In the Noughties, when my eldest children were young, I felt like a failure because I couldn’t stick to Gina Ford’s routine. It was a rigid sleep and feed regime that stuck to strict timings throughout the day.
We hired a maternity nurse (a nanny who helps look after small babies) and she said something that shocked me to the core. She told me when my son was a few days old that I needed to wake him up by 7am for a feed so that he’d get into the right routine for school. He was four days old! He had fallen asleep around 5am after an unsettled night with reflux, so I refused.
Twenty years on, I wish I had been able to tell my 26-year-old self that no one “needs” a maternity nurse or Gina Ford’s routine, and if controlled crying feels wrong, you should stop. The maternity nurse would have been a fan (like Gina) of a “cry down” for babies from birth, which is a gentler version of controlled crying when you leave an overtired baby to self-soothe for 5-12 minutes.
Controlled crying includes longer periods of self-soothing and starts in earnest from the age of five or six months. I would tell my younger self to always trust your maternal instinct because it’s the one thing in child-rearing that will never let you down.
Walkers reveals three new crisp flavours
Three new “gold” flavours of Walkers are now available for crisp lovers. The new snacks mark the brand’s biggest revamp in 80 years.
What are the flavours and how much are they?
The new flavours are black truffle, sea salt and olive oil and Somerset mature cheddar and onion.
Each pack is branded as “Premium Potato Crisps”.
The crisps come in 140g bags and can currently be bought for £2 each.
Where you can buy them
The entire range launched on Ocado officially today, but from October 12, they will be widely available in major UK supermarkets for a cheaper price of £1.50.
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Record number of assaults on Britain’s trains – what to know
Assaults on Britain’s railways have hit record levels, new figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) have revealed.
The numbers
The data published on Thursday showed there were 13,464 reported assaults on people who were not railway workers between April 2025 and March 2026, an increase of 36 per cent compared to the previous year.
- 11,289 assaults on rail workers on mainline networks were also recorded, an increase of 12 per cent. This included 6,390 incidents of verbal abuse, 2,487 physical assaults and 2,412 threats.
Working to make railways safer
No-one on the railway should be subjected to violence, threats or abuse. We’re working with industry and our trade union colleagues to address work-related violence and harassment, including through recent guidance which sets out what we expect from rail employers.
Richard Hines, ORR’s chief inspector railways
The Reform MPs who face losing their seats according to new poll
Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman are among four Reform UK MPs who would lose their seats if a general election were held tomorrow, fresh polling by YouGov shows.
Falling behind the Tories
Tory defector Danny Kruger and Sarah Pochin – who beat Labour in a 2025 by-election – would also be unseated, according to the leading UK pollster’s first large-scale election modelling since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
Although the party’s numbers of MPs would hugely increase, it would have fewer seats than the Tories overall, marking a significant fall when compared to last year’s polling.
How a Labour government could be formed
The poll predicts that Labour would be the biggest party in a hung parliament.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey recently ruled out forming a coalition with Reform or the Tories but stopped short of excluding a coalition with Labour.
However, to form a Parliamentary majority in this scenario, Burnham would also need to work with the SNP or Plaid Cymru.
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Reform expanding its operations
The polling comes as Reform is preparing a huge expansion of its operations around the country, targeting London, the South East, the South West and the East of England.
- Analysis of Reform job adverts by The i Paper suggests the party is pumping resources into areas where it wants to keep its high-profile Tory defectors.
There’s turmoil in the Liberal Democrats. And MPs are struggling for direction
Stagnant in the polls but still a potential kingmaker, the party’s at a crossroads – even its own members are asking what comes next.
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
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A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
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It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
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The kitchen gadgets under £25
Victorinox paring knife
It’s comfortable to hold, with a point sharp enough for scoring pastry.
ProCook cast iron pan
For unbeatable searing and heat-retention, cast iron is the top choice.
Tesco chopping board
Priced at just £22, I’ve yet to find another board that matches it for sheer value and quality.
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Pyrex jug
It is the perfect vessel for blending smooth sauces, melting butter, or warming stock. It won’t stain like plastic and the red measurements never fade.
Salter scales
“I’ve had my slim little set of Salter Disc Scales for over a decade, and I’m delighted to see they are still made to exactly the same reliable design today.”
Microplane grater
It uses photo-etched stainless steel teeth that stay razor-sharp for a decade, something the lookalike copycats simply can’t match.
Braun hand-held blender
It’s an essential for everything from making velvety soup to getting the lumps out of white sauce.
Bodum cafetiere
As well as delivering great results, cafetieres are easy to clean and there’s no ongoing filter paper costs or pod recycling to deal with.
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The kitchen gadgets under £25
Oxo peeler
What truly sets it apart is the chunky, rubberised handle that absorbs pressure and stays completely non-slip, even if your hands are wet. It is inexpensive and incredibly durable.
Falcon pie dish
Made by fusing porcelain onto heavy-gauge steel for smooth durability, it is dishwasher, freezer, hob, air-fryer and oven-safe.
The golden rules for a happy, secure relationship
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Amir Levine, author of bestselling book , explains why we behave the way we do in love.
Golden rules for happy relationships
Start with your own behaviours
The foundation of a secure, connected life is being what I call CARRP: that means being consistent, available, responsive, reliable and predictable. All of these qualities can be enacted in small gestures every day.
Express your needs
People need consistency and connection to feel safe. This is not, ‘You hurt my feelings by never replying to me’, it’s more ‘this is the kind of contact that helps me feel secure’.
Golden rules for happy relationships
The appendix ‘inflammation’ rule
If a relationship repeatedly inflames your nervous system, you need to disengage and deprioritise it.
