Nurture

Here’s how to design a shared kids’ room that looks cute, offers them some privacy and hides alllll their stuff. Like many other families, we noticed that after the pandemic hit, our home was no longer running at its best. Our small Victorian row house was suddenly cluttered and chaotic. Games and toys, typically reserved

A hot car tragedy can happen to any family—even yours. Here are strategies to prevent it. Despite decades of campaigns pushing for increased awareness, injuries and deaths caused by heatstroke when kids are left in hot cars continue to happen. Dozens of children across North America die each summer while trapped in hot cars, where

All of us were (theoretically) gung-ho about trying out the so-called “blended family” thing. I imagined it was going to be like a box of cake mix: just add the ingredients, stir and voila—Instant Family! I was blissfully delusional. Photo: Kristy Woudstra “MOMMMM! Will’s being annoying!” While this exclamation would be annoying in itself to

If you came into our home, you would see piles of clean laundry, backpacks not on their designated hooks and baskets upon baskets of toys. It’s messy, but I am truly OK with it. When I come home, I toss my keys into the clutter on the table by the door. There’s a basket there

Once again, summer won’t be quite as we’d hoped. But last year our family had one of our best summers yet—and I’m excited to see what this one will bring. My father was in Iran visiting family when much of the world went into lockdown in March of 2020. Iran would turn out to be

Kids love doing “adult” jobs, and these ten tasks are sure to make them feel helpful while you’re busy doing the real work. Encouraging kids to help with outdoor chores probably won’t lighten your actual workload, but it’ll give them a sense of accomplishment and pride—and keep them occupied. Here are some ideas. 1. Water

Playtime is just plain fun, and it’s also an essential way to keep minds and bodies active and thriving. As the warm weather hits and school ends, it’s the perfect time for families to explore and rediscover activities, games and toys, all while building those all-important developmental skills. School’s out but that doesn’t mean the

As a kid, I was jealous of my non-Indigenous peers whose families had the luxury of not being touched by this traumatic history. When the news broke that 215 babies were buried on the ancestral lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, on the grounds of a former residential school, a lot of disturbing

It’s not that I’ve given up, it’s just that—OK. Maybe I’ve kind of given up. I like to think I was a diligent parent when my kids were tiny. I spent my pregnancies researching and preparing for their babyhoods. Their carefully-curated newborn outfits were meticulously washed in baby-friendly detergent. Guests were greeted with hand sanitizer

When Chrystia Freeland revealed the Liberal government’s 2021 budget, which included an ambitious five-year plan for improving child care costs and access across the country, it was met with equal parts excitement and skepticism. After all, Canadians have heard this before, especially those of us who pay exorbitant daycare fees in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.

It was about four or five months into the pandemic when Lisa Francis’s* eight-year-old daughter started getting sleepover invites from another family. Francis, who lives in Orillia, Ont., had been diligently following public health guidance, so she said no. “And the other mom said, ‘Oh, right, you’re still doing the whole pandemic thing,’” Francis recalls.

Fighting with your partner after baby is almost a certainty, but there are ways to ease the hate. I asked Elana Sures, a Vancouver-based clinical counsellor in private practice, about this Google search. When she stopped laughing, she said that, yes, this is very, very normal (phew). “Having a child is one of the first

When the pandemic arrived last March, Puneeta Sandhu McBryan had just given birth to her first child, a boy. As she locked down and contemplated the future, the popular narrative was that a lot of couples stuck at home would use their free time to make sourdough loaves—and babies. Sandhu McBryan, who lives in Edmonton,

When we slowly emerged from the familiar fog of new parenthood, it occurred to me that I longed for the person my wife was before she was a mother. About a year after our son was born, my wife, Akiko, and I vowed that we would have a date night every month. It was the

If you’ve been avoiding the deep clean, these hacks from @gocleanco’s Sarah McAllister will make it a whole lot easier. “My level of clean is a little bit… different,” says Sarah McAllister, laughing into the phone. That is to say it’s spotless, thorough and—as the Go Clean Co founder’s 1.5 million Instagram followers would attest—totally

With variants spreading more easily, whole families are coming down with coronavirus. If you know a family that is sick with COVID, here’s what they need most. Note: Please check your provincial and regional guidelines regarding essential outings and consider delivery when possible. It’s hard to ignore the sad fact that COVID numbers are once

The pandemic has been a time of stress and upheaval for most families, but some have found a way to transform that chaos into a fresh start. While many of the changes parents have been making are temporary, like working from home and scheduling online playdates, living in lockdown is driving some parents to embrace

This may be surprising to some, but raising kids on the rez during a pandemic has been a blessing for my family—and many others. When COVID-19 hit, my daughter, River-Jaxsen, wasn’t enrolled in public school yet—she was three, almost four. But we enrolled her in some online classes and began to expand her virtual learning experiences

My husband and I had no trouble coming up with hundreds of potential baby names. We struggled with what their last names should be. On paper, it might look like I have a blended family. My eldest daughter has my last name, and her younger sister has my husband’s. But I’m not divorced, I haven’t

Before the pandemic, I did school drop-offs with minimal fanfare: a quick hug for the kid, maybe a brief wave to the teacher, and I’d walk home with the family dog. After school, my daughter would beg for playground time and, after giving her 20 minutes to swing on the monkey bars or run amok