 For the very youngest children September brings their first opportunity
to play and learn away from home. Most children approach this
experience with confidence and enthusiasm; it is often the parents who
find it traumatic. Although some children are in a care setting from an early age, many
are not. Those few years of great closeness and freedom are precious
and the beginning of the more structured way of life can be
intimidating both because of its practical demands in terms of routines
and time keeping but also because of the emotional impact of the first
parting. On my oldest child’s first day at nursery, aged three, I rang at about
10am to see how she was settling. I could hear her screaming in the
background. Later on my other children adapted much more cheerfully and although I
was anguished by my older daughter’s distress, watching one’s children
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Welcome to the World Katy Daly
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 At home in East Sheen with her happy, healthy baby, Kate Daly seems worlds away from the challenges she overcame before giving birth to her second child. “It can become an obsession, wanting a baby and it not happening. I didn’t want to put pressure on Nick, but I was secretly trying to make sure we had sex at the right time!” Kate and Nick had experienced no problems the first time. “We hadn’t been together long – we were getting married, and we’d anticipated waiting a little while before starting a family. I was on the pill – and I’m still not sure how it happened. We had to cancel the lavish honeymoon we’d planned and go for a tamer option instead!”
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 As any one about to become a new parent will know, time is precious,
however this doesn’t stop the need for quality antenatal services.
This need inspired Tanya Leary, Managing Director at Maternal Response,
to create a new Antenatal Pampering weekend.Tanya explains, “We have teamed up with the excellent and hugely
experienced Jane
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 Kids
love animals and parents love happy kids. So it seemed a fair bet that
a good zoo should make a great family day out.That, at least, was my
thinking when I fixed on Marwell Wildlife (the new name for Marwell as
a last holiday treat for Ben, my tearaway two year-old, before
packing away the sun cream for another year. With over 250 species of
animal spread across 140 acres of grassy parkland, Marwell Wildlife,
near Winchester, is widely regarded as a model of good zoo-keeping. But
how would it look after my little one on a sunny
August Bank Holiday Monday - the busiest day of the year? Bundling Ben,
buggy, nappy bag,
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 We all love the idea of being our own boss, but most of us don’t ever
make this idea a reality. We dread the paperwork, the legal hoops and
the financial costs. That’s exactly why Sue Botterill, founder of the
multi award-winning My Mag and Raring2go!, created her newest
opportunity, My Little Wrapper, last year. My Little Wrapper removes the hassle of running a business. It’s an
established business that gives you the opportunity to earn good money,
part-time.
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 If you have older kids who like to cycle on their own bikes (with or without stabilisers!) two of our routes are ideal as they are all on excellent paths with no traffic in sight. Pop on a helmet and get cycling! Cycle Route One Horton Country Park Location: Epsom
Distance: A potter around; anything from just one mile to several miles!Terrain: Varied but flat
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Annabel Karmel's tasty pasta recipes
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 Just as you think you’ve got everything sussed with your baby happily
slurping his way through pureed carrot and sweet potatoes, you enter
new mealtime territory – the introduction of lumps. If you are finding
the transition to lumpy food tricky, you’re not alone it can be quite
challenging for many babies. Its not a good idea to continue with smooth purees for too long or your
baby can become very lazy about chewing and the longer you leave it the
more difficult it will be.
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 If
any woman on the planet looks like they have it all, it’s Deborah
Meaden, but she doesn’t – of that she is emphatic. What she does have
is a brilliant business mind, a happy home, a wicked sense of humour, a
cat, two dogs, five horses, eleven chickens and four ducks.Here, she
talks exclusively to Claire Bates about why parents can make great
entrepreneurs, why she loves business so much and why she has no
regrets.The second our interview begins, Deborah Meaden’s computer
pings.“Interview with Claire Bates” she laughs. And I smile.Even though
I’ve never before met her, there’s something reassuringly Deborah
Meaden about the scene.
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 When Tracey and Jonathan Shelton were looking forward to the birth of
their second child, they never imagined that she would arrive fourteen
weeks earlier than planned. Tracey and Jonathan’s first baby, Harvey, was born right on time,
weighing a healthy 6lbs. “He was just perfect,” remembers Tracey, “he
had a tiny button nose and I was in awe of him immediately.” Eighteen months on, the couple, who live in Walton-on-Thames, were
delighted to discover that Tracey was pregnant again. “Because my
previous pregnancy had been uneventful, I expected my second to be the
same,”
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 After losing their young son, Christopher, to cancer, surrey couple Kevin and Karen Capel are now working to help other children survive.
It was every parent’s worst nightmare. On the 23rd of October 2006,
Karen and Kevin Capel were told that their only child, four year old
Christopher, had a medulloblastoma – a type of cancerous brain tumour.
Christopher was rushed to hospital, and Kevin and Karen’s lives would
never be the same again.
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