and fitter, but happier, and more comfortable in their own skin. To find out more about how a life coach can help, please visit Life Coaching Areas section.

View and comment on the original BBC article.

Struggling with your Christmas shopping? Instead of the endless pairs of socks and toiletries destined for the back of the cupboard, why not get someone something special this Christmas?

Oxfam Unwrapped is a way for you to give a loved-one the opportunity to change someone’s life. Why spend £5 on a box of chocolates when you could spend £5 on fertiliser that helps to build and sustain a farming community in Africa?

Whether your budget is £5 or £5000, there’s something for everyone at Oxfam Unwrapped. There’s nothing like saying- ‘Happy Christmas, I drilled a bore-hole in Africa for you’- and now you can do just that. For £3,946, you can fund everything it takes (labour, pumps, drilling and maintenance) to provide sustainable fresh water to a whole community.

Next time your eight-year old daughter asks for a pony, get her a goat. Or, for £50, get her two! Healthy, vaccinated and ready to mate, these goats produce milk, fertiliser and offspring, meaning your ‘donation’ will never run out like cash does. No mucking out for you, either.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate gift from the online list of categories- ‘animal lovers’, ‘the business minded’, ‘foodies’, ‘for the girls’ and so on, you then get the option to send a printed gift card. This could either feature a picture of the gift, or an image to suit the occasion. You can then choose to add a ‘little extra’ for a personal touch- whether a bag of chocolate coins or an Oxfam calendar.

Donating or volunteering for charity is a fantastic way to help others. Helping others feels good, too- making you happier and healthier. If you would like advice on how to improve your life, you may benefit from visiting a life coach. To find out more about how life coaching could help you, please visit our Personal Development section.

To find out more about Oxfam Unwrapped, and to change a life this Christmas, please visit their website. 

Obesity is at an all time high, good parenting is at an all-time low. Have we ‘squandered’ our chance to create an Olympic legacy of fitness, as sports medicine specialists claim?

One leading sports medicine specialist, Dr Andy Franklyn-Miller, has warned that the government’s failure to give PE the same priority as other subjects has put future generations at risk of obesity and resulting health problems.

Lessons in ‘physical literacy’ would, as Dr Franklyn-Miller claims, improve cardiovascular fitness and co-ordination.

“Let it be competitive and let us test our children against each other and identify those who need support,” he said.

The call for PE tests coincides with a statement made by the Youth Sport Trust, announcing its aim to train thousands of primary school teachers across England in specialist PE skills.

The training scheme, known as ‘Start to Move’, will be funded by private medical firm Bupa and aims to reach all primary schools in England by 2014.

Some, like Christine Blower from the National Union of Teachers, have disagreed with the idea of compulsory PE testing. Blower believes that the ‘testing’ aspect could increase negativity and only cause children to be less willing to participate.

If you are interested in encouraging your children to be more active, you may wish to consult a life coach for advice and guidance. Our sections on Relationships and Health will give you a better understanding of how a life coach can help. 

View and comment on the original BBC article.

Bob-a-job week was a long lived scouting tradition in which our knot tying friends helped out people in their local community in exchange for a small payment.

Unfortunately, bob-a-job week came to an end back in 1992, after health and safety and child protection concerns were raised.

Two decades on and the Scout Association has decided its time to start encouraging young people to help out once again and are soon to launch Scout Job Week.

There is one minor change however, scouts can expect not to receive any payment for lending a hand, as Scout Job Week is focussing on volunteering and is designed to help youngsters develop both helpfulness and entrepreneurial skills.

A series of volunteering projects have already been developed around the country, with scout groups in Milton Keynes dedicating their weekends to building a garden for Physiotherapy patients at their local hospital, and scouts in Nottingham delivering food and medicine to local residents during bad weather.

Come next May when the project is officially launched, some scouts will be returning to the same volunteer projects, whilst others will choose to help out around their local community.

UK chief scout and TV personality Bear Grylls has said that the revamp of bob a job week will ‘put volunteering back at the heart of scouting’.

View and comment on the original Telegraph article.

50,000 families across the country have been chosen to trial a new parenting programme devised by the government in a bid to make society more responsible.

The classes have been designed for parents with children under the age of 5 and will provide training in communication, managing conflict, creating routine, stating boundaries and enforcing discipline.

The new scheme, driven by the coalition’s pledge to improve the mind-set of society, will cost £5 million. Each chosen family will be offered £100 vouchers that pay for the sessions and organisations will bid for the contracts to provide them.

The programme rests on the basis that the first 5 years of a child’s life are the most important. According to children’s minister Sarah Teather, this period is the biggest factor in determining the child’s future life chances, health and educational attainment.

Teather said: “parents have one of the toughest and most important jobs – but unlike so many other areas of our lives, they don’t get a training manual or a how-to guide. All parents should know it’s OK to ask for extra support and guidance when they need it – just as most do when they attend ante-natal classes before their child is born.”

If you would like help and advice with parenting of family management, you may wish to consult a Life Coach. Please visit our homepage and use the search tool in order to find a Life Coach working near you. 

View or comment on the original Independent article here.

Record numbers of single women and teenagers who want babies are abandoning the search for Mr. Right and turning instead to online sperm donors.

A staggering ¼ of all women registered to online sperm donor sites are under the age of 25 and some are as young as 18 and 19.

