Past Programs
Child Care - 2005
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Grandparents Under Pressure
20/10/2005
Grandparents are playing an extremely important role in the care of children. Many are caring for their grandchildren while parents are at work. There is a group of grandparents in Australia who are doing much more than that. It is thought that there are around 35,000 children in the care of their grandparents because their parents are unable to look after them.
The Canberra Mothercraft Society is hosting a one day forum to discuss the particular issues facing grandparents with custody of their grandchildren. And there are many - the emotional, financial, legal and practical challenges of looking after young children when you were ready for the quiet life.
Literacy and the Teletubbies
05/10/2005
The Federal Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson and Cardinal Pell are concerned about the dumbing down of the English curriculum. In their sights is the critical literacy program which uses popular culture like television, film and computer games to develop literacy rather than Yeats and Shakespeare.
Defendants of the critical literacy program say that you have to acknowledge the existence of television and computer games and use them to get students interested in literature.
Dr Jackie Marsh is an expert in the other end of the education system - early childhood education. She too believes that you have to acknowledge the changing world of young people and tap into that world to improve literacy. She even believes that the controversial children's program the Teletubbies can be used to improve literacy in children.
The Lazy Husband
24/06/2005
What is it about housework that brings out the worst in men?
Perhaps it's the dullness, the repetition, the banality or perhaps it's that housework, despite feminism, is still understood as women's work. And while this may seem like a good case for husbands to avoid doing the dishes it turns out that men who share the housework have better sex lives than men who don't and not only is the sex better, their kids like them more as well.
So how do you get your husband to start pulling his weight Dr Joshua Coleman, the psychologist author of "The Lazy Husband", says it's all about recognition. Working out what kind of husband you've got and then working with him to change his attitudes
Professionalising Foster Care
18/04/2005
There's a strong push to professionalise foster care.
Proper training and remuneration is seen by many in the field as the only way of recruiting carers to fill the current shortfall.
But foster carers are divided about whether that's the way to go.
Resort Hotel Child Abuse
12/04/2005
The Lateline program on ABC Television tonight will tell the stories of two children who, in separate incidents, had been sexually abused while being minded at holiday resorts in Bali.
The idea of handing over your children to a Kids Club in holiday resorts has long been an attractive one for both parents and children: the children get to have heaps of fun while the parents relax.
But how can parents ensure their children will be properly cared for?
The Price of Eggs. Episode Five - A Result
20/01/2005
When we last heard from Anna she was saying the idea of a pregnancy, let alone a child, seemed so remote she could barely believe it might happen.
Today there are exciting developments.
But there have been some unexpected hurdles, too. 'The Price of Eggs' has gone up, you could say.
Further information:
The Infertility Treatment Authority, regulates donor conception in Victoria only.
Two Sydney-based IVF clinic sites with general information about egg donation.
Sydney IVF
IVF Australia
Donor Conception Support Group, an Australian group lobbying for the rights of donor offspring to have access to information about their genetic parents. DCSG also supports recipient parents, donors male and female, past and present, and those considering donor conception.
'Experiences of Donor Conception. Parents, Offspring and Donors through the
years' by Caroline Lorbach, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2003. This book, by an Australian author, takes an international overview of the issues. It has become available since the women in the Life Matters story were interviewed.
'Sometimes it Takes Three to Make a Baby: Explaining Egg Donor Conception to
Young Children', by Kate Bourne, published by Melbourne IVF Pty Ltd, 2002.
Kate Bourne is a Melbourne-based infertility counsellor. The book is written and illustrated for children.
