Life Style

Mutual dislike and distrust, or apathy bordering on estrangement blight many a sibling relationship in adulthood – and this can worsen as we age due to life stage transitions and differing opinions on family matters. Research published in the Journal of Social Sciences showed that almost 30% of brother or sister relationships can be defined as “apathetic,” with another 6% defined as “hostile”.In researching for his book, co-authored with Michael E Woolley, Adult Sibling Relationships, Dr Geoffrey Greif found that one in five (21%) of interviewees had a strained relationship with their adult siblings. The cosy ideal of supporting each other through the ups and downs of life like the Waltons siblings just isn’t realistic.Why our sibling relationships matterLove them or hate them, your relati...

Head lice (nits) are tiny six-legged insects that feed off the blood in our scalp. Photo / Wikipedia“It’s really horrific some of the stuff. [It’s] quite harrowing to hear a lot of the stuff from the people themselves and also from our school nursing network,” Ricketts said.“You don’t want to be putting fly spray on. There’s a whole lot of chemicals that are gonna burn your kid’s scalp.”Some parents told RNZ the cost of treatment made it difficult to keep on top of lice, especially when they had more than one child and the lice kept coming back every few weeks.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Auckland-based parent Shalene Williams said it cost about $20 to $30 for a bottle of lice shampoo, which the single mother said added up if nits kept coming back.“I have heard of people at school who ...

People are marrying later, divorce rates remain high and an ageing population means more people live alone in older age. Many people also make a conscious decision to remain single, seeing it as a sign of independence and empowerment.This is part of a global trend, with singledom increasing in Europe, North America and Asia.So, how does the singles tax work – and is it worse for some groups than others? What, if anything, can we do about it?Being single can mean not being being able to split living costs like groceries.Why does being single cost more?One of the biggest drivers of the singles tax is the inability to split important everyday costs. For example, a single person renting a one-bedroom apartment has to bear the full cost, while a couple sharing it can split the rent.Advertisemen...

Start by talking to your childFor many children, going back to school is a time of heightened anxiousness. This is a normal and expected feeling – even if it is uncomfortable.Some children may be unsure if they will be with their friends or their preferred teacher. Perhaps they are unsure about the new topics or subjects they will be doing. This uncertainty can easily lead to anxiousness.But some children will also be worried about known changes, such as getting up earlier and being away from home for a large portion of the day.When your child says they are worried about going back to school, what particular things are they worried about? Photo / 123rfThe first thing for parents to do is to understand their child’s apprehension: when they say they are worried about going back to school, wh...

Now she is a power in the land, with 1.3 million Instagram followers and a Substack blog that has 452,000 subscribers. Kraus says it generates revenues of between US$1 million and $2m a year (NZ$1.7m - $3.5m). Now she gets invited to Mar-a-Lago. Now, when she comes to New York, she stays at the Wall Street Hotel.Her detractors call her a peddler of conspiracy theories and one-sided coverage of celebrity court cases and campaign rallies. Those critics saw Kraus leading the online savaging of Amber Heard during her court battle with Johnny Depp, publishing an extensive list of conspiracy theories about the Princess of Wales on her Substack when the princess had not been seen in public for 77 days, and offering what one writer described as “a sometimes queasy blend of journalism and fluffery”...

Taking the stairs“When you walk upstairs, you’re working your quads, glutes and other leg muscles and boosting your hip mobility every time you lift your leg up to the next step,” Kervyn said. Research by the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust showed frequent stair climbing was linked with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. This includes heart attack, heart failure and stroke, and a 24% reduced risk of dying early from any cause. “Running up the stairs is even better as it further increases your heart rate,” Verdier said. Your muscles use a lot of power with effects similar to doing lunges and squats”.And don’t get lazy on escalators. “Every time you walk up an escalator instead of standing still, you’re working your core, glutes ...

As smear tests aren’t advised during pregnancy, the presenter remembers putting the letter away. “I always meant to get around to it once I could, postnatally. How I regret not doing that now,” she says.After Mabel’s arrival, she had extreme fatigue, heavy, irregular periods and a niggle that something wasn’t “quite right”. But she put it all down to being normal for any new mum, especially after a traumatic labour – involving a forceps delivery – after which she and Mabel both caught sepsis.“In my mind, it was 100% just a hangover from Mabel’s dramatic birth, although I’d started googling prolapses, wondering if I possibly needed a ‘little tweak down there’ or something?”AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Because of her brutal labour experience, Wilson never did book the smear she’d missed ...

“It is impossible to describe, you have to experience that yourself.”To celebrate, Koch toasted with Champagne and smoked a cigar before leaping into the Caribbean Sea, where a boat picked him up and took him to dry land for a celebratory party.Koch’s capsule had most of the trappings of modern life: a bed, toilet, TV, computer and internet – even an exercise bike.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.The capsule, about 15 minutes by boat from the coast of northern Panama, was attached to another chamber perched above the waves by a tube containing a narrow spiral staircase, providing a way down for food and visitors, including a doctor.Solar panels on the surface provided electricity. There was a backup generator, but no shower.Koch had told an AFP journalist who visited him halfway through hi...

Many foods made with butter are very fattening. Photo / 123rfYet at the same time, others such as Dr Mary Flynn, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University feel that butter has been unfairly demonised in favour of margarine which is an ultra-processed food.Flynn argues that it is the high sugar content in baked goods which makes them unhealthy and feels that the drop in heart disease deaths in the past half-century has everything to do with the development of drugs like statins, and less to do with butter.One particularly large epidemiological study from 2016 which examined butter consumption across more than 630,000 individuals and the possible links to disease, found that it had no association with cardiovascular disease. AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Instead, the study co...

“It’s stockpiled because we’ll need additional sand for backfilling behind those new retaining walls. We’ll use it up around the site and we don’t want to take away sand and then have to pay to bring it back in,” Dixon said.“But that’s a fraction of the sand that’s come out. Most of it has been moved to the Northern Link bypass from Tauranga to Te Puna,” he said, referring to it being moved for construction of the $655m Takitimu North Link stage one by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).The Pitau Rd site in October, 2024. Construction is under way of the Sanderson Group's retirement village and aged care facility.Approximately 32,000sq m of sand and 10,000sq m of topsoil has been taken from the site, Dixon said.One crawler crane and one piling rig are at work.AdvertisementAdvertise wit...