Many women frustrated with endless dead-end relationships are giving up the dating-scene in order to pursue the challenges of motherhood alone.

One 20-year old who’s relationship fell apart after losing a baby said:

“I am financially secure, I have found a job with flexible hours, I have a house and a mortgage. I know I could offer a child a loving, safe environment, so I don’t know why I should wait.’

For many woman, finding a man to father their baby is now as simple as logging into babydonor.com or co-parents.net, creating a profile with a picture and a short bio, sitting back and waiting for the interest to flood in.

Expert health bodies such as ‘The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’ warn of the dangers faced when finding sperm donors online.

When sperm is donated outside of licensed clinics, there are a number of important factors to take into account. For instance, it is important to remember that the sperm donor is legally the child’s official father, which could potential raise future legal problems. There is also a dangerous risk of transmitting disease or infection through unscreened sperm.

A Life Coach is qualified to deal with big life changes such as the decision to have children. Choosing to become a single parent can in some cases be stressful and overwhelming.

A Life Coach can help to alleviate some of this pressure by devising a plan of action with you, setting goals and helping you to achieve them.

You will never be forced to make any decisions you feel uncomfortable with- a Life Coach will simply offer a branch of confidential support allowing you to express your thoughts, feelings and anxieties.

If you would like to search for a Life Coach or find out more about how a Life Coach can help, please visit our homepage and use the search option. 

View the original Mail Online article 

A survey of ten European developed countries has ranked the UK as the worst place to live in Europe whilst France reigns supreme on the top spot.

According to the uSwitch quality of life index, the UK has the second lowest hours of sunshine per year, the forth highest retirement age, the third lowest spend on health, 5.5 fewer days holiday per year than the European average.

To add insult to injury, the UK also have the highest diesel prices in Europe, alcohol, unleaded petrol and cigarettes costing more than the European average and a below average government spend on education.

With all things considered it is no surprise that around 12% of Brits say that they would seriously consider emigrating to another country in which they could work less and live more.

The survey revealed that 59% of people are worried about living in a ‘broken society’, 49% are concerned about the cost of living, 47% are worried about crime and violence, and only a minuscule 5% of those surveyed said they were actually happy living in Britain.

16 factors were taken into consideration when determining the position of each country, including VAT, the cost of essential goods, net income, hours of sunshine, working hours, holiday entitlement and life expectancy. Despite the UK average income being among the highest in Europe, the fact that Britain scored so terribly in the majority of other areas meant it was pushed to the very bottom of the list, one place worse than last year.

Ann Robinson, a spokeswomen from uSwitch commented that even though we may have the fourth highest household income in Europe, the high cost of living means we are living to work not working to live.

View the original Guardian article.

Last week it emerged that the health and behaviour of teenage children can be improved by making sure they eat with family at meal times.

Results from both UK and US studies revealed that children who rarely eat with their parents are unhappier and far more likely to take drugs, smoke and drink.

According to a new study carried out by the ‘US National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse’, teenagers who ate a family dinner at the table 5 to 7 times a week were 4 times less likely to smoke, drink or take drugs than teenagers who ate with the family less than 3 times a week.

So how could something as simple as tucking into a family-sized lasagna with parents a few times a week stop a curious adolescent from wanting to smoke marijuana or drink with friends?

According to a number of studies, spending dinner time discussing friends, problems and school-life with teenagers is far more productive than eating in front of the TV. When young people know that their lives and opinions are valued by their parents, they can develop a stronger sense of self-worth and are often less likely to want to take drugs, drink or smoke.

Similarly, the results of a recent UK study showed that children who dined with their parents more than 3 times a week reported higher levels of happiness than those who didn’t.

Dr Maris Iacovou, a researcher based at the University of Essex, said: “contrary to the popular belief that children only want to spend time playing video games or watching TV, we found that they were most happy when interacting with their parents or siblings.”

WebMD advises parents to spend as much free time with their children as possible. Spending time as a family could help build trust and mutual-respect between children and parents, possibly reducing the chance of teenagers seeking comfort elsewhere (often in the form of drugs and alcohol).

If you are struggling to build a good relationship with your teenager for any reason at all, you may wish to talk to a life coach. A life coach can offer support and advise and help you to achieve the goals you have in mind. You can find a life coach near you by visiting the Life Coach Directory.

Visit the original Independent article here.

Four years ago children’s charity Unicef released a report which showed the well-being of British children to be among the lowest of a number of developed nations.

Unicef suggested that the reason for this, in part, could be related to the fact that many British parents try to compensate for a lack of quality time spent with their children, with buying them gifts, toys and clothes.

The research compared Britain with countries such as Sweden and Spain, both of whom performed better than the UK in the child well-being table. Unicef believe the reason that both of these countries are higher up the table is because family time is protected and children have access to a much wider range of activities.

The children interviewed for the study all said that it was not material goods which made them happy, yet parents in the UK continue to purchase gifts and toys which are often unwanted.

Many parents work extremely long hours in order to provide for their families, but this leaves them too exhausted or busy to provide their children with the attention they want and need.

In a bid to prevent the issue from worsening, Unicef have recommended that politicians consider reformed advertising laws, protecting children’s facilities so they can remain active and also by introducing a living wage so that families are able to earn enough whilst still having time to spend with their children.

View the original BBC News article.