Having a conversation may not seem like a luxury, but there is a point when it can become too late to talk, and you just never know if or when that point may come. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority never had a full and frank discussion with their loved ones about dementia, their wishes for care and their future planning.

In five months time I am going to be a Dad and I've never felt manlier. It's an interesting coming of age moment where everyone shifts position; father becomes grandfather, son becomes father and bump becomes cute yet terrifying little human.

Having been a father for exactly a week now, I am clearly qualified to impart all kinds of paternal wisdom. But the wisdom is not mine - it is the baby's. As Will and Kate will no doubt discover, their little princess' grasp of what's important in life, will be more akin to an old yogi or bearded professor than an infant waiting to 'grow up.'

When I was growing up, Lego bricks came in primary colours and no one told me I couldn't build a garage, a rocket, a pirate ship or whatever took my fancy. Although the choice of bricks back then was severely limited, my imagination did not have to be. Now it seems to be the norm to split the building sets Lego market into those deemed appropriate for boys and those for girls.

Two parents may be better than one for encouraging normal brain development in growing children, research suggests. Scientists discovered differenc...

Crawling, walking, catching, running, riding a bike and learning to swim - all essential activities to learn for a child. But cooking? It might not sound like a core skill but an increasing amount of evidence points to the fact that learning to cook has numerous benefits for children.

I haven't enjoyed a full, uninterrupted eight hours sleep in nearly six years. I know this because I have had a lot of time to think about that fact. A lot of time spent lying in bed in the dark, eyes wide open pondering how long it has been since I have slept a full night and since when.

As we all inevitably leave our twenties and begrudgingly begin the slow pitiful march towards responsibility and self-loathing, it's important to ask the question - what next? For some it's fulfilling careers and the exciting discovery of our greatly unrecognised adult self, and for some it's children.

The faster one travels, the slower time moves. We know this from Einstein's theory of relativity. So if something is moving incredibly slowly - a todd...

When my daughter was four months old I decided it would be the thing to sell up and shift our new and amorphous life together two-hundred miles south....

I thought it might be a good time to share one of our team's "Day in the Life of..." blogs. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did, and I hope that it also highlights the positive experience that the right person, with the correct attitude, knowledge, experience and training, can bring to a child's day at nursery.

It is written: travelling (alone) with a young child will inevitably lead to trauma. Turns out that's bunkum. It's a far greater strain to have your world shrink suddenly at the point of giving birth than to witness toddler meltdown on the Eurostar. Even when it's rammed.

I know we're not supposed to feel sorry for politicians and lord knows they usually bring controversy on themselves but this weekend I find myself mus...

We're concerned at the NSPCC that easy access to hardcore pornography is warping young people's views of what is 'normal' or acceptable sexual behaviour. Adults have a choice about what to watch within the law, but my concern is that the internet is exposing ever younger eyes to things they are just not yet ready to process. They are learning about sex from porn and not from proper respectful relationships. Much of the material is violent and simply vile; it paints a picture of sex as one sided that has no basis in love or respect.

I may be the wrong side of 40 now but I still want to look funky. And why shouldn't I!? But there is a fine line to looking funky, edgy and cool that can swiftly turn into desperate, try hard and dated.

"Clap, girls, clap!" I say to her sisters, knowing that a repeat performance is more likely tomorrow if they feign interest. They give her a rousing send-off and disappear back to Drake and Josh on the television.