Exhausted mums can't interact with their babies and tired kids can't learn.

COMMENT: It's important to hold politicians to account. But what about our own standards?

COMMENT: Think synthetic cannabis won't impact your family? Think again.

COMMENT:Any employer worth their salt understands importance of flexibility with time off.

COMMENT: Todd Barclay could probably have done without this week's publicity.

COMMENT: What sort of person would lie about their parents being involved in fatal crash?

OPINION: School days are not always the best memories.

COMMENT: It was 12 years ago and we were buzzing with excitement at work.

COMMENT: To target children at a concert has to be the most despicable form of terrorism.

OPINION: Sperm donor from Prison? I was lost for words when the story hit the headlines.

COMMENT: People have known there is a problem with our waterways long before new report.

COMMENT: Who needs sleep when there's a new grandson to look after?

COMMENT: For me a cloudy rainy humid summer that promotes lush vegetation and full water tanks is an absolute blessing.

COMMENT: There seem to be two extremes of parenting - ignorant slacker and obsessive perfectionist.

COMMENT: I totally support the Greens' initiative to make te Reo Maori a core subject, along with English and maths.

COMMENT: So this Christmas, I will savour every last morsel of my whitebait fritter - because it may well be my last for a while.

Providing affordable, quality family homes was a major aim of the first Labour Government.

COMMENT: Vicki Letele is dying. She will not see her three young children grow up. That has to be a far worse punishment any court could give her.

COMMENT: Perpetuating the myth that young brown men are only able to achieve success on sportsfield seems to me to be just another kind of casual racism.

COMMENT: Everybody deserves a second chance. But Nikolas Delegat has a great deal of work to do on himself before he gets back to yacht racing in Newport.

COMMENT: It's awful arriving home to find your place has been burgled. The sense of violation is devastating.

COMMENT: There's always medals per capita and medals per GDP tables. Look at those and we're still beating the Aussies. That has to count for something.

COMMENT: Parents can be fined $150 for being responsible for their child's truancy but I'm happy to pay the price.

COMMENT: When you're going through a tough time, everything you can do to help yourself feel stronger and more empowered is vital.

COMMENT: The unpalatable truth though is that if I wanted to have a retirement of choices and freedom, I should have planned for it 30 years ago.

COMMENT: There I was, dry-mouthed, hands trembling, clutching my cue cards in sweaty hands. It was my final assessment for the Maori language course.

COMMENT: You shouldn't be able to get a soft option simply because your parents earn more money than their neighbour.

COMMENT: Men who hit women are bullies and control freaks and they're dangerous. If you choose violence, you need to own it and get help.

COMMENT: Watching the great Anzac Day massacre of 2016, I wonder how the Warriors will ever be well again.

COMMENT: I thought the old attitudes that suggested women were asking for rape by dressing a certain way had been expunged from our collective thinking. But no.