Secure Attachment Without Perfect Parenting You’ve tried a feed, a cuddle and a change of scenery. Your baby still cries, your patience starts to wobble, and suddenly you’re worrying about their emotional future while wearing yesterday’s leggings. “Secure attachment” can sound like another parenting standard to meet. Something you might accidentally damage by getting […]
Why Your Baby Wants the Same Book Every Night You know which animal comes next. Your partner knows which animal comes next. Even the dog probably knows which animal comes next. Yet your little one reaches for that book again, with the confidence of someone who has made an excellent choice. If you’ve ever […]
When Do Babies Start Playing With Other Babies? The Social Development You Might Be Missing You take your baby to a class hoping they’ll enjoy being around other babies. They sit next to another tiny human for 45 minutes. Neither appears remotely interested in the other. Then, just as you’re putting their coat on, […]
Your Baby Is Talking to You Before They Can Talk: The Communication Most Parents Miss There is a moment most parents are waiting for. The first word. Will it be Mama? Dada? Dog? Something completely random that nobody remembers teaching them? Because first words feel like such an enormous milestone, it is easy to […]
Baby Activities for Dark Autumn Evenings: Simple Ways to Make the Most of the Season There’s a moment every autumn when you look out of the window at approximately 4.37pm and wonder how it can possibly be dark already. Your baby, naturally, has no intention of going to bed for another three hours. Summer […]
The Baby-Proofing Jobs Parents Often Miss Before Crawling Starts There’s a slightly dangerous period in early parenthood when your baby stays approximately where you put them. You pop them on the play mat, turn around to grab something and, reassuringly, there they still are. Then one day they aren’t. Perhaps they’ve rolled somewhere unexpected, […]
More Than Eating: How Weaning Builds Your Baby’s Skills There comes a point during weaning when you look at your baby, then at the floor, then at the food you were fairly sure was supposed to go inside them. Somehow, a carefully prepared lunch has become an experiment involving a piece of broccoli, one […]
Do Babies Who Hear More Stories Learn to Talk Earlier? You’re reading Dear Zoo for approximately the 147th time. Your baby has eaten the corner, skipped three pages, grabbed your face and wandered off mentally halfway through the elephant. It may not feel like a particularly sophisticated literacy session. But something much more interesting […]
Making Mum Friends When Everyone Else Already Looks Settled There’s a particular kind of courage involved in walking into a baby or toddler class on your own for the first time. You’re carrying a baby, an enormous bag containing everything except the one thing you’ll actually need, and possibly a coffee you haven’t managed […]
