Karen Kiernan

One Family CEO Karen Kiernan Appointed to ‘Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures’ Advisory Council

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CEO of One Family, Karen Kiernan, has been appointed to the Advisory Council being established by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs under Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures: the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People 2014-2020.

The Children’s Rights Alliance (CRA) requested nominations from its members with the appointments made by Paul Gilligan, Chair and Tom Costello, Vice Chair of the CRA with support from its Chief Executive.

The three successful nominees are:

  • Karen Kiernan, Chief Executive, One Family
  • Caroline O’Sullivan,  Director of Services, Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC)
  • Tanya Ward, Chief Executive, Children’s Rights Alliance

One Family looks forward to updating its members as the work of the Advisory Council progresses.

Fruit

10 Ways to Encourage Healthier Eating Habits

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In this week’s ’10 Ways to’, our series of weekly parenting tips, we look at how to encourage children to eat more healthily. It is important for parents to instill healthy eating habits in children and, despite the fact that many children may opt for a biscuit rather than an apple if given the choice, making healthy food fun isn’t difficult to do and doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Healthy eating for children can contribute to better energy and moods, and creates a strong foundation for their journey towards becoming healthy adults.

Try these tips:

  1. Understand the food pyramid and plan the weekly menu when you are getting ready for the supermarket shop.
  2. Encourage children to eat healthy food – talk with them about healthy food and what is does for our body – how it helps them play and have fun.
  3. Learn some simple healthy recipes which children enjoy – freeze them and have them ready for dinners on busy days.
  4. Remember it is never safe for children to go on diets or to hear about dieting. Healthy eating is the conversation to have with children.
  5. Children need full fat dairy products. Do not cut healthy foods in a child’s diet. Limit sugary, processed food.
  6. Encourage children to exercise – but you need to do it with them. Running in the park, playing ball, climbing hills etc. are all fun and easy ways to incorporate exercise into your and your child’s routines.
  7. Limit juice drinks of all kinds. Try to stick with milk or water. Cool the water in little bottles in the fridge or use a dispenser. It makes drinking water more fun.
  8. Some foods young children love and which are healthy are: fruit – introduce new fruits all the time; natural yogurt – make smoothies; wholegrain bread, avoid processed white breads; breakfast cereals – avoid high sugar ones; lean mince is a good source of iron for children and it can be used for a variety of dishes children love; pasta, eggs and baked beans. Having these foods in the cupboard will help you maintain a healthy diet for your child.
  9. Be a good role model. Reflect on what diet you have and your eating habits. Children do what they see, not what you say.
  10. When it’s party time, try to have lot of fruit, funky healthy sandwiches cut in different shapes, smoothies and milk shakes, pasta salads or Bolognese for the main dish, homemade pizza – children don’t need an over dose of sugary foods just because there is a celebration.

This week’s ’10 Ways to’ is by One Family’s Director of Children and Parenting Services, Geraldine Kelly.

Coming soon: 10 Ways to Develop Coping Skills in Your Family and 10 Ways to Make the Most of the Playground.

For support and advice on any of these topics, call askonefamily on lo-call 1890 66 22 12 or email support@onefamily.ie. Find out more about our parenting skills programmes here.

 

Water Allowances for Children of Parents Sharing Parenting

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One Family made a submission to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) and Irish Water regarding affordability and allowances, and highlighted the issue of allocating children’s water allowances when people are sharing parenting equally. The proposed children(s) allowance(s) and charging suggests that these allowance(s) are allocated to the recipient of the children’s allowance which is provided for by the Department of Social Protection. This, in effect, in most cases is the mother which does not recognise the dynamics of the Irish modern family and reflect that children may spend significant time in the separate homes of their mothers and fathers.

Just and fair recognition must be given to the dynamics of Irish modern families when allocating allowances associated with children’s consumption of water and that a significant number of children will spend equally as much time in the home of their father and mother.

Our submission and recommendations can be read here.

 

Nice Bucket Challenge

One Family Nice Bucket Challenge

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Our CEO Karen was nominated by her son Cuán to do the Nice Bucket Challenge for One Family!

