Twelve weeks ago, my wife, my 12-month-old daughter, and I packed up our apartment in the United States for Squish’s biggest adventure yet — three months of travel, missions and adventure from the Great Lakes to Sydney, Australia and the jungles of Indonesia.

Family-friendly attractions often have good deals for toddlers before they turn three, or five. Aussie World at the Sunshine Coast admits children for free up to two years old, so we whisked our infants off to the theme park for Tiny Tots Thursday.

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.

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

The lesson we learnt is not to worry too much about our child’s milestones, especially if they’re within the broad, acceptable ranges. Every child is different and might bring their various skills together at odd times and in odd combinations.

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.

Being the father of a toddler came at me fast. Before the next big phase arrives, it’s time to slow down and reflect on four simple things I have learnt during Squish’s first year about some parenting basics.

Pride is profoundly I-centred. It defends our threatened ego by diminishing the other and consequently puts distance between us. Humility is the foundation of harmony and love between husband and wife. It helps us get the focus off winning and onto each other.

I remember the feeling of accomplishment when I successfully managed my first bus trip with my newborn all by myself. With an infant, the mundane act of taking public transport transforms into a glorious adventure and holds a multitude of teachable opportunities.

It happened so quickly, I barely noticed the change. But all of a sudden, our little bundle of joy needs to be disciplined. Every moment of the day, she is finding ways to test boundaries and assert her independence.

Dining out can be stressful rather than relaxing when you have rambunctious toddlers. Here are some tips to make it a more pleasant experience for everyone, fellow patrons and waitstaff included:

Introducing your child to the great outdoors is part of the joy of parenting. Fostering a love of nature and curiosity about creation is par for the course. However, in Australia, the flora and fauna pose hazards aplenty. Be careful around unidentified plants!

Even young kids need time with dad. They need to learn from us. They need to grow with us. It is not always easy, and we are usually exhausted, but it is so important to give that little bit of extra energy to enter their world.

The early years are the most dynamic time of life, producing more than a million neural connections each second. For parents or caregivers, this time offers a wonderful opportunity to impact children’s lives.

After two decades of caring for other people’s children, Emma believes she can sum up the problem with modern parents with one simple test: Pour your child’s milk into a pink sippy cup. If they declare, ‘But I wanted the blue one!’, what do you do?

Fast forward to parenthood, and things have changed somewhat. I’ve become a reluctant morning person, but it’s had some surprising benefits.

Boys are more prone to separation anxiety than girls and struggle more with understanding that mama loves them and is coming back. Thus, the genuine, gut-wrenching cries both my boys have subjected me to at bedtime.

Before I had kids, I would have known exactly how to deal with this situation: Jack, my 2-year-old son, is crying for reasons known only to himself as we make our way through Woolworths. Tyson, my 3 1/2-year-old, is good as gold… until we reach the cleaning aisle, of all places. Ignoring Jack’s tears as best I can, I put a box of OMO laundry powder in the trolley. That was ...

One of our readers, Joelle from Colorado, shared a photo of her son Chase looking very upset.  The reason?  Joelle wouldn’t paint his nails purple. It all went wrong for me recently when my son Jono was unable to carry each of the seven cars he had carefully selected for the four-minute drive to pick up his big sisters from school. He wouldn’t let me carry any, and he wouldn’t leave ...