“Many women that are affected by the criminal justice system have a history of trauma prior to offending, but once clothed in this ‘stain’ no one sees the prior trauma or how desperately someone wants their life to change. They just see the ‘the stain.’” she says. “It was my one-time trouble with the law, and for a lot of…

I thought I was killing it in lockdown (mentally). I was diagnosed with depression earlier this year so went into it aware of my triggers and had my safety nets in place: I was seeing a psychologist regularly (which became via Zoom), my antidepressant medication had found its rhythm, I was exercising. I’m a freelance worker and so I can…

Pritika Maharaj has been working in the automotive industry for nearly 30 years. Being at the top of her game – in a predominantly male industry – Pritika has a few questions she constantly gets asked. Especially when people find out she’s been working for one of the world’s biggest brands, Ford, for the nearly 30 years. Here’s exactly what she told us.

During extensive and exhausting lockdowns, Australian women have been hit with a triple whammy. A report from the Grattan Institute found women were more likely to lose their jobs, do a lot more unpaid work, and less likely to get government support. With women now making up almost half the workforce, we are overwhelmingly employed in the industries that have…

Newborn, toddler or tween? What’s your favourite childhood stage? These answers will make you realise just how gorgeous every age can be. This article was brought to you by the LEGO DUPLO Brand. At what age did you find your kids to be the most fun? Was it the crossed eyes and gurgling of the newborn stage or the bossy chaos…

As businesses in New South Wales open up to the fully vaccinated, employers share a common concern: the potential rise in conflict and repercussions of being on the frontline of ‘policing’ people’s vaccination status. Grant*, owner of a popular cafe in Sydney’s inner west, has chosen to keep inside dining closed for now, offering takeaway-only for fear of backlash. “I’m worried for…

I’ve just finished a full ten-week term “home learning” in NSW with my two primary-aged school children. Other than feeling like I have aged ten years in ten weeks, I think we all now fully appreciate the wonderful, difficult and beyond essential job that our teachers do. Now more than ever, I think we can all agree that public school teachers deserve much more…

It’s never been a more confusing time to run a business right now. Employsure, a workplace relations advisor to more than 27,000 small and medium enterprises across Australia, has seen a sharp spike in calls in the past two months with questions around vaccination and health and safety.

Nipuni* came to Australia seeking asylum from Sri Lanka with her then partner and two young children. They came seeking asylum because they were not safe in their own country. They came to a safer country, ‘the lucky country’. And we are lucky. At times, the threat of lockdowns here (heavily felt in Victoria) has been very scary and real. When…

Imagine if when you wanted to get married, there was a legal arrangement saying that you couldn’t? Or arguably more bizarrely, you wanted to have a baby, but you had a birth control device inside you that you weren’t legally allowed to take out? Now, what if it was your parents that were behind these decisions, and you were 39 years old? Sounds like…

Advertorial for Vodafone and DreamLab… It’s the statistic none of us like to think about, but unfortunately we can’t avoid: one in two Australians will be affected by cancer in their lifetime. Imagine if there was some small way to help… all while you slept. Sound like something from a sci-fi movie? Well, it’s not.

When 12-year-old Vaughn’s school asked students to get involved in a community initiative, his mum Barbara was hoping he would choose something that wasn’t too onerous on his time, that was easy for him to get involved in and that had an environmental aspect. “I did cash for cans as a kid and when I suggested it, he loved the…

In just a few weeks, it will be one year since my husband started working from home. As with many anniversaries, this one-year mark has got me thinking about the ways it has changed him, us, and our family. I don’t think we can ever look back at the impact of the last year and the effect the pandemic has…

“I knew at four that I didn’t feel like myself, but I didn’t have the language or understanding that it was because I was told I was a girl.” Jesse, 26, is my stepbrother. His pronouns are he/him. He was assigned female at birth and identifies as a transgender man. One of the things I share with my stepbrother is our opinion on…

*Sasha first started getting asked questions from her eight-year-old daughter (who was still only in grade two) last year about sex because she was hearing about it from her friends in the playground. “They had been talking about breeding between animals and then put it together that must be how grownups make a baby,” the Queensland mum tells Kidspot.

These holidays, we were extremely fortunate to be able to road test the brand new LEGO® CITY range. It felt like Christmas morning 2.0, and when it arrived, my boys – five and eight – looked about as excited as I do when my online shopping arrives.