NiceBucketChallenge_Cuan and Karen_29.08.14

How does it work? 

  1. Record your Nice Bucket Challenge, share it and nominate your friends or family members.
  2. They have 24 hours to record a video of them being drenched in NICE water – at room temperature or luke warm (because lots of children told us they want to take part but icy water may not be so good for little ones *) – and share it on their social media #nicebucketchallenge.
  3. They can make a donation to One Family by texting FAMILY to 50300.
  4. They can then nominate 3 friends to take the Nice Bucket Challenge.

So what makes it nice? By nominating someone, you’re promising to also give them a nice surprise when they complete the challenge. This can be a card you make for them, a letter you write, a little present of their favourite bar of chocolate or treat, or you could do something nice for them like make them a cup of tea or wash the dishes. It’s a way to celebrate our family and friends by reminding them that they’re cherished.

One Family’s vision is an Ireland where every family is cherished equally and enjoys the social, financial and legal equality to create their own positive futures. We founded Family Day and celebrate family diversity with the Family Day Festival every year.

Text FAMILY to 50300 to donate €4 to One Family.

100% of text cost goes to One Family across most network providers. Some providers apply VAT which means a minimum of €3.26 will go to One Family. Service Provider LIKECHARITY 01 443 3890.

Watch Cuán and Karen’s Nice Bucket Challenge on our Facebook page here.

* Remember – safety first. Never leave children unsupervised around water.

 

Smiling boy

10 Ways to Support Your Child’s Sex Education

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In this week’s ’10 Ways to’, our series of weekly parenting tips, we look at how to support your child’s sex education.

Your role as a parent in your child’s education about relationships and sex is very important. Talking with your child about sex can be a fearful task for many parents but sex education is most effective when built up gradually over the years.

Toddlers may express curiosity but will usually be content with simple answers. As your child gets older, and starts school, their questions may become more complex. From the start, ensure honest, open communication.  Don’t ignore the subject, give inaccurate answers or brush off their questions – you don’t want your child to grow up being confused or embarrassed about sex and relationships.

Think about your views on sex and what matters to you in your relationships and family life. Working out your own values and morals will help you to give your child clear consistent messages about sex and relationships throughout childhood.

These ten tips should offer some helpful guidance:

  1. The best person to talk with children about sex and sexuality is you, the parent whom they trust; they need to know this is a normal part of life.
  2. Sexuality and relationships education should offer children the opportunity to explore and define their own values.
  3. By age five children should be aware of touch and their body. They will be starting to understand about sexuality and should understand the correct names for body parts.
  4. By age seven children will be starting to understand about reproduction in animals and in humans, and may be asking questions about where babies come from.  They will also start to become aware of different types of sexuality.
  5. By the age of 12 years children will be aware of how their own bodies are changing, about sex and about contraception.
  6. By this age, they should be supported to understand what a respectful relationship is and how to recognise and protect themselves from abusive relationships.
  7. Support your child to have a healthy view of sex; just by talking with them does not mean they are going to have sex.
  8. By secondary school they will have become very exposed to sex. Keep the conversation open and be ready to hear when they want more information about contraception. Contraception is not about sex – it is about taking responsibility; all parents need to support their children to be responsible for their actions.
  9. Clear, honest, open communication with children about human sexuality and contraception, combined with fostering good self-esteem, is central to the prevention of early pregnancy.
  10. Be brave; children are curious, very factual and love information. Remember how you learnt about sex and sexuality, was it the way you would wish for your child? It’s simply another conversation so take the leap and start it with your child today.

This week’s ’10 Ways to’ is by One Family’s Director of Children and Parenting Services, Geraldine Kelly.

Coming soon: 10 Ways to Develop Coping Skills in Your Family; 10 Ways to Encourage Healthy Eating; and 10 Ways to Make the Most of the Playground.

For support and advice on any of these topics, call askonefamily on lo-call 1890 66 22 12 or email support@onefamily.ie. Find out more about our parenting skills programmes here.

 

Image credit: Pixabay