Posts

Safefood Urges Parents to Say No to Treats Every Day

/in /by

Safefood Just Say No

safefood’s excellent Childhood Obesity campaign launches into another phase today with a focus on treat foods for children. safefood is urging parents to say no to sweets, biscuits and crisps every day and to cut down on the amount of treat foods children are eating, so that a treat food becomes just that – an occasional treat, rather than an every day part of a child’s diet.

Parents can access a list of popular children’s ‘treats’ and their calorie content on the safefood website as well as video advice and top tips from health experts on healthy eating and how to be more active. You can follow the campaign on social media using the hashtag #letssayno.

You can also read, as part of One Family’s weekly series of parenting tips, our 10 Ways to Encourage Healthier Eating Habits and 10 Ways to Make the Most of the Playground.

 

 

10 Ways to Make the Most of the Playground

/in /by

Playgrounds are wonderfully exciting for children. As well as providing an opportunity to make friends, using playground equipment can help to build children’s dexterity, strength and confidence. Being outdoors regularly is good for both children and parents’ well-being and sharing fun at the playground also creates more opportunities to bond with your child.

Read on for this week’s instalment of our ’10 Ways to’ parenting tips series which explores how to make the most of the playground.

  1. Get to know your local playground. Become familiar with the equipment and the space, and which equipment is appropriate to your child’s age and development. Help your child to get to know their limits and capacity and enable them to relax in the space.
  2. Play with your child but also encourage your child to use the time to interact with other children, and you can take the opportunity to interact with other parents. Encourage social engagement. Children learn the rules of play by playing with other children. Support them in the playground to be assertive, to practice talking with children, and sharing and turn taking.
  3. Watch your child. Do not use the time to read or text or browse your phone. Playgrounds are public spaces and this should be remembered at all times – be vigilant. Also, your children like to know you’re watching so you can see what they can do. They need your facial reactions to encourage and support them to keep exploring and challenging themselves.
  4. Try to be conscious of potential accidents and safety aware, but don’t let it stop your child from using the space well. Bring wipes and plasters with you. Allow them to pick things up (within reason) and examine them. Let them get dirty and wet. Give them permission to do these things. The playground is not the time for showing off your child’s best style.
  5. Bring a potty if they are toilet training or under 3 years. Often there are not toilets nearby but usually it is acceptable to sit on a potty in a quiet corner.
  6. Bring healthy drinks and snacks and use the time well. Playground visits should not be associated with sweet treats.
  7. Play with your child, laugh and explore. It’s nice to recall what it is like to be a child. Have a go on the swings and slide and laugh out loud. These are the things your child will recall as they grow. Also it’s good therapy for any parent!
  8. Make play dates for the playground. It can be easier to manage children in the playground than in your home at times. Plan times to meet up with other parents but don’t use all the time to chat or you will miss out on your quality time with your child.
  9. Don’t let the weather stop you going out. Often it is only adults who don’t like the rain. Children love puddles, getting wet and feeling the wind blow them along. Dress them appropriately and get out of the house every day for at least 30 minutes. You will both feel better.
  10. If you don’t have a playground within easy access, be creative with whatever outdoors space you have available near home, in a park or on a green. There are so many ways to help children play. Usually once they are free from hand holding to run about, they are happy out!

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 more helpful ’10 Ways’.

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.

More New Research from Australia Proves Marriage is not Responsible for Children’s Well-being

/in /by

“Growing up in a single parent family or being raised by parents who are not married does not condemn children to a life of unhappiness, underachievement and delinquency. Rather than blaming parents and labelling their life circumstances as selfish choices, it is time for social policy debates to focus on how we can effectively support parents. Irrespective of family structure, we want parents to give their children the best possible start to life,” writes Jan M Nicholson, Roberta Holmes professor for the Transition to Contemporary Parenthood Program at La Trobe University, and advisory group member to the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children in The Guardian newspaper today.

‘Growing Up In Australia – the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children’ is important new research which reflects what One Family states and knows through 42 years of experience, study and campaigning: it is not the structure of a family that has most bearing on outcomes for children, but the quality of relationships in the family, the parent or parents’ background, and the impacts of consistent poverty.  In December 2013, we welcomed the launch of the report ‘Growing Up in a One-Parent Family’, a study by researchers at the University of Limerick using the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ data, published by the Family Support Agency. A key finding of this study indicates that children from one-parent families and cohabiting families fare the same as children from married families when faced with similarly difficult conditions growing up.

‘Growing Up In Australia – the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children’ can be read/download here.

The report by the University of Limerick, ‘Growing Up in a One-Parent Family:The Influence of Family Structure on Child Outcomes’, is available to read/download here.

Child Payment a Start for Budget 2015 but Lone Parents Need Support to Stay in Work

/in /by

Press Release 

Child Payment a Start for Budget 2015 but

Lone Parents Need Support to Stay in Work

 

(Dublin, 15.09.2014) One Family – Ireland’s organisation for one-parent families and people sharing parenting – today welcomes the welfare to work dividend for parents returning to work provided it is combined with an income disregard for those parenting alone. This is the only way it will help to lift hard pressed one-parent families out of consistent and persistent poverty.

The key aim of Budget 2015 must be to ensure that work pays and is seen to pay. It costs a lone parent more than a couple to bring up a child because there is only one adult to make offsetting savings from their own living expenses. The reduction of the income disregard in Budget 2012 (€146.50 to €60) is working against Government policy as it means it is no longer financially viable for many one-parent families to stay in part-time employment.

Stuart Duffin, Director of Policy & Programmes with One Family said: “We have heard from working lone parents who, with the changes this year implemented from Budget 2012, have had a net income reduction of €200 per week and so are being forced out of employment, which is the opposite of what government set out to do, i.e. support lone parents into employment.”

Although 53% of one-parent families overall are in work, the figure for those on social welfare and working has halved to 30% over the past few years due to the slashing of the income disregard and fewer jobs. Meeting the ‘no frills’ needs of one-parent families is becoming tougher as the cost of a child rises while wages flat-line. It is a picture many hard-pressed parents will recognise.

Stuart Duffin continued: “Budget 2015 must ensure an improvement in the labour market position of parents, and in this way increase their ability to be self-sufficient and escape poverty. Cuts have been put in, they have not worked and now parents need supports. Children cost. That is why one-parent families have a higher risk of poverty than those without. The cumulative impact of low pay and cuts to family support contribute to the remarkable finding that the combined wages and benefits of a family with both parents working full time on the minimum wage are still insufficient to meet the basic needs of that family.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

  • The Department of Social Protection states that from 1 January 2014 for those on the One Parent Family Payment, the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme’s income disregard will be reduced from its current amount of €110 per week to €90 per week for the duration of 2014.
  • In Budget 2012, it was announced that there would be a gradual reduction in the amount of earnings from employment that would be ignored (disregarded) when calculating the rate of OFP paid and that this change would come in over a number of years.
  • In 2012 the amount ignored was €130; in 2013 it is €110; in 2014 it will be €90; and it will decrease further to €75 in 2015 and €60 in 2016.
  • From 1 January 2014, OPFP recipients can have earnings of €90 without it affecting the rate of payment of OFP and so if your earnings are greater than €90 per week, then the rate of OFP will be changed to take this new rate into account.
  • By 2015, over 55,000 parents will have been moved onto the live register from the One-Parent Family Payment when their youngest child becomes 7 with no national programmes of support or engagement in place.

/Ends.

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes Family Day and presents the Family Day Festival every May, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191

Stuart Duffin, Director of Policy & Programmes | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 062 2023

 

Karen Kiernan

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

/in /by

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.