Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at You

With Mothering Sunday this month, we praise our mothers for all the good that they do for us.  And it is good to remember what a precious thing a good family can be. Here is one tip to strengthen your family:  give your children TIME.  Turn off your smart-phone for a couple of hours and...

One of Britain’s best-loved authors, Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom) has said how much she detests seeing parents looking at their phones and ignoring their children. “You often see a parent with the child trying to get the parent’s attention, with the parent scrolling down and looking at Facebook.”

A number of primary schools have recently contacted parents about the effects that the game Fortnite is having on their children. Fortnite is rated 12-plus, but it is played by many younger children. It has become ‘all consuming’ for some, who risk becoming ‘addicted’.  The schools warn that some children are even becoming aggressive and...

If you think that showing off our holiday snaps and flaunting other details of our lives is the stuff of Facebook and Instagram, you would be wrong.  The craze predates the internet by at least 400 years. Now the British Library has opened its collection of alba amicorum, or ‘friendship books’ – in which wealthy...

Plan your way out of personal debt How to get the best out of life in a village Technoference Why you should not keep your curtains closed What is happening to our pets? Eat your way out of depression Is the internet increasing your secret addictions? Self-harming A new kind of diet All the lonely...

‘… making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.’ (Isaiah 43:19) The bills left over from Christmas are still coming through your letterbox with a thud. You can recognise which are bills before you open them, and your heart sinks. Many people have debts which they struggle with and which they cannot...

Have you recently moved, or are planning to move, to our village?  Villages can be beautiful, with pretty cottages and roses at their doors. But villages can also be lonely places.  So – here are some tips for how to survive – and enjoy village life! Make the most of your children. Children provide parents...

We’ve all seen them: mothers engrossed on their mobile phones and ignoring their children nearby.  But now research has found that children whose parents are addicted to their phones are significantly more likely to have behaviour problems. The problem is called ‘technoference’. It is when the everyday relationship between parent and child is constantly disrupted...

In dark rooms, 12 per cent of bacteria can reproduce; in rooms exposed to sunlight, only 6.8 per cent can reproduce.  Remember that when you consider your household dust and the effect that simply opening your curtains can make. Researchers at the University of Oregon point out that we spend most of our time indoors,...

It is getting harder to own a pet.  In 2012 two-thirds of homes had pets.  Now it is down to just over half.  In fact, families are now ten times more likely to own a virtual assistant like Amazon’s Alexa than even a hamster. It is not our fault.  We still love animals, but can...

What you eat affects how you think. So says a recent international study, which has found evidence that a Mediterranean diet can cut the risk of depression – by reducing inflammation in the body. The study, conducted at University College London, found that people who ate plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts, fish and plant-based foods,...

Don’t let your access to the internet mess up your head.  That is the warning of a number of experts who are calling for urgent action to address the growing problem of a range of mental health disorders. Now an international team of more than 100 researchers say that the ‘all pervasive’ nature of the...