It started with a gross message sent from a councillor to a journalist. And it hasn’t stopped since. It’s now more than two weeks since Hamilton City Councillor Mark Bunting sent a deeply inappropriate message to journalist, Spinoff commentator and campaigner for Hamilton playgrounds Angela Cuming, and the unpleasantness continues unabated. To briefly recap: Bunting, a … Read more
Opinion: So far the Hamilton City Council has ignored the pleas from the region’s families to save the city’s playgrounds, writes Angela Cuming. But will they listen to the United Nations Children’s Fund? Update: The Hamilton City Council CEO has contacted the Spinoff disputing elements of this piece, requesting that “The Spinoff acknowledge the article … Read more
A destination playground saved Angela Cuming’s little family from cracking, so just why does her local council reckon the cost of them is ‘bordering on obscene’? During the long, long days I was stuck at home with three boys under three I would sometimes lock myself in the woodshed so my kids wouldn’t see or … Read more
The hysteria over screen time for children is quite out of control. The suggestion seems to be that it’s safer to give your child a wasp hive dipped in cyanide than it is to give them an iPad. Angela Cuming is pushing back against the many headlines. Opinions about kids using iPads are a little … Read more
Huggies NZ just published a ‘helpful’ guide to toilet training for ‘girls‘ and ‘boys‘ and got a hell of a response to it. Angela Cuming hits back at the silly manual that seems like it’s straight out of the 1950s. Dear Huggies, I just wanted to drop you a line to say thank you for … Read more
Is Cars 3 a stealth feminist smash hit? Mum of three Angela Cuming gives her verdict on a franchise that has never been very good in the past. I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Pixar films. As in I’ve hated how much people have loved them because to me they’ve always been a testimony … Read more
Like a lot of mothers, Angela Cuming is frankly sick of Jamie Oliver parenting advice. Get ready for a rant about Oliver and the army of judgers who don’t know shit about kids who are picky eaters. I like to keep a couple of Jamie Oliver cookbooks in my kitchen. I find them incredibly handy … Read more
How did we ever reach a point where ‘Is it OK to kiss your kids?’ was actually asked multiple times around the world in apparently reputable news outlets? Angela Cuming looks at one of this week’s most infuriating parenting stories. Here are things parents do that I find weird: Smacking their kids Bullying their kids … Read more
Angela Cuming gave birth to twins in Northern Ireland, under the British National Health Service. She reflects on the difference of care she received there compared to her oldest child’s birth in New Zealand. When my identical twin boys were born via c-section the doctors had me walk, crying and in pain, into the operating … Read more
Angela Cuming has three children under three – all boys. Here she talks about the joys and challenges of her family life. My name is Angela, I have three boys under three and I haven’t slept in three-and-half years. There’s Charlie, he came first and when he was 20 months old we welcomed identical twins Tommy … Read more