Babble Australia

Win Free Movie Tickets To Sam Mendes’ Away We Go!

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:30:29 +1100

There’s a cool new movie that’s set to come out on the 10th of December, called Away We Go which looks at parenthood in a wry and very, very funny fashion (it’s got Alison Janney in it!)

And guess what. We’ve only gone and got 10 double in-season passes to give away to you lot out there! We know, we know. Too good to you. But don’t thank us just yet – let’s look at the official blurb and the trailer first…

Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) brings us this hilarious and heartfelt story of a young couple embarking on the most exciting, frightening, strange, and wonderful journey imaginable: starting a family and settling down.
When Burt and Verona discover that they are going to have a baby, panic sets in. They hate the small town where they live, and now that Burt’s parents are moving away, they will have no support system in place to help them there. So they hit the road in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they visit an assortment of relatives and old friends. Some are hysterical oddballs, some are heartbreaking inspirations, but all of them help lead Burt and Verona to the most unexpected of destinations where they finally discover that the only thing they need to build their home is each other.

You can see the trailer here

Looks like a corker, doesn’t it? Well, all you have to do to win your tickets is tell us – in 25 words or less – where you would love to call home if money were no object. It could be Rotterdam or anywhere – Liverpool or Rome – just let us know where your ideal home is and why and you could be off to the movies. Away you go!

Babies, Photoshop And Body Image

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:31:10 +1100

There’s been a big hullabaloo lately in the British press about baby images being air-brushed and Photoshopped before they’re put onto magazine covers and into circulation. Apparently, the major magazines, like Practical Parenting and Pregancy have admitted to digitally messing with babies’ skin tone, eye colour and fat creases – all in the interests of making a prettier picture. And let’s face it those spotty, chubby, pasty- faced Brit kids need all the help they can get.

JOKING. I’m joking. of course. British babies are just as ugly or pretty or average or normal as any other nation’s baby. Depends on your taste. Me? I like dark-looking kids because my kids are dark-looking. Other parents like babies who look like Hitler because their baby looks like Hitler. Each to their own.

I suppose we all worry about how our children look. Can I even say that? Or is that already too much Goddamn honesty for you people? I know, I know – I would love my kids no matter what they look like – even if they looked like Lyle Lovett or Kelly Osbourne. Maybe not quite as much, but I would still love them. Nevertheless, I bet you have worried about how your baby might look. Or fretted even just a tiny bit that they MAY turn out to be the ugliest kid in primary school. I’m not saying you worry about this shit night and day. I’m just betting it’s crossed your mind on occasion.

But, on the whole, I’m sure you all think your child is gorgeous. Every parent thinks their kid is beautiful. Why? Because their baby is THEM – it’s a projection of themselves. Isn’t it time we all faced up to the narcissistic side of being a parent? Of COURSE we think our children are beautiful and wonderful – they’re a better, brighter model of ourselves! They’re a little cipher for all our hopes and dreams and ideals. They’re the perfect little King or Queen we could never be.

How do I know this? Because of the overvaluation. That’s the key. When something is prized way too highly, unrealistically, it’s always a tell-tale sign that something is a tad skewed psychologically-speaking. Most parents ascribe every little perfection to their children and hide or ignore any failings. ESPECIALLY in comparison with other children. And if they say they don’t, they’re lying. Even when they do the equanimous parent and down-play their children’s abilities or complain about them, I still think they secretly believe they have the best kid in the world. I’d go so far as to say that a lot of parental love is simply self-love. And we ALL know how confused self-love can be.

Come on! You know it’s true. Sure it’s hard to admit. But deep in your heart you know I’m right.

Anyway. Back to the Photoshopping of baby pictures. What’s the big deal? The whole ish of magazines re-touching photographs has been in the news a lot lately because of local Australian mummy blogger Mia Freedman and her National Strategy on Body Image campaign. The big idea is that we should all be happy with who we are; that we should just be natural – whatever size, shape or colour. This is our new moral credo. Actually, it’s been around for quite a while. People have been saying it since the 90s kicked in.

What concerns me about Mia’s latest crusade is just that. It’s a crusade – a moral battle to impose a new will on the population. But even worse, it’s actually a fashion statement in the guise of a moral one. This latest thing about being “natural” or “real” is just part of the entertainment/advertising biz cycle. In the 80s it was big hair and shoulder pads. In the 90s we started the retro thing. We’re still doing retro these days but with a renewed emphasis on organic and natural. Kind of like the 1970s dressed up for the 2000s. All the celebs are doing concerts in bare feet and buying Prius. And those infernal green bags…

Nature! Being “real”. It’s back! It’s the new black. No more re-touching. No more digital fixing of wrinkles. Sara Murdoch you rock! Real talk, real talk.