Term One is (finally) coming back. Like many parents, I’m looking forward to having some routine and respite after the (incredibly long) December and January school holidays – but let’s be honest, school mornings can be A LOT. From getting the kids dressed on time (or dressed at all), to making sure they’re fed, to preparing their lunches to match their ever-changing food…

There’s a very good reason why men all over the world are rejoicing over the release of Netflix’s new period drama-turned love fest, Bridgerton.  Shondaland’s steamy new period piece Bridgerton has been streamed by more than 63 million households and has reached number one overall on Netflix in 76 countries. As someone who sheepishly admits to watching the entire series, twice… I can see…

As the weather warms up, so does our desire to be in and around the water. We are so lucky in Australia with our beautiful balmy weather and opportunities to enjoy the water, whether it be swimming pools or backyard paddle pools, rivers, dams, lakes and of course, beaches. With all the enjoyment of these spaces during summer, there also…

Another dad mansplained birth pain, told me that pain relief should be mandatory for all births and speculated that I had a “giant box”. But that is not even the part of the story that bothered me the most. We had our local Christmas party over the weekend, and it was a beautiful day, we had a neighbourhood Father Christmas giving out presents to the kids,…

Now more than ever we are appreciative of moments that take us away and make us realise just how lucky we are, right here in Australia. As an on-and-off Sydneysider over the years, a visit to the iconic revolving sky-high restaurant at Sydney Tower has been on my bucket list for a while. Now, after six months of renovation, SkyFeast has replaced…

I can’t believe it’s taken me 30-something (we don’t need to go into detail) years to figure out that I don’t have to leave the house to get a quality workout. Plus, the time saved in travel to and from, no excuses when it’s too hot or too rainy. And the fact that I can do it while the kids are watching…

2020 has been what I’d describe as a “multi-tasking pressure cooker roller coaster ride that none of us asked for”. But, in amongst all of the hard bits, the juggling of working, parenting, remote learning, Zoom calls, and all spending more time under the one roof than ever before, there have been some very funny moments in the madness. The…

I really liked the sound of Channel 7’s new show SAS Australia, which has been described as ‘arguably the most grueling and challenging reality show the country has ever seen.’ Brilliant, I thought. Reality TV is reading the global room. It is interesting and voyeuristic, but without the bitchy popularity component. There is no voting or elimination; it’s a test of mental and…

Dear Gladys, I saw a headline about you today “NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian fighting for political future after Daryl Maguire ICAC bombshell” and I have to say I am disappointed by this headline, but not surprised. In Tuesday’s press conference, political reporter Andrew Clennell said during his barrage of questions he threw at you “the problem is you can’t be taken seriously after…

Our guts have taken a beating this year from the continual myriad of stress, uncertainty, and disruptions to routine. If we aren’t still in lockdown, many of us are working from home, we have cut down on social activities diminishing many opportunities for incidental exercise. Coming out of winter it’s all too easy to fall deep into comfort, instead of…

It dawned on me recently that slowly but surely, I had turned our family into carnivores. I had fallen into the trap of every dinner developing around an animal protein. I was trying to think of the last time we had a meat-free meal… and I couldn’t. I know there are real health benefits from incorporating meat-free meals into your…

The Aussie summer holds special memories for a lot of us. From the iconic beaches to the barbecues to the beautiful, expansive bush, it’s a time where we spend more time outdoors, playing cricket in the backyard and having pavlova on the porch. This summer, we’ll be more grateful than ever for those little moments after a year that started…

When many Australians hear of the Western Australian suburb “Claremont” its synonymous with “serial killer”. But for me it was where I grew up. Dubbed by the media as ‘The Claremont Serial Killer’- Bradley Robert Edwards learnt his fate today (September 24) for the murders of three young Perth women in the 1990’s. The self-confessed “bogeyman” was convicted of murdering…

I can’t believe they want to take daylight saving from us – haven’t they taken away enough from us this year, FFS! Now they want to rob us of an extra hour of sunshine? What next? Is Christmas cancelled, too, for fear of someone choking on a turkey bone? Apparently there are growing calls from health professionals around the world to scrap daylight saving,…

I went for two years not wearing jeans. Two lots of winters. Not to mention the in-between seasons where a ‘dressy top and jeans’ is pretty much the standard uniform for a night out. Why, you might ask? Because I had outgrown mine. If I laid down flat on my bed and sucked in like I was removing all of…

Recently there has been so much focus on the parents and leavers of 2020 with the cancelling of formals, graduation ceremonies and an opportunity to farewell the last year of primary and secondary schooling. I think second to the “leavers” of 2020, my heart goes out to the “starters of 2020”. That first year is such a formative year and not only…

