I used to be a people-pleaser. To the point where both my friends and my family told me “Nicole, stop being such a people-pleaser.”

The best way to help young kids understand maths concepts isn’t by standing in front of a white board and rattling off multiplication facts. Rather, it’s by letting them see maths in action. Board games are a great way for little learners to get a grasp on skills such as pattern recognition, spacial reasoning, problem solving and visual perception.

Here are some of the best board games for kids under 8 that encourage mathematical thinking, according to maths educators and parents.

If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a phone call that starts out with something like, “So-and-so (person you love) has been in an accident,” followed by a winding and twisting tale that eventually ends with, “But they’re ok,” you know the importance of leading with the good news.

IFTTT, the tool that lets you automate your digital life, can help any parent whose mental load has reached max capacity — and you kind of feel like a tech magician every time you use it. Here are some great IFTTT applets that can make parenting easier.

(If you’re new to the service, check out our beginner’s guide to understand the basics.)

A big, beautiful comforter, spread neatly across the bed you share with a partner may look nice during the daytime. But at night, chaos results.

You remember Australia’s Funniest Home Videos, right? That '90s homemade video clip show hosted by Jo Beth Taylor that mostly featured people falling and pets doing weird things?

When my brother was a kid, he had a green He-Man tape recorder. He would, as my mum tells the story, sit in his room, hit “play,” and proceed to wax poetic about his life. It sounded a little something like this: “Myyyy naaaaaame is DAVID! I. Have. A. TAPE RECORDER! I. Can. Yell. INTO IT!”

Studio Ghibli films have been a touchstone in my life for years. They're artistic masterpieces, featuring a stunning attention to detail. The films defy stereotypes -- they feature female protagonists with great depth, male leads with striking vulnerability, and unforgettable background characters.

If you’ve ever felt a little guilt about handing your kids off to your parents or your in-laws too often, I’m here to set you free. As it turns out — and let’s pretend we knew this all along — babysitting their grandkids is actually good for their health.

Sha Sha Chu is the Android platform tech lead at Pinterest, the site that lets us keep all our favourite inspirational quotes, Instant Pot recipes and potential paint colours for the guest bathroom in one tidy place. Her first years of motherhood haven't been easy, but she's managing to make it all work. Here's how she parents.

I am something of a memoir junkie. I don’t exclusively read parenting memoirs (if you haven’t read The Shepherd’s Life or The Night of the Gun yet, I’m sad for you), but 2018 seems to have been The Year of the Parenting/Family Memoir for me.

There are many factors that go into the decision about whether — or when or how — to try for a second child. The size you want your family to be, your age, your fertility, your proximity to family, the amount of other demands in your life.

When I hear “holiday newsletter,” I think, “Here are the life milestones that each of my seven children reached this year!” That’s what the Times uses as their example of a good year-end newsletter. But end-of-year newsletters are for everyone. Especially if you don’t have children.

Christmas is here, and that means the chance to huddle around the TV and watch Christmas movies with your kid(s)! But there are so many out there. And most of them are terrible.

Guy Raz is the creator and host of three NPR podcasts—two for grownups (How I Built This and TED Radio Hour) and one for kids (Wow in the World). In our family car, we’ve been a little obsessed with Wow in World ever since the show enlightened us about two-headed space worms, brain freeze and poop science. Raz tests his kid content with two listeners who’ll give it to him straight: his two sons. Here’s how he parents.

In an ideal world, maybe you'd love to spend a large portion of your free time attending the weddings, birthdays and other life cycle events of your nearest and dearest. But life, work, and geographical boundaries often get in the way, making it a tricky a proposition to attend every single milestone event for every single close friend and family member.

Here’s what Kristina Kuzmic knows: Perfection is boring. Parenthood is messy. We might as well embrace the chaos. In her funny and compassionate videos, the vlogging star — who has over two million Facebook fans — slams the notion that mums and dads should be loving every minute of raising kids.

She gets real, addressing the oh-so-familiar parenting hangover, the unpredictability of teenagers, and her stance that her kids are not her friends (“If you’re 30- or 40-something, and your best friend is an eight-year-old, that’s just weird”). Kuzmic gives us a look into her daily life.

Ever since his daughter Emma was in primary school, W. Garth Callaghan would jot down inspirational quotes and bits of dad wisdom onto napkins and slip the notes into her lunchbox. It became their special thing, their way to connect. He wanted to make sure Emma could read a note from her father every single school day until graduation — even if he was no longer around to write them.

You may have tried chore charts. Perhaps you’ve turned the task of tidying up into a game. Maybe you’ve offered pocket money or attempted strict routines or belted out the “Clean Up Song” 27 times in a row (hey, it miraculously works when your kid’s teacher sings it, right?).