Mrs Orrey was the woman who inspired celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to embark on his world-famous school dinner campaign, and now she has been awarded an MBE for her efforts. After serving children turkey twizzlers and pork hippos for 16 years, the mother of three from Nottingham eventually took advantage of her position as a read more »

After health and safety laws put an end to ‘bob-a-job’ week 20 years ago, the Scout Association have decided it is now time once again to encourage young people to help out their local communities. Bob-a-job week was a long lived scouting tradition in which our knot tying friends helped out people in their local read more »

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. read more »

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 read more »

Growing evidence suggests that parenting and schooling is more in tune with girl’s emotions and way of learning than with that of their male peers. Up until a few decades ago men were essentially the breadwinners of families, their physical strength was required for manual labour jobs and they commanded respect from their great courage read more »

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 read more »

With increasing pressure on parents to provide for their families, while holding down a full time job, more and more children are suffering as a consequence. Statistics taken from analysis by UNICEF show that the UK ranks at the bottom, when it comes to the well-being of children. Overall, children are unhappier and less content read more »

It is natural for the lives of parents to be concentrated around the needs of their family, so when the last child flies the nest it is only natural for couples to feel a slight void and perhaps as though they need to reconnect. Recent research has revealed that empty nest syndrome really isn’t as read more »

Independent think tank CentreForum have come up with a check list suggesting five daily tasks for parents which could help their children to develop: 1. Read Children’s brains become more accustomed to language during the early years if they are exposed to as many different words as possible. Reading to them for just 15 minutes read more »

According to new research, children whose mothers return to work at some point during the first year after birth are less likely to become anxious or fight with their peers than those whose mothers stay at home. Until now, the majority of studies focussing on the effects of new mothers returning to work have suggested read more »