How the articles here get made, in plain terms.
One writer
Everything is written and edited by Devon Ashworth. I use software to check spelling and to look things up, the way anybody does, but the trying, the failing, the judging and the being wrong are mine, and so is the name on the piece.
Lived with before it is published
A routine, a system or a piece of kit gets weeks in this house before it becomes an article. Week one flatters everything, because novelty does most of the work. Week four is where the reward chart quietly stops being mentioned. If I have only read about a method rather than run it here, the piece says so outright rather than implying otherwise.
The failures stay in
When something took three attempts, the article says three attempts and describes what went wrong in the first two. That is not a stylistic habit, it is the part most likely to be the one you need, because you are probably standing in attempt one.
Conditions are named
Almost nothing in family life is true everywhere. A system that works with a five year gap fails with an eighteen month gap. A morning routine built around one school run breaks with two. Where a piece of advice depends on the age, the gap, the house or the temperament, the article names the condition instead of stating the rule as though it were universal.
Where I stop
This site stays at the level of one parent describing their own household. Anything medical, developmental, behavioural or clinical goes to a qualified professional, and the articles say so where it comes up rather than guessing. On sleep, feeding, car seats, cots and anything else with a safety standard attached, I point at the current official guidance rather than substituting my own experience for it.
My children’s privacy
My kids did not choose to be written about. So they are not named, their faces are not published here, and anything that would be genuinely embarrassing to them at fifteen does not go in, however good the story is. As they get older they get a say in what is written about them, and some things have come out at their request.
Independence
Commercial relationships, set out in the affiliate disclosure, have no say in what is recommended or how warmly. No brand, agency or network reads an article before it is published.
Corrections
Articles get revised when I learn something better, and the updated date at the top of the page reflects it. If something here is wrong, write to [email protected]. I will fix it and say what changed rather than quietly editing it.