Steve has been married for 13 years. He has three primary school-aged children aged ten to five. Up until recently, Steve’s business saw him out of the house at least ten hours a day. Running a business in events during peak periods, he would often work through weekends and it was normal to work 18 hour days. He missed most of the “day-to-day heavy…

I first tried to have a Mirena (contraceptive IUD) put in after I had my last baby five years ago. I had the referral, had purchased the intimidating looking contraption (why does the box have to be so huge?) from the chemist and had it booked in right before an interstate move. Seal the deal, not forever just until I was ready to…

I used to be a love quest reality TV show addict. I have seen nearly every season of the Aussie versions of Farmer Wants a Wife, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and MAFS. I have streamed many of the US versions as well. I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent person. A feminist with many varied and gritty interests but reality TV for me was just pure…

We had nits come into our heads and home nine times last year. Nine. They say that some people have the just the right PH levels on their scalps and head warmth that attract nits and keep them coming back. My eight-year-old has the most appealing PH level and warm nit nest head that any nit could wish for. I am more scared of…

I recently read an article where it revealed not only does The Duchess of Cambridge always appear flawless and composed in public, she carries this through to her parenting style in private as well. According to a royal source speaking to The Sun, “shouting is absolutely off-limits” for the Cambridge children at all times. Really, I thought? At all times? Don’t they ever…

While we are in the midst of cancel culture, I would like to put forward that we chuck the expensive concept of kid’s birthday party presents in the mix. Call me Scrooge, bah humbug. I do have an environmentally-conscious and cost-effective solution that might work for everyone…

Across the country parents are panic drinking their feelings. I’m not proud to admit it but I’m also not ashamed to say that I am one of those parents. I’m drinking to escape and it’s different from other times I’ve used alcohol as a crutch. I’m drinking to escape the fear that if something happens to my parents or grandma in…

There is a silent but very real and debilitating threat as a result of this pandemic, and it is not just the virus. It’s not directly related to COVID-19 itself but is a very real symptom of the global pandemic and strange dystopian reality we now are facing every day. It is a condition I have discovered, self-diagnosed and coined…

I am about as extroverted as they come. Yes, of course that means I am loud, in your face and I love to socialise, but being an extrovert and what drives us can mean more than just being a party-loving show off. The Friendly Psychologist Jacqui Manning explains: “for the extroverts amongst us lockdown is particularly difficult. Extroverts get re-energised by…

Drag me through the village for an essential burning at the stake while maintaining social distance. But there I said it. I hate it, my kid hates it. I’m not ashamed to tell the truth – I don’t think I’m very good at it and that might just be because… I’m not a teacher?! I can’t believe the next term at least will…

Seven years ago, Amelia Maria became a widow at the age of 27. Amelia and her one-year-old son Dennis lost husband and father Mike Maria to acute leukaemia. The 26-year-old had been a Deputy Captain with Queanbeyan City Fire Brigade. When Mamamia caught up with Amelia, she was recovering from a 16-hour shift in rural NSW, fighting fires in conditions the state has never…

The longest Jane* hasn’t seen her husband or 10-year-old son for is seven days. And it’s not because she’s been away on a business trip or holidaying with the girls. In fact, it’s quite the opposite – she’s been a dedicated volunteer firefighter for eight years since her boy was just a toddler. When Kidspot caught up with her she had just come off a 14-hour…

There is a mysterious plague hitting children across Australia and I’m seeing it everywhere. Kids are melting down in droves and hurling shade at everyone in their path. Parents are pulling out their hair in despair, pleading “what happened?!” The answer is nothing, and the explanation is simple. Once you realise what is behind this sudden influx of Master or Miss Hyde, you…

Harry and Meghan only follow 15 charities – and these are the incredible women behind one of them.

I will never live down trying to create an immediate feeding and bedtime routine of 7 pm with my first baby straight out of the hospital. We would rock, pat, shush and pull our hair out stressing and taking turns trying to settle him through the unexplained ‘purple crying period’ in his bassinet in a completely dark and quiet room…

If you could tell your dad anything, what would it be?

I’m on holidays without WIFI and access to streaming TV, so it’s given me a lot of time to think and reflect. It’s also given me ample time in the evening to play with #FaceApp (slightly creepily ageing myself and everyone I have a photo of) and I think I know why this global viral trend has exploded and everyone…