It’s ALL fashion. And “being yourself” is the 21st Century version of “greed is good.” We’re in another cycle. And people like Mia who are very attuned to fashion cycles are riding the bandwagon. All the celebrities are into a good cause now and what better cause than loving yourself? Or adopting a baby from Africa and loving yourself in little African form? Go Madonna! Go Brangelina! Yay! You’re such GOOD people. And humanitarians too. You can be the humanitarian side of the battle for oil in Africa. Nicole’s even got herself on some UN committee and made herself a “good will” ambassador. Well, “Ambassador”, throw me your 303.

You see the problem with nature and natural photographs and nature-babies etc is that there’s no such thing. There IS no natural. There’s only culture. We’re stuck with our human culture folks. We preen. We groom. We are ARTIFICIAL by definition. We make and construct everything. EVERYTHING. And even “nature” and “good causes” is just another image advertisers need to keep the units moving!

So, I wouldn’t worry too much about the Photoshop scare and the big push for “reality” of the late 2000’s. Remember acidophilus? Who worries about that now? We’re all freaking out about antioxidants these days. Realness and naturalness is a fashion and like Zac Efron and Mad Men it’ll be out of fashion soon enough. We’ll all have our babies back in sailor suits and pink rouge on their cheeks in another 10 years. I’m not going to sweat the latest fashions. I’m happy to watch them come and go…

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Post-natal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:30:56 +1100

New parenthood is naturally an anxious time. The middle of the night breathing checks, the constant inspecting of bumps and rashes, the frequent calls to the doctor — most parents can identify with the feeling of being on high alert. But the stress takes a different turn for 2-3% of women, who are tormented by recurring, aggressive thoughts about hurting their babies. Postnatal Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is not commonly talked about, but psychiatrists are understanding it more and more. Meanwhile, brain researchers wonder if this anxiety disorder might be an adaptive parenting mechanism gone awry.

Mums with OCD have visions of stabbing, drowning or suffocating the baby repeatedly throughout the day. Along with fears of contamination or rigid ideas about feeding or bathing, these images pop into their minds over and over. A mum might pick up a knife to cut broccoli and think, “What if I . . . ”

Merrill Sparago, a psychiatrist who specialises in helping women both during pregnancy and post-natally, says that almost all new mums have bizarre thoughts, but for mums with OCD they are repeated and intrusive. After a while, the mum begins to doubt herself, worrying that if she’s thinking this way she might actually be capable of following through.

Mums with postnatal OCD hide the kitchen knives, or avoid the baby as much as possible, fearing that they might act on a disturbing thought. But according to Sparago, these mums are not dangerous. Postnatal psychosis — a separate disorder in which a mum loses touch with reality and her aggressive thoughts seem logical to her — requires immediate medical attention. This was the diagnosis in the famous case of Andrea Yates, who drowned her children in the bathtub because she believed she was saving them from evil.

In contrast to this, the very fact that a woman with OCD is bothered by her thoughts and wants them to go away means she’s no more likely to hurt her baby than any other mum.

James Swain, a scientist at the University of Michigan, says that a new parent’s brain is wired for anxiety. He argues that having a certain level of this post-natal emotion is evolutionarily adaptive — it has helped us keep our babies out of harm’s way for thousands of years. Swain and other researchers at Yale found that, even for a ‘normal’ parent, the sound of a crying baby triggered brain regions associated with anxiety and OCD. The problem with the full-blown disorder is that a woman becomes stuck in thought patterns that are no longer adaptive and disturbing thoughts or fears become caught in the obsessive-compulsive machinery.

Not surprisingly, a mum with OCD is likely to keep her thoughts to herself, fearing that the rest of the world, or even her partner, might think she is crazy. Sparago stresses that the correct diagnosis is key (distinguishing OCD from post partum depression or psychosis), because the treatment that follows will be tailored to the mum’s needs. Along with medication, cognitive behavioural therapy helps mums slowly approach their fears. The key is to separate the obsessions from a mum’s self-concept. “It takes a long time to convince a mum with OCD that she’s not crazy,” says Sparago, “and to accept that her thoughts are the fault of the disease — she is not a bad person.”

If you think you might need support during your pregnancy or postpartum, help and information is available through Post Partum Support International.

