Is a Weekend Ski Trip to Thredbo Worth It? Totally!

While the idea of taking the kids skiing in the Winter school holidays sounds enticing, it’s a gamble. The snow in the early weeks of the season can be precarious, the lift queues packed and the prices hiked. Accommodation books out months ahead. So what about a weekend dash to Thredbo instead? Is that doable? …

ByJacinta Tynan23/08/2025

Holidaying With Kids: Castaway Island Has It All!

As soon as boarding our Fiji Airways flight to Nadi on a brisk Sydney winter pre-dawn morning, the tropical mood kicks in. The beaming faces of the Fijian airline crew (Hibiscus in hair), and the announcement from the captain to relax, that we are now on Fiji time. This is a good thing, I come to…

ByJacinta Tynan26/02/2022

Travel & Leisure

Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo

Not much has changed (in my mind) except for these fundamental things: it’s bigger. From 300 hectares established on a former WWII army training camp in 1977, Taronga Western Plains Zoo (as it’s now known) is now 1100 acres over a 6km circumference. There are more animals (from 400 different animals back then to 4,000…

ByJacinta Tynan17/02/2022

Parenting Videos

Sarah Napthali: Parenting Can Teach You Compassion. Here’s How…

Sarah Napthali is the Author of 'Buddhism for Mothers'. She explains how parenting using the Buddhist philosophies can help you to become a more compassionate and helpful person overall. Jacinta Tynam from Mother Zen says Buddhism for Mothers helped her focus on the joy of being a mother. Together, they talk about ways to be…

ByJacinta Tynan17/02/2022

Parenting

Felicity Harley On Balancing A Career, Relationship And Parenting With A Little ‘Me Time’

Many women would stress just at the thought of such responsibility, but Felicity’s attitude is “You just have to take it all in your stride”. She explains one of her strategies is to try to be fully aware when she’s at work and then do the same when it’s family time. Yoga and exercise are…

ByJacinta Tynan15/02/2022

Parenting

Do You Suffer From ‘Mother Guilt’? Mother Zen’s Jacinta Tynan Says Don’t!

'Hands up who feels guilty?’asked the charcoal-skirt-suited woman running the Working Mums seminar at a local preschool. Every hand in the room shot up. Every single woman - several having dashed there straight from work, still in their fitted blazers and patent black pumps; others, like me, delighted to be out after a day (all…

ByJacinta Tynan06/02/2022

Arts & Culture

The Hula Hoops Manipulator That Got Us In A Spin

It’s impossible to count how many hoops are in orbit at any one time around the svelte body of Irina Akimova. The Hula Hoops Manipulator keeps them spinning at such high rotation around her torso, limbs and neck, slipping yet another hoop seamlessly into the routine while simultaneously suspending one leg perpendicular in the air,…

ByJacinta Tynan15/08/2021

Destinations Travel & Leisure

Mum’s Getaway: Spicers Sangoma Retreat In Bowen Mountain, NSW

As anyone with young children would know, getting away for a night is not just difficult to coordinate, it’s also a luxury which most of us rarely (if ever) allow ourselves. So if you go to all that effort, you want it to be worth it. Even the drive up to Spicers Sangoma Retreat along…

ByJacinta Tynan13/07/2020

Destinations Travel & Leisure

Holidays With Kids: Jacinta Tynan Shares Her Trip Skiing At Falls Creek

A few years ago Jacinta Tynan shared her trip skiing at Falls Creek in Victoria and now that the ski season is here in Australia again, we decided to reprise it. Nobody warned me about the drive to Falls Creek. I’m not talking about the distance. At eight hours door to door (from Sydney; only 4.5…

ByJacinta Tynan22/06/2020

Lifestyle & Homes Parenting Videos

Yoga Baby! How To Teach Your Kids To Do Yoga And Be More Mindful

How Yoga, mindfullness and downward dog (chasing a cat!) can help your little one. Leonie Percy is a Psychologist and kids' yoga teacher. Here she shares some simple tips on how you can introduce your toddler to yoga and mindfulness in every-day situations. Leonie says: "Children are born doing yoga. They can do downward…

ByJacinta Tynan02/05/2020