From teenager to man in only 80 days
Over the last of the 80 days, we have seen Callum, our 18 year old, transform from being a typical teenager, into a young man who exhibits all the qualities you would look for in a leader; compassion, confidence, assertiveness, punctuality, high self esteem and a ‘can do’ attitude. (I’m not kidding!) What brought on this incredible transformation? Of course the 18 years of preparation his mum and dad gave him helped set the right mindset, but the Australian Army are the ones who performed the magic. Last year Callum was...
read moreGreat health debate – lesson for us all
If you turned the TV or the radio at lunchtime today you had a choice of watching The Great Health Debate between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott or’¦ (I wonder at the logic of all media presenting the broadcast simultaneously!) Anyway: Each audience member has a dial that they use to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the speaker and the cumulative data gives us an indication of audience reaction to what is being said. I frequently flicked between networks Nine and Seven to see if each network’s worm was doing the same thing...
read moreTeenage mental health and depression
I’ve seen a lot in the media about teenage depression lately and it has caused me to again think about this difficult issue. Most of the stories, like this one in the Australian, ‘Depressed Children Not being Diagnosed‘ result from recent activity by BeyondBlue promoting their draft Clinical Practice Guidelines on Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults. I think there is some very good information in the guidelines but I wonder if the term ‘mental health’ is the most appropriate for this subject? Would it help...
read moreSimple ideas that work
We dropped young James off to catch the school bus in the morning and as I was reading the destination boards on the buses that passed by, a thought occurred to me: Most bus companies use route numbers to show where the bus will go, (on top of the bus will be the number 336 or 245 or whatever). No doubt there is logic in this from the bus company’s perspective, and yes, regular travelers on the buses will know which number equals which bus route. But what if it is a school bus and small children need to know which bus to catch? Or what...
read moreDon’t let anyone Lara Bingle you
The media is currently relentlessly pursuing Lara Bingle and Michael Clark over their ‘possible’ relationship break up. We don’t know the real story but do we need to? The media constantly seek out drama, and often elevate a non-issue and turn it into a drama – this fuels the fire and generally makes a bad situation worse until they finally get the story they wanted and make the money they need to fund the next story. (eg. Why Michael Clarke couldn’t take anymore of Lara Bingle mess ) When the media start...
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