Massage - the perfect gift for the whole family on Mothers Day (or any day)

A good therapeutic massage is better than having sex ... seriously, you get touched in places that you cannot reach yourself (unless you're a contortionist). If you haven't had a massage - splash out and experience it for yourself. Tell yourself that you have earned it and that with all the demands on a modern dad (or mom) you deserve a little treat. Try out relaxation, deep tissue, Thai or Swedish massages to experience the bliss of therapeutic massages.

Once you have done that and you know what it feels like to have a massage you can give massages to your kids, babies or your partner. Even if when you're not professionally trained it's still likely to be highly enjoyable for the recipient in your family. What you lack in skill you can make up in enthusiasm and devotion to looking after your family.

Learning with dad - a smart start to life, part 5

One of the all-time favourite acitivities of dads with their babies and small children has got to be massaging them. From a very early eage on it's just superb to see how they totally love the feeling of being massaged. Well then again who doesn't like being massaged - why would babies and toddlers be different?

Basically you can never do too much massaging of your baby and it doesn't stop when they are a toddler. Here is a nice variation that teaches them about "bent" and "straight" and the concept of two sides to the body which you can use to introduce them to "left" and "right" (all of that as you are doing the massage).

Here's what you can do: Lay your child in the "crocodile position" as shown in the illustration. As you are massaging talk about the "straight" side and the "bent" side. After a while, get your little one to swap the bent/straight sides. That's it - easy!

Enjoy,

Stef