All Around The World

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:30:17 +1100

Two years ago, passport and frequent flier number tucked in her nappy bag, our four-month-old daughter, Eloise, wound through the cobbled streets of Fez, Morocco strapped to my husband’s chest. Slabs of raw meat hung from butchers’ stalls and the smell of freshly dyed leather and Moroccan spices filled the ancient walled city.

Our little “worm,” as my husband, Brian, calls her, craned her neck to absorb the scenes. Women and children kissed her cheeks and hands in the market. And like the mysterious Islamic call to prayer sounding overhead, we experienced something spiritual — sharing our passion for travel with our infant daughter. By the end of her first year, we had hit Morocco, England (twice), and Cameroon.

But despite our excitement over our baby’s adventures, we caught grief from friends and family about dragging our infant around the world.

Before parenthood, we globe-trotted without a care. Our passports grew thick with hundreds of stamps from work and leisure travel and a two-year stint in Moscow, where I became pregnant. With the news of the pregnancy, the warnings from our seasoned-parent friends became louder.

“You’ll see,” our friends said. “Once you have a kid, life will change, and you won’t travel anymore.”

The excuses ranged from financial constraints and travel-related illnesses, to disrupting sleep schedules and the inconveniences of air travel. Gripped by their kid-fears, most parents we knew let their children dictate their lives. Rather than grounding us, our daughter’s birth fuelled our sense of adventure. Of course having a baby meant tweaking our lifestyle a bit, but most of the changes we made accommodated our desire to see the world, not her schedule.

In January, and with Eloise walking and talking, we accepted another overseas assignment, and our family moved to Douala, Cameroon. Visions of the three of us criss-crossing the continent in a safari jeep made me giddy with excitement. For a few months, our move to West Africa fit neatly into our plan of raising a little citizen of the world.

Our two-year-old recited her ABCs and counted to ten in both English and French. She knew the difference between a water buffalo and a cow. And she understood that the world is larger than “Birginia,” where she was born, or “Norf Carwina,” and “New Orweans,” where her grandparents live.

Our big world shrank to pretty small this spring, however, when we hit some turbulence. The only bug we had hoped she would catch was the travel bug. So when our Cameroonian doctor stood in our bedroom and told us that Eloise had malaria, tears welled in my eyes and self-loathing thoughts ran rampant through my mind.

That first night, her fever reached 104 degrees, and in those moments that she lay writhing and moaning in my arms, I questioned every decision we had made up until that point. Maybe our friends and family were right. Maybe we shouldn’t take all these risks with our daughter and just live a “normal” life, in which Disney World tops our travel wish list.

Upon hearing the news, all of our seasoned-parent friends and family responded with the same shock: “Malaria!” The naysayers were vindicated.

But after three days of mixing a green liquid medicine into her chocolate milk and bribing her with cookies to drink it, our little worm wriggled her way back onto her trampoline — malaria free. Along with her declining fever, those moments of doubts about our unconventional lifestyle faded. We understood well what could have happened, but our family had no room for kid-fears in our suitcases. Armed with our antimalarial pills, mosquito nets and bug repellent, we started planning for our next big trip to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

Hiking three hours through the rainforest to see Dian Fossey’s gorillas poses many problems for a toddler. (We have limits.) So we did something our friends back home would have done. We hired a baby sitter. We found her through the American Embassy in Kigali, and the next day, Brian and I trekked up to the gorillas and back again, reuniting with Eloise at the lodge by 3 p.m.

Eloise missed the big furry beasts, but they probably would have freaked her out anyway. Instead, she rode with us through the countryside, with children waving and running along side the car. She saw kids, not much older than she, playing and working on farms. She heard different languages and learned how to say a new word, “Rahwunda.”

This time, I posted pictures of our travels on Facebook. Some of the images showed Eloise posing with a plaster gorilla family back at the lodge, and others showed Brian and I less than six feet from an actual silverback. As I expected, the comments rushed in. But this time, they took a different tone.

“Amazing,” and “sooo cool,” appeared in multiple posts from those who typically knocked our decision to show Eloise the world. Finally, it seemed, we agreed on something. The trip was “awesome,” as one friend wrote, but having our little worm along for the ride made it more so — spiritual even.

I expect when Eloise grows up, she might not remember vividly the mountains of Rwanda. She may have forgotten how to speak French, and for sure, she will only know the Moroccan kisses as a classic family story told to her throughout the years. But if she has a choice between travelling to Disney Land or Dakar, I hope she senses that same mysterious calling we felt that first year in Fez and lets passion, not fear, guide her through her life.

