Dilemmas & solutions

Whether your child has just started school or is in the sixth form, parents' evenings can be daunting and unsatisfactory. Read Parenting Without Tears' top ten tips to get the most from your school meetings.

The plight of grandparents unable to see their grandchildren has been highlighted by Nick Clegg. Grace Parker-White, Senior Associate, Stevens & Bolton LLP, explains the current situatioon and how it is likely to change.

Lucy Lloyd, from the Family and Parenting Institute, explains how parents can find quality childcare solutions.

The experts at the Playwork division at SkillsActive, the Sector Skills Council for Active Leisure and Learning, has compiled the nine questions every parent should ask before choosing a registered out of school club or play setting.

Our two daughters, 12 and 16, share a room but they fight constantly and when they're not doing that they're moaning to us about each other. It would be best if we could separate them but at the moment that's simply not a possibility. I just don't know how to get them to be nice to each other, or even how to get them to leave each other alone. I feel the younger one goes out of her way to upset her older sister, but then I also know that the older one can be horrid to her sister. It's starting to feel like an impossible situation.

Do-it-yourself DNA kits to test paternity are now available to purchase on-line but, as Katharine Vigus, Senior Solicitor at Mills & Reeve, explains courts are giving proper consideration to "non-conventional" parents.

When going abroad it's not just the air tickets and passports that need to be remembered; both parents must be in agreement with the proposed travel plans or a court application may be required, writes lawyer Georgina Vallance-Webb.

I've just got a phone bill for £400! It turns out that my 16 year-old son has met a girl on the internet who lives a few hundred miles away. As well as talking to her endlessly on on MSN, it now turns out that he's also been phoning her on her mobile. A lot. He has agreed to pay back the money but he doesn't seem to have grasped why this might be a problem. I'm concerned about the very idea of meeting someone online but he tells me it's totally normal and everyone does it. What should I do?

My 13-year-old son is truanting. He's been steadily going off school for the past year or so but I thought it was just a phase that would pass. However he seems quite open about hating it. He didn't really bother to hide the fact that he had stayed at home instead of going to school; he just said school is boring and that there's no point in going. What should I do?

National Pet Month - 4 April to 4 May - is promoting good pet ownership and raising money to help the nation’s animal charities. The theme is Healthy Pets Make Happy Pets and here are the top ten tips.

Our daughter is 13 and I'm worried she's wasting money on her mobile phone. We bought her a phone for safety but she uses it to talk to and text friends. It's on a contract where she gets a reasonable amount of free call minutes and texts but we've noticed that her bills are claiming most if not all of her pocket money. I think she could be doing something better with it than spending it on phone calls but perhaps I'm being too harsh?

Worried about what and how much your children watch on TV? Dr Tanya Byron gives her guide to ensure that your child has a Viewtritional TV diet!

We're having problems getting our 12 year-old son to go to bed at a reasonable hour. He goes to his room but it's not long before he's playing games on his computer or watching TV and hours pass and he's still awake. He's looking . tired and he's grumpy but he just tells us he's not a baby and to leave him alone. What can we do?

Ask any parent if they have a favourite child and they will almost certainly reply that they treat their children equally. Most do but probe a little deeper and you’ll find that at some time or another one child has indeed been preferred. The trick for parents is to make sure no sibling feels he is either the favourite or is treated less fairly.

My 11 year-old son is forever coming home late. Sometimes he goes to a friend's house then goes on somewhere else but forgets to tell me. Other times he's almost at a loss to explain where he's been. It's like he has no concept of time. There have been times when I've had to go looking for him because he is late and I'm so worried. I have talked to him about safety issues and how worried I get. I have also grounded him but it hardly seems to make any difference, within a few days he's done it again.

My daughter is 12 and starting to really show her independence. Up until now we've had no formal way of giving her pocket money - she's just asked for money when she's wanted something and we've given it. But now I'm thinking that weekly pocket money is a better idea so that she learns the value of money. My husband thinks I'm being old-fashioned and that we should just keep going as is. Can you help is resolve this issue?

Our 10 year-old son is very keen on competitive sport. He's active since he was very young and he's always really enjoyed it. The problem is that recently we've noticed a change in the way that he behaves when he loses. Either he becomes very angry, resenting his opponent and sometimes us if we're not sympathetic to him, or he becomes distant and quiet often for a day or so after the event. I want him to enjoy sport and be competitive but should I be worried about this? 

I am worried that my 12-year-old daughter is being cyber-bullied. She suffered a bit of bullying in her last year of primary school before transferring to high school last year, but I thought the change of school would've put an end to it. She's quite a quiet girl but recently she's seemed even more subdued. I've noticed text messages appearing on her mobile phone and she never seems keen to explain who these are from. I know she has a bebo page too, but I don't even know how to get on to it. I have asked her if anyone is being horrible to her and she just says no. What can I do to find out what's going on and help her?