Parenting

Dismay in nursery sector as free hours plan expands

Increase to 30 hours a week from tomorrow is popular with parents but early years providers say the cash they will receive won’t cover costs

From here to paternity: facing up to fatherhood

When the writer’s partner became pregnant, he had to confront his deepest fears

The problem with ‘gentle parenting’

The new parenting approach can look like just another way of telling us we are bringing our kids up wrong

Nepo parent Daniel Day-Lewis: just another dad who can’t say no?

The triple Oscar winner has come out of retirement to star in Anemone, a film directed by his son, Ronan

‘The kids went to a city farm to… ride go-karts?’

Having grown up around farmland, taking my kids to a Surrey farm was a revelation. Pig-races, for one

‘My daughter is a steel-willed potty refusenik’

Not even her Paw Patrol potty will persuade her to go without nappies and sit down quietly

What do tweens really want?

If eight to 12-year-olds were left to their own devices, what would they buy? We gave £30 each to five of them to find out

Of course, mothers are always to blame

Inter Alia, the play of the summer, gives us Rosamund Pike channelling all the ‘mum guilt’ tropes but skips tough questions about how men shape their sons

How to tell your teenage daughter you’re getting Botox

Perhaps this should be your secret. But as my doctor says, if they’re old enough to understand, then tell them…

School sports day reveals my son’s new attitude to competition

Inexplicably, my son has become a good loser

The reality of living in a woman’s body is complicated

A paper on pregnancy nutrition offers advice – but overlooks the truths about life after birth

Enduring the heatwave is an Irishman's purgatory

I play it for laughs, but my sweating hatred for the heat is completely sincere

Sperm donor app is a ‘serious risk’, warns regulator

Y Factor bypasses fertility rules and allows users to enter into private arrangements – and choose how donation is made

Baby it’s you: tales of motherhood in four countries

How does it feel to parent in Kenya, Japan, Finland and the US? Four women share the highs – and lows – of becoming a mother

Reliving my youth with old friends

A reunion weekend with two old friends was meant to be a child-free zone, but actually we found ourselves missing the kids

‘Sports day had been delightful up to the point the parents had to race…’

As we lined up at the starting line at my daughter’s nursery school sports day, little did I know that I was on the brink of victory

Pokémon is the only way I can get my son to school

Pokémon is a near totally harmless funnel of content through which to force a six-year-old's every nerdy impulse

Games bring out the best in my son, and the worst in me

I have yelped, I have screamed, I have been brought nearly to tears when gaming with the boy