When Ty found out he was going to be a dad, it was not in the way he had imagined. The news of an unplanned pregnancy hit like a tidal wave. Equal parts love, fear, and uncertainty. 

A report in The Atlantic found that, among female demographics, married mothers enjoy the highest levels of happiness, connection, and purpose — a finding that challenges the modern myth that marriage and motherhood are a burden for women.

A Mother's Day poem for my late mother.

Breastfeeding is one of the most primal actions of a mother, a bodily function that female mammals share. It is a natural way of boosting the infant’s immunity as well as the mother’s health.

If you had told the 18-year-old version of my dad that someday he’d think babies were more interesting than football, he would have laughed his head off. But the truth is, as life pushes on, we don’t just abandon our dreams; our dreams change.

Joseph should get more than a nod at Christmas, because even for Jesus, fathers are not an accessory; they are a necessity.

"All Mothers Work" is a call to Australians — and Aussie political leaders especially — to truly value the unseen work of motherhood. Donate today to help empower Australian mothers raise their own children instead of being forced back to work before they're ready.

Birth rates across the West are plummeting, and our economies will suffer untold carnage in the years ahead — all because we have failed to assign value to the unseen work, that most important job of child-rearing. Still, we have an opportunity to turn this mess around.

Parenting toddlers is challenging at the best of times. When you are sick (not to mention when your spouse and child are sick along with you!), the challenge is multiplied by several magnitudes. But your children still need to be fed, cleaned and occupied. How do you handle this?

Parenting – and teaching – takes oodles of patience, which one is usually short of when sleep-deprived, as parents of toddlers usually are. So, how do we keep our cool and model patience to our toddlers?

When we discovered that Baby 2 was on her way, we were delighted, but also a tad concerned about how Baby 1 would react. Now, by and large, our progeny co-exist joyfully, taking delight in each other’s existence. We are careful to treat them as equally or equitably as possible.

When I was little, my father introduced me to the joy of kite-flying. He told me stories of his boyhood, when he grew up in a dilapidated, bombed-out mansion with a high tower, from which he flew his homemade kite.

How do you navigate the use of digital devices among your offspring? Is it possible to moderate screen use, or does prohibition work better?

In my role, I am blessed to be able to work from home, making it possible to be present for my toddlers all day, every day. However, this arrangement comes with its own challenges. Here are some strategies that enable me to multitask well.

Three years and three months after we began trying, Angie is finally pregnant! In the end, Angie and I cannot take credit for this miracle of pregnancy. There are no silver bullets, but there were three things that seem to have made a big difference in our case.

Once a year, usually in July, buildings of historical or cultural significance around Brisbane open their doors to the public for free, with guided tours and exhibits. This event is known as Brisbane Open House. We took the opportunity to learn more about firefighters and the police.

Every July, the Abbey Museum in Caboolture, Queensland hosts the Abbey Medieval Festival, an extremely popular event that attracts thousands of visitors. As their website states, they aim for guests “to experience life in the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East, from AD 600 to 1600.”

My toddler son loves playing with his toy vehicles, particularly fire engines, garbage trucks, police cars, ambulances and trains. So when not one, but two fire trucks rolled up to our friend’s nursing home as we were celebrating Christmas, my husband realised it was a fabulous opportunity.

Does your baby enjoy having his or her teeth cleaned? What strategies have you implemented for fuss-free dental maintenance?

My toddler son loves diggers, or excavators. He can spend hours watching a digger at work, piling earth into a dump truck. So when I saw there was a discount for Dig IT at Mount Tamborine, a mini excavator park for children in the Gold Coast Hinterlands, I pounced on it.