Lean on community
You don’t need hundreds of friends. You need people and places that regularly remind you that you belong.
Stop blaming childhood
Humans are much more complicated than: ‘this happened to you, therefore you are doomed to be anxious’.
Reach for a
secure script
When something unsettles you in a relationship, your first reaction is not always the most accurate one.
If you’re anxious, your brain may jump very quickly to: ‘this is the beginning of the end’. If you’re avoidant, your brain may say: ‘this person wants too much from me, I need to get away’. So one very practical thing you can always do is pause and ask: ‘What would a secure person do here?’
Loneliness elsewhere
When people talk about loneliness, they often assume it means you don’t have enough people in your life. But you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely if those relationships leave you feeling excluded, ignored or disconnected.
What to do
- Build a community that works for your temperament and gives you regular, reliable moments of connection.
- You can still be kind to people while not treating them as someone who belongs in your inner circle.
- Explain what you need. Sometimes people simply don’t realise how you are experiencing them.
- Check in with people: does this person actually feel that I’m reliable? Do they experience me as predictable? That’s the only way that you can start to become more secure.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
Gina’s routine was never a feature in our fairly happy but haphazard life. I had friends who would leave birthday parties early because they had to get back for naps – the look on their panic-stricken faces when they realised they’d be late for their strict routine was one of horror. I felt sorry for them and their children, who were having a nice time playing pass the parcel and rushed out the door as if it was an emergency – it wasn’t.
I took an alternative view – call it the Mediterranean way – and tried to ensure that all my babies got their daily nap quota but rarely at the right time. It usually happened after they had been breastfed or pushed around endlessly in a pram. My youngest used to fall asleep at 5pm when we were driving home after picking his siblings up on the school run, the danger nap meant that no one got an early night.
In Gina’s heyday, if you were a mother, you had to also be a follower of her routines. If not, you were either a hippy, a bad parent or possibly of reduced intelligence. It all felt quite judgemental. People thought I was “lax” or soft, and I suffered quite a lot of judgement bringing kids up in the Noughties as a result, particularly from older mothers (I was in my twenties when I had my first two kids).
They thought I was too young, indulgent and irresponsible to have children – it really knocked my confidence. If you didn’t follow Gina’s cookery book suggestions, they would get frustrated when your child wouldn’t eat their exotic concoctions such as salmon teriyaki, aged three. One tiger mum once said my son “only eats sausages because it’s the only thing he is fed”. The vibe in the Noughties was: carry on with how your life was before you had kids and make the babies slot around you – but that never sat quite right with me.
On one occasion, when I was at my wits’ end, I tried controlled crying – letting him cry out until he stopped – with my eldest child when he was nine months. The result? He was sick all over his cot. The parenting experts told me to change the cot sheets, avoid eye contact and put him back dehydrated and upset, which seemed like madness to me. I binned control crying with the whole Gina Ford approach and trusted my instincts. If my babies were crying and unable to walk or talk, they likely needed me.
My five kids are not “velcro children”. By this I mean they aren’t clingy and they are confident with other adults. I would say they can hold their own. They are able to navigate life without my constant input and thank goodness for that.
I have often wondered if this might be because they stayed with me at home until they were two or three. Psychotherapist Kelly McDaniel says: “In the early months and years, babies need the first two essential maternal elements for secure attachment to form. Secure attachment comes from early nurturing and protection that requires the emotional and physical presence of a primary caregiver. A mother simply can’t meet these primitive needs when she’s gone.”
McDaniel believes the first 1,000 days are critical and infants should be with their mothers – needless to say, I agree with this stance and will tell anyone who will listen. But this form of parenting, called attachment parenting, is not for the faint-hearted. It involves a lot of reading, sitting on the floor with bricks and toys, singing and soothing. Above all, attachment parenting requires time – something that the modern parent has in short supply, with many mothers being forced to return to work sooner than they’d like.
Controversial psychoanalyst Erica Komisar also agrees. She says that in their first year, children’s comfort has to come before parents’ comfort. “If not, we risk raising a baby’s cortisol levels past the point of them being able to ever process any of that stress.” Komisar is keen to point out that parents should expect to be inconvenienced when they have a baby. She asks parents to have more compassion for crying children. As society, we wouldn’t shut the door in an adult’s face who was crying hysterically, she argues, so why would we do this to an infant?
I sent two of my children to nursery when they were two years old, for a few hours a week, and have since lived to regret it. When I dropped them off, they just looked sad and lost. Various experts talk about the circle of security that widens with age – you have to start small if you want a well-adjusted child. The circle of security is a framework whereby children start exploring the world with their parent nearby and this expands naturally with age. Think of it like a widening leash that expands as the child gets older. A baby aged six months has a much smaller circle of security than a five-year-old, for example.
Now that they’re older, I would say that my children are fairly resilient – they tend to bounce back after life’s inevitable setbacks and criticisms. “For a child, or indeed an adult, being resilient means they’re better able to withstand the difficulties life inevitably will throw at them from time to time,” says parenting expert Liat Hughes Joshi. “They’ll learn they can cope, they can adapt and that often (not always, of course) they can make things better themselves. And that even when they can’t fix a situation, they will recover sooner or later.”
I am far from a perfect parent and have made many mistakes along the way – I have shouted and lost my temper. But when things go wrong, my children don’t fall apart and stay in their room all day and sulk. They might go off in a huff, but they usually appear soon (ish) afterwards with a change of disposition. They are pretty bullish and confident and when they were babies, I always picked them up when they were crying. Looking back, I think this was the secret to bringing secure, confident children, and I don’t regret that for a second.