All photographs by Jamie and Brian Rich

Win A Family Pass To Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:30:27 +1100

Imagine a world free of grocery shopping, cooking and the question despised by parents the world over; “what’s for tea”. Intrigued? Then Sony’s new animated adventure Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs- and this giveaway- is for you!

Wacky inventor Flint Lockwood is desperate to create something that will make people happy. But when his latest machine, designed to turn water into food, accidentally rockets up into the clouds, he thinks his inventing career is over. Or at least he does until something amazing happens – his machine actually works and hamburgers start raining from the sky!

The food weather is an instant success. But when people greedily ask for more and more food, the machine behaves erratically, unleashing spaghetti hurricanes and giant meatballs, the likes of which have never been seen before. With the town about to be buried beneath mountains of marshmallows and waves of watermelons, it’s up to Flint, with the help of the local weather girl, to put everything to right.

Sounds delicious, no?

Inspired by Judi Barrett’s beloved children’s book and featuring the voices of Anna Faris, Bill Hader (no, we didn’t know who they were, either) and Mr T, Meatballs is 90 minutes of 3D animation that, we’d guess, will get the whole family’s mouth watering.

And thanks to Sony, we have ten family passes to the film to give away! To enter, tell us in 25 words or less; if you could make it rain a food or beverage, what would it be and why?

Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions before entering and good luck! Now excuse us- there’s a Peppermint crisp a’calling…

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, only at the movies on the 26th of November- also in 3D at select cinemas.

Why I Hate Pocket Money

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:16:04 +1100

Our little boy is growing up. Even in the past few weeks he seems to becoming less of a child and more adult somehow. Well, not an adult. Just older. It seems as if everything has suddenly clicked. A threshold has been reached. A tipping point? Maybe he’s more aware or more self-conscious. Maybe it’s the way he looks at me or talks with us around the dinner table… I don’t know. But when I dropped him off at school a few days ago, tears brimmed in my eyes as I watched him lope away laughing with his school friends.

He used to look back and wave…

It’s hard. When they’re born they’re so close. It seems as if they’ll never leave! Never grow up. You feel like they’ve been sent to torment you forever. But before you know it they’re at school. Going out by themselves. The next thing you know, they’re screening your phone calls. And you’re begging them for a bit of attention or any scrap of info they care to give about their lives.

“Hello? Son? What? Speak up! My hearing’s not so good anymore. Say again? You got married?”
“In VEGAS??”
“Three years ago???”
“To a guy???!!!!!???”

Anyway. He’s growing up. And increasingly the question about pocket money is coming up. I suppose our boy is at the stage when he’ll be needing a little money for toys he wants to buy for himself. Or when he’s out with friends at the pool and he wants to get an ice-cream. Or when he needs to get pills at the club? I DON’T know. I don’t know how the youth of today live their depraved lives.

But I knew this day would come. How should we do this? How will he pay for the little bits and pieces of his life? Up til now we’ve been taking care of everything. ALL we ever seem to do is pay. He’s been bleeding us dry for seven years now.

And it’s getting worse: piano lessons, sports equipment, computers, X-Boxes. We’re hemorrhaging money. With all this buying I do for myself, it’s getting harder to buy the boy stuff as well. Pretty soon he’s going to want an X Box too. Just like his dad.

BUT here’s the thing. I have a BIG problem with the very idea of an allowance or pocket money. I just HATE it. I think it’s a desecration of all that’s truly wonderful and valuable about families.

Now I don’t want to come across all John Howard or Fundamentalist Christian Family Values on yo collective ass but I think there is something very special about families which is destroyed by putting your children on a wage.

That’s right. You heard me.

Pocket money turns your beautiful family into a business. A pretty lame, struggling one, sure but a business nonetheless. You’re no longer a father. You’re a goddamned CEO (without all the stock options, six-figure salary, Golden Parachute clause in your contract and government bail-outs of course). Suddenly the kids are not doing stuff around the house because they’re part of a family or doing their bit, helping out. No. They’re doing it because they get PAID for it.

And that changes everything.

The whole idea of pocket money just blows your family apart. And it places another barrier between you and your children.

Look at it this way. I see a family as a unified whole – as a group of people bonded together in something greater than themselves. And, when it works, you realise the essence of your self AS a member of your family. NOT as an independent person. You are who you are in relation to your family and everyone recognises their value as people in relation to each other and to the family group.

