Author and host of Real Life John Cowan joined Tim Beveridge to chat about whether you should teach your kids to drive or leave it to the professionals. 

And tips and tricks for if you decide to self-instruct your teens. 

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Have you ever considered why we tell our kids to 'be themselves' when sticking out from the crowd can make you the subject of bullying?

Umbrella Wellbeing CEO and psychologist Dr Dougal Sutherland joined Tim Beveridge to chat about the balances of supporting our children and allowing them to stand on their own. 

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Parents are acting up on the sidelines of their children's games in the mighty Waikato leading to youth rugby league games cancelled last Sunday after reports of physical and verbal abuse in Hopuhopu.

Sport Waikato CEO Matthew Cooper said the problem is felt worldwide, with parents wanting to achieve through their children.

What behaviour is okay at your children's sports games? When does support cross into abuse?

MindWorks psychologist Sara Chatwin joined Tim Beveridge to discuss.

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The cost of having or raising a child is often the most considered issue among couples planning to start or grow their family. 

It's not just the shopping trips for prams and cots and nappies - it's the income loss over the months of parental leave and the endless sick days once daycare starts up. 

Plunket estimates a medium-budget cost for raising a child for the first year comes to just under $16,000. That works out to a whole lot of sacrifice. 

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There's a new trend sweeping through social media - when your child is lost in a tantrum or a pre-teen spiral, you call out for your imaginary helper named Jessica, and more often than not it will confuse them enough to stop them in their tracks. 

Distraction methods like this one have been used for years and years, but why do they work? 

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Doctors are seeing an increasing number of young people coming in with unexplained symptoms. 

The prominent ones parents are probably seeing most frequently are the random headaches, stomach aches, difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much. 

Parents will often treat their children with panadol and electrolytes, take their devices away before bed to avoid blue light, and hope the problem resolves itself.

But these are all common signs something more could be going on - different ways mental health problems present physically. 

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You always hear stories about the different ways a person's childhood has had an ongoing impact throughout their life. 

There are some horrible stories out there, but it could even just be the way your parents would cook growing up, or how the way they would react to you relaxing results in habits that follow you into adulthood.  

So at the end of the day, are we all doomed to mess up our children in one way or another? 

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It's school holidays, and boredom is setting in...

While it can send parents into a bit of a spiral hearing their children complain about how bored they are all day long - being bored is one of those skills we all need to learn at some point. 

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Our children are becoming increasingly involved in politics and current events, and they're getting involved younger and younger. 

We want to support their interests, but the news can get pretty dark, and these kinds of events or protests always come with a risk of danger. 

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Social media giants Meta and YouTube have been found liable for deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive. 

We don't need to look too far into the details of this specific trial, because parents everywhere will have stories of their own to some extent, but how much of the blame falls on the parents? There are countless things in the modern world that young people risk becoming addicted to - they don't even have to appear sinister. Food, sugar, video games, any number of apps - social media or otherwise. 

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