Family Life

For many years, parents have repeatedly been faced with the question of how best to bring up their children so that they become independent, critical, self-confident and self-conscious people. Nowadays, the aspect of sustainability is becoming increasingly important, especially for environmentally conscious parents. On the one hand, the upbringing style itself should be sustainable, that is, one that offers the child a constant basis on which it can build a healthy personality. On the other hand, sustainability as a value of one's own life, which includes a conscious use of the environment...

AS THE famous festive song crooned by Andy Williams proclaims ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ but not for all families says a unique legal service (December 2019).

Children in the Middle warns of Christmas heartache for estranged parents and asks others to spare a thought for those who are prevented from seeing their children this yuletide.

Family barrister, Elizabeth McCallum, who co-founded the legal service with her fellow Exeter barrister Sarah Evans, says: “It’s important to remember that not everyone will be having such a ‘Holly, Jolly Christmas’ this year...

1. Timing

Training a dog to smile is a process, just like it is with other dog tricks. Therefore, for you to get your dog to smile on command, you need to put in adequate time and effort training the dog on how to react and when. When training a dog, consistency is key. Ensure that the training sessions happen often, rewarding the dog every time the objective is achieved. Also, make sure to carry out training in several short sessions, so that the dog can quickly learn the appropriate commands. Rewards for successful smiling can be earned with positive reinforcement, or using dog...

Recorded child cruelty and neglect offences in the UK continue to soar with crimes increasing by nearly a fifth in the last year alone, the NSPCC reports.

The charity has analysed police data for the whole of the UK over the last five years and found child cruelty and neglect offences has risen every year.

There were 20,024 child cruelty and neglect offences recorded by police in 2018/19, which has more than doubled since 2013/14 where there were 9,518 crimes of this nature.

In the last five years police forces in the South West of England recorded 7,099 offences...