When you think about it – no matter how much people argue against communism, how depraved or idealistic it is etc – we ALL live in a communist system. It’s called your family. Where else in this cruel dog eat dog world do you experience the kind of selflessness that life in a family requires? Parents give and give with never any hope of a “return”. And what’s more, they don’t even care about getting a return. They give for the pleasure of giving. Your family works as a unit, together, for the greater good of the whole. “From each according their means TO each according to their needs”. That’s how it works. And THAT is the very definition of a happy giving, sharing and caring community. In a family, we each do what we can. And we look after those who need it. Without even a second’s thought about what we might “get out of it.”

It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing!

And now here comes pocket money. Instead of ideals of co-operation between honourable family members we get contracts, calculation and the merciless law of profit. Rather than performing tasks like mowing the lawn or doing household jobs because that’s their role in the family, your children do it for a cash payment. Back in the 1950s, even the mother used to be given an allowance from the father! You think that’s crazy? Well I think it’s just as crazy to put your kids on a monthly salary.

It’s an outrage! A poison! The competitive nastiness of the economic jungle infects a family and deprives it of its value to us – the calculation of individual gain wins out in what used to be a safe house that protected people from the ravages of the market. Where the family used to be a “haven in a heartless world” it now becomes simply another way of doing business. What a disaster.

And yet I still hear parents saying “Well little Johnny has to learn the value of money.” Or “it teaches children how to work in society – gives them respect.”

Well, maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. But one thing is for sure – using money is NOT rocket science. (No matter what the banks and “money managers” selling you complex financial instruments with fees-for-all-their-help-because-it’s-just-too-difficult-to-understand want you to believe). It’s something that you can pick up pretty quickly. Your children will learn its “value” soon enough. First job they have. They’ll get the picture. Money comes in. Money goes out. It goes out more than it comes in. Trust me. It’s a pretty easy concept to grasp.

No, I don’t think my role as a parent is to teach my son about the “harsh realities” of life on the market. My job is to give him the warmth and care and support that he needs to venture out into the cruel world. With confidence and a spring in his step. With a tiger in his eye. And a feeling for what is great and magnificent in life. Not with a calculating eye on profit, individual gain and the base value of cold hard cash. MY role is to teach him that human beings can be better than competitive individuals fighting like dogs for monetary gain.

So when as he grows up, too soon, and leaves us behind he’ll remember the warmth and solace of a group of people living together and working together as one.

Now THAT is value.

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The Ten Commandments For Raising Happy Kids

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:30:14 +1100

This week I’m pleased to bring you a simple but powerful list of things you should do each and every day to ensure you and your children enjoy health and happiness in your lives. As much as anything, this list has been developed to help remind you, and prompt you to practise the types of behaviours used and applied by happy people.

Happy people…

* Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed), for you and your children, and review them on a regular basis (i.e. daily). These goals should be consistent with your family values and priorities (so you might also need to spend some time clarifying these first).

* Eat well and exercise regularly, in some way, shape or form, every single day. Good nutrition is vitally important for growing bodies and minds, and exercise is both a potent anti-depressant and mood enhancer.

* Ensure you and your children get enough sleep and rest. Without adequate sleep our brains simply don’t work as well so as adults, we don’t think clearly, and our children won’t concentrate and learn as well at school.

* Meditate often and enjoy “wakefulness”. A healthy and happy life is about being “on” when you need to be on and just as importantly, “off” when you need to be off. Take regular, short breaks and make sure you allow your children some “down time” just to relax, have fun and to rest.

* Think optimistically; which means actively searching for and focusing on positives, but also facing up to any cold, hard realities in a constructive way (that is, looking for solutions). You can also teach your children to do this by overtly explaining how you deal with adversity (when you do it well!) and by guiding them to take a similar approach.

* Build positive relationships, both near and far. Happy people have both more and better quality relationships and they achieve this by spending more time creating, fostering, developing and enhancing their interactions with loved ones, friends and even work colleagues. Help your children to do this by encouraging them to and assisting them with friendships and social activities (including clubs and sports and extra-curricular activities).

* Find ways to utilise your strengths every single day; too many people spend too much time trying to fix all their weaknesses but happy people don’t just ask “what’s wrong and how can I improve?” they also ask “what’s right and how can I do more of it?”. As parents, we can apply this important strategy by encouraging our children to do more of what they already do well. If, for example, your child receives an A, B and C on his report, attend to the “C” as you no doubt already do but focus just as much on the “A” and work out how he can utilise this “A” as much as possible in his life.

