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Back to school: Back to rules

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Parenting hacks to help By E K Wills ©  EK Wills    Holiday time is when you let your guard down and let the kids have some fun. This is particularly true in Australia where they have a long break and the year comes to a close. But sometimes this can backfire when it comes time to going back to school. It means they have to stick to a routine again and may even need to do homework depending on what age and school they go to. In our household, they will need to help out to keep the family unit running smoothly, as both parents work full time and family live too far away or have their own needs. Over time, we have developed some habits that seem to help with this transition and now it has become a routine. ©  EK Wills    Before the end of the calendar year, 1.      School uniforms are checked 2.      School item lists for books, etc are tended Over the break period, 3.      Household chores are shuffled and new respons

Personal Violence

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- a Colossal issue for many families by EK Wills I recently discovered that a good friend of mine is suffering circumstances that you only expect to hear about in the news or in families in less fortunate situations. But she and her husband have respectable jobs, own their own home and have 3 children at good schools. She has not experienced physical pain but endures psychological abuse indiscriminately and is fearful in her own home. It began insidiously with her husband working long hours in a stressful job so he self medicated with alcohol. He started to become verbally inappropriate when drinking and this behaviour was tolerated for the sake of the family. © artwork by Coco When situations become confronting, often we don’t know how to react and so become paralysed. Maybe attempts are made to appease conflict and smooth over daily events. This can escalate to what most people would consider intolerable occurrences of arguments with