Wednesday Wisdom
Tooled Up tips for loving parents around the world
08/10/2025
Cycle of Life
Every year, World Mental Health Day arrives as a global reminder to pause, reflect, and care for our emotional wellbeing. For me, this week brings a mix of feelings, as yesterday marked the anniversary of a dear friend’s passing, but also my father’s 81st birthday. It feels incongruous and confusing to experience grief alongside gratitude.
30/09/2025
Golf’s Gladiators
The Ryder Cup isn’t golf as you know it. It’s not polite claps on manicured lawns. It’s roars, chants and pressure so fierce that even the brilliant Rory McIlroy admits his hands shake on the first tee. Every two years, Europe and the United States transform fairways into battlefields, with players stepping into an arena more gladiatorial than genteel.
24/09/2025
Questioning Minds
We had a mammoth clear out at the weekend. My kids seem to grow like beans and clothes bought only months ago no longer fit. Bagging stuff up to pop in the charity clothes bin, one of them asked if the items will really all be sold or reused.
17/09/2025
Seeking Balance
As September rolls in, many of us feel the urge to reset. New routines begin, workloads intensify, and family schedules fill up. But amidst the busy, how we can find balance? How can we prioritise tasks and responsibilities with experiences that help us recalibrate?
10/09/2025
Rapid Responses
As usual, September has started with a bang. Schools are back, routines are being re-established and in the Tooled Up office, requests for support from teachers and parents are coming in thick and fast. Questions about classroom practice, concerns raised by families, emerging issues in the media; our inbox is packed full of opportunities to help.
03/09/2025
Back to School Safety
Every parent wants their child to be safe when out and about, crossing busy roads and junctions, going or returning home from school. On school day mornings, things typically feel much more rushed, traffic volumes rise, and children, many of whom are walking or cycling independently, are at higher risk of coming to harm.
27/08/2025
August Angst
There is something about August. It is meant to be a month spent relaxing by the sea or reading nice books and not thinking about anything stressful. Instead, millions of parents have been dealing with the August juggle; exam results, parenting whilst working and the anticipatory anxiety of school return or university/college transition.
13/08/2025
Results-Ready
“Sick to my stomach”, “bracing myself”, “can’t cope”, “scared to death!”, just some of the descriptors parents have used to convey what it feels like to be a relative waiting for their offspring’s high stakes exam results. Across the UK, parents and students await exam results that are released to students tomorrow.