Victoria Smurfit: ‘Postpartum depression had me manically sobbing in the middle of Ranelagh’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan: In this episode Hollywood actor Victoria Smurfit talks about how her children are coping with their mother’s steamy role in Rivals
‘There are times I regret having kids. They’re adults, and it’s now that I’m regretting it, which seems strange’
Parenting Taboos: Regretting parenthood, or wishing you hadn’t had some of your children, is a deeply guarded secret for some parents
Some ideas for parents that may make the week a little less ghastly for all
Jen Hogan: Halloween and midterm are coming but don’t be afraid, because there’s plenty that you and the kids might enjoy, from a haunted trail in north Dublin to a ninja course in Galway and a book with ghost stories from every county
Maïa Dunphy: ‘I was terrified of becoming a single parent. Now I am one’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan: The writer and TV star on having a one child, needing her mum and à la carte Catholicism
‘I went to a CrossFit session on her due date’: Julie-Ann Russell on pregnancy as an elite athlete
Parenting in My Shoes: Working and training, the Republic of Ireland and Galway United player suffers from the dreaded parental guilt
Roddy Collins: ‘My biggest regret is telling Johnny Giles when I was 18 to stuff the international team’
The former professional football and manager on his friendship with Vinny Jones, his love for Achill Island, and what happens when you die
Having a favourite child: ‘Unfortunately, it impacts on them, but they do it all to themselves’
Parenting taboos: If parents are aware they have a favourite child, there are things they can do to address the situation
Tony Cantwell on ADHD: ‘I just thought is this what parenting is, a big fog?’
Conversations with Parents podcast with Jen Hogan
Baby loss: If they had said to me, ‘you can keep him in there forever’, I would have done it
For Gill Lee, October will always be the month she lost her son Danny, in her sixth month of pregnancy
Loneliness in your 40s: ‘As a parent, your friends are often other parents ... they’re not your tribe or people you’d choose’
Jen Hogan: Social media links us in a non-physical way and is frequently fake or superficial. People who live close to us and who are available to meet up with are vital to middle-aged wellbeing
Niall Muldoon: My psychological quirk? Am I going to say this to The Irish Times?
The Ombudsman for Children is a clinical psychologist from Donegal, who has worked in the area of child protection for more than 20 years
Finding family through DNA tests: ‘It was lovely to know everything. It wasn’t always a pretty story, but at least I knew’
Three women explain how simple tests revealed secrets about their families’ pasts and changed their lives
The ‘gender disappointment’ taboo: ‘That’s it, I’m never going to have a little girl’
Parenting taboos: Experiencing gender disappointment is understandable, and parents shouldn’t feel guilty for having those feelings, says expert
Olympian David Gillick: ‘I coach children. It can be hard dealing with parents ... some get so caught up on results’
Gillick covered the Paris Olympics for RTÉ. He is a two-time European indoor champion and Irish 400m record holder, as well as an ambassador for VHI parkrun
What does the widespread use of Botox and fillers say to our daughters?
Make-up, moisturisers and keeping fit used to be enough. Now there should be no evidence of lived experience etched on your face