Good recipes for a long, happy marriage can be hard to come by. Some recipes whip up perfect wedded bliss, while other recipes call for too much salt ruining the whole batch. My parent’s recipe for their 55 years of marriage has always been easy to follow with no fancy ingredients. They took a large…

Human touch is often a neglected subject yet it is so vital to our everyday lives. Touch is a fundamental part of human relationships, and life without physical contact is a lonely life indeed. (I’m talking about the nourishing, wholesome kind of touch and not the “bad” touch we warn our children about). From the…

Recently, a possibly tragic event took place: a highly educated young woman I know got married. Radiant in her delicate lace dress, full of joy and optimism about the future, this blushing bride was not yet aware of the reality of her situation: that she has been groomed through her many years of education to…

One would assume that children are affected by their parents’ stress. But a fascinating new study shows that parents’ stress actually forms an imprint on children’s genes, and the effects last a very long time. I won’t pretend to understand all of the science involved here, but basically, the study deals with gene expression. The scientists measured…

I’m deliberately late on my Father’s Day post. The reason? I thought I should wait until after the holiday to say that I’m happy that it increasingly seems as though dads today are struggling to manage their work and family commitments. The reality is that as long as work-life balance and alternative work options are considered “women’s…

Forget the old adage about staying away from religion and politics, if you want to get an emotional conversation going, raise the question of “When is the best time to have kids?” Because despite the cliche that really, there is no “perfect” time to have a baby,  the crass question of  whether it’s “better” to…

So, I’m back from my campaign hiatus and have been thinking about family businesses. For the last 6+ weeks, my husband and I had put all the commitments of our professional lives on hold and during that time, we were effectively running a family start-up.  From building a website, finding an office, bringing a staff…

Andrea Mrozek, David Quist and their colleagues at the Institute for Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC) in Ottawa are organizing their annual day-long policy conference with an impressive line-up of speakers from New Zealand, Sweden and the US. The event is taking place on Thursday, May 5, at the Lord Elgin hotel in down-town Ottawa….

Bringing any new baby home is challenging, but when you adopt a child from another country, the language and cultural issues make the transition period even more complicated.  As well, many older children have a harder time adjusting to their new families and cultures than an infant might, and need all the love and support…

The child care debate in Canada has been a hot topic since the last federal election, and I believe it will continue to be in the years to come. The Conservative Party’s Universal Child Care Plan (UCCP) includes the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) which provides $100 per month for children under the age of…