OUR BLOG HAS MOVED..PLEASE REJOIN US

Jan 24, 2015

To our wonderful followers, 2015 is a big year for us where our BLOG has now moved to a SELF-HOSTED domain. This is so we can offer our followers more value – competitions, giveaways and great insight into raising TWEENS and TEENAGERS.

Unfortunately in the move, we have lost some of wonderful subscribers.

Please head to www.OurParallelConnection.com and follows us once more.

Thanks heaps for your support in the past and look forward to our relationship in the future.

Cheers

Natalie & Ashlea

A busy mother and her teenage daughter trying to survive growing up together. 

When I just need timeout

Jan 6, 2015

When I need to get away from everyone and everyday life, I turn to the girls at Sex In The City. I love the way the show makes me feel and I love that my life on nothing like theirs. Most of all I love SJP in this dress. What show do you turn to when you need to get away?

What kind of friend are you?

Dec 14, 2014

There are many types of friends out there, but for the sake of this blog, I am only going to list 5 types. Choose which friend you think you are and send this blog to your friends and see what they think.

What a Day to be Alive!

Dec 12, 2014

Teenagers are usually very easy to please, we just want our phone, our space and our wifi. This time of year it’s even easier. As much as it might seem like a pain to buy for us, we usually don’t want anything except what is the latest trend. It’s simple, buy me what everyone wants or has and I’ll be happy.

However, today (Friday 12th December), it takes even less to make us happy. To put it simply, today is a day when we receive gifts from the people we love. Going out on a limb here I am going to say that nearly 80% of all teenagers have either read the Harry Potter series or listened to 5 Seconds of Summer. Some are like me and are in love with them both.

If you have even a mild interest in either, you’re in luck. If you completely obsess over one or both, then your world has just been complete. Today marks the day of the release of 5 Seconds of Summer’s latest album (yeah these albums are just dropping like flies, I love it!!!) and the first short story in the Harry Potter collection.

Livesos is the highly original (note the sarcasm) title of the album that has been released by 5 Seconds of Summer today. Incidentally, it is an album full of fan favourites played live by 5sos, hence the name. This is a perfect Christmas idea for all the teens who are in love with the Aussie band.

A few days ago, JK Rowling, world renowned author of the Harry Potter series, sent word that she would be releasing one short story a day from the 12th- 24th of December. These short stories would be centred around all the untold stories of the Harry Potter series. I know this doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but to every single Potterhead in the world, this is massive news.

I’ll write reviews for both the Livesos and Harry Potter short story once I have listened and read them both.

💕ash

My Christmas loves

Dec 10, 2014

I started this wonderful Christmas journey 14 years ago. Every year I cherish the family photo as it shows exactly where my children were at. I can see how they have physically changed by also see the emotional development of each. I have never asked them to be someone they are not in these pictures as you can see by some of the expressions. I have been require to sit in a few because that was the only way I could get the pictures, but that was the stage they were at. I love this time of year. Do you?

 

Sometimes we just need to have fun

Dec 8, 2014

With all the Christmas stress we are living daily, sometimes we just need to relax and laugh.

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How do I talk to my teenager?

Dec 7, 2014

Communicating with a teenager can be like banging your head against a brick wall. The parent/teen rivalry has not changed from when I was a teen, but accepting that being a teenager today is different from years ago and so too is the way we communicate. Communicating with your teenager doesn’t mean you have to go out and learn all the new slang (although sometimes that does help a little), it is understanding where they are coming from so the communication between parent and child stays alive.

When you think your teenager won’t listen to you, or you have tried everything to make your teen listen, and things are still not working, maybe it’s time to take advice from the teen’s themselves. Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg has often talked about teens wanting to be treated with respect, wanting to be treated like adults and often feel that they are not being listened to. This of course, must go both ways for a successful connection.

Sunday Morning Envy

Dec 7, 2014

Nothing worse than waking up Sunday morning, checking out social media, only to find everyone you know had a much better night than you.

Yet Another Anti-Bullying Campaign

Dec 1, 2014

It’s true, mum and I have been floating on cloud nine after this happened last night:

https://twitter.com/BarsAndMelody/status/538970020118659072

A few days after we posted our blog Not Just Another Anti-Bullying Campaign, the boys we wrote it about (Bars and Melody) tweeted a link to the blog. Well we flipped obviously! It’s not everyday you get noticed by someone famous. After we got over the initial shock of being tweeted to over 200,000 people, we got more excited when we considered why we would be tweeted about.

Bars and Melody promote anti-bullying, and they’re famous for it. After their performance on Britain’s Got Talent, they went viral. Since then, they have moved on to travelling the globe spreading the word about how bullying affects so many people daily. The fact that these boys who have made it their life mission to support the anti-bullying campaign think that our blog about the topic was worth reading, is amazing.

These boys are really making a positive difference in the world and it feels really good to know that they think our post might help. Mum and I are so excited to know we have so many new readers who are willing to support Bars and Melody (and us of course) in the movement to stop bullying on a global scale.

As a teenager myself, I am surrounded by people who try and tell us their own bullying experiences and telling us to speak up if we are being bullied. As hard as it is to listen to these stories, there is always the thought that they are older than us and my generation doesn’t do that. However, when you hear a boy who is your age say that he was beat up for being different is a real reality check.

It’s really hard to imagine moving on from something like that but Leondre didn’t just move on, he went on to become a huge sensation that works towards stopping things like what happened to him. Well, I can say it’s working. Listening to all the girls talking after they spoke to us at my school, it was obvious that what they had said really stayed with them and probably will for the rest of their lives.

Bars and Melody are following the leads of other famous people who are taking a stand against bullying too. Some of these stars who feel just as strongly about the issue of bullying are Victoria Justice (star of Victorious), Demi Lovato (star who has faced bullying in the public eye as well as in private) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark from the Hunger Games trilogy). As well as these individuals my favourite TV cast, Pretty Little Liars, has come out against bullying.

These particular people stand out to me as people that are doing similar work to Bars and Melody. This is because all of the solo people I spoke about have done TV and radio interviews to promote anti-bullying and have joined organisations devoted to the end of bullying. The Pretty Little Liars cast is different. The entire TV series is devoted to bullying and the impacts it can have on the lives of everyone involved. Its a great TV show to show the effects (whilst extreme) of cyber bullying.

After hearing Bars and Melody talk about bullying, sing their self written songs (did I mention they are 14 and 16 and have written their own song. Can you say talent?) and then have them tweet about my blog post, I can safely say that these two boys are doing a great job to stop bullying. If you haven’t already, I would suggest checking out their audition for Britain’s Got Talent, it really is an inspiring video.

Ciao, Ash

Advice to your mum…

Nov 30, 2014

Here are the best five pieces of advice I can give any mum on how to raise a teenage daughter;