* Set yourself and your children challenges every day or week, and regularly vary your routines. Security and stability is important in life, as it allows us to feel comfortable and safe, but challenge and appropriate levels of risk are important so we gain from “good stress” and learn how to cope with change as well as experience new and interesting things we otherwise might never get to see.

* Practise appreciation and gratitude; focus more on what you have and less on what you don’t have. Every day, write down, and ask your children to write down three good things that have happened; or three things that have made you or them laugh; or three things that got you excited. Do this every day and enjoy more positivity in your life (and the lives of your children).

* Have fun! Laugh, play, sing and dance. It sounds simple but we sometimes forget!

Feel free to print out this summary and stick it somewhere you’ll see and be reminded of it often.

At The Happiness Institute (www.thehappinessinstitute.com) we believe that achieving happiness requires nothing more than practising a few simple habits on a daily basis – these are some of those habits, so start practising now and begin to experience more happiness and positive emotions in your life.

If you’ve got a specific personal problem regarding parenting and positivity for Dr Happy, do request an email address for him in the comments box below and we’ll do our best to make sure he answers your questions in a post later on.

Dr Happy (Dr Timothy Sharp) is a clinical and consulting psychologist, and the founder and CHO (Chief Happiness Officer) of The Happiness Institute. He’s the bestselling author of “100 Ways to Happy Children: a guide for busy parents” and “100 Ways to Happiness: a guide for busy people”. For more information about The Happiness Institute you can visit the website at www.thehappinessinstitute.com

Quiz: Are You the Work-at-Home Type?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:29:09 +1100

As a parent, working successfully from home requires the ability to balance two competing priorities both which are staring you in the face simultaneously. You also need to be able to work well with little or no face time with colleagues and supervisors. Think you have the chops to walk the tightrope alone and not fall off?? Take our quiz to see how you might fare.

1. You’re working on a project when you hear your child crying in another room where you know they are being supervised by a responsible adult. You:

A. drop what you’re doing to check in and make sure the situation is addressed before it gets worse
B. wait to see if the cries turn into wails before taking a peek
C. let the adult who is supervising handle it – you’ll only get involved if there is blood

2. The office Xmas party is scheduled for the same day as your kid’s school play. You:

A. go to the party and make sure someone who loves your child is in the audience, armed with a video camera so that you can watch it later with your child
B. happily go to your kid’s show because you hate those office parties anyway – now you have a good excuse
C. try to make it to both events, missing substantial portions of each, but successfully showing your face for a period of time

3. It’s 4:30 p.m. and you have an important deadline in the morning. You have at least four more hours of work to complete the project. You:

A. stop working at 5:00 p.m., spend time with the family and then, once the kids are in bed, work until 1:00 a.m.
B. call and ask for an extension until tomorrow afternoon
C. work past 5:00 p.m. and through dinner because you can’t relax with the project hanging over your head

4. Which of the following work projects is most appealing to you?

A. a longer-term project for which you are solely responsible
B. a group effort that requires consensus and the bringing together of work and ideas
C. a combination of both individual and team efforts

5. How do you like to communicate most with others?

A. in person
B. telephone
C. email

6. A large but important project is coming soon, but has yet to be assigned. You:

A. raise your hand to lead it; you always like a challenge
B. offer to help if needed
C. make yourself invisible

7. You get an email from a colleague that is written entirely in capital letters. You:

A.wonder why he is “yelling” at you and spend the rest of the day thinking about what you could have possibly done wrong
B. reply back to him in caps asking, “WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?”
C. pick up the phone and call him to straighten it out person to person

8. It’s been a few days since you last heard from your boss. You view this as:

A. a welcome rest; you take it when you can get it
B. a sign you are about to get canned; you begin to update your CV
C. an uncomfortable pause; you call your boss to check in and see what’s happening.

9. During work hours, the phone rings and you see it is your closest friend from uni. You:

A. anxiously pick up the phone and talk for the next 30 minutes
B. pick it up and ask if you can call him or her back when you’ve finished work
C. let the call go to voicemail and make a note to call back later in the evening

10. Which is more important to you during the day?

A. a change of scenery
B. a change of pace
C. I don’t like change

11. Which area do you question yourself the most?

A. my abilities as a professional
B. my abilities as a parent
C. both parent and professional equally

For each of the following statements, select how often each applies to you: (always, sometimes, never)

12. I have a hard time focusing on projects until the deadline is upon me.