Wednesday Wisdom
Tooled Up Tips for Parents and Educators Around the World
30/09/2026
To Autumn
Next week is National Work Life Week in the UK. This annual campaign is organised by the charity Working Families and is designed to get employers and employees talking about wellbeing at work and work-life balance. As our contribution to the conversation, we’ve invited executive coach and author Georgie Rudd to write this week’s Wednesday Wisdom.
23/09/2026
Finding Our Feet
Few things pull at our parental hearts quite like our children’s friendships. We can cope with forgotten PE kits, spelling tests and muddy shoes, but hearing that our child had no one to play with, has fallen out with a close friend, or feels excluded from a group can feel quite painful.
16/09/2026
Crisis and Connection
Last week, just two days before World Suicide Prevention Day, and in the same week that Prince William, Harry Kane and the Premier League lent their support to the Together Against Suicide campaign, PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide went into administration and closed with immediate effect.
09/09/2026
Returning to Rhythms
What with the endless hot days at home, to me, this summer has felt like a particularly long one. We were lucky enough to spend some of it travelling in Turkey. On the coast, paralysing heat meant that, for most of the time, all any of us wanted to do was laze on the beach reading books or (inevitably) scrolling, regularly dipping into the water to swim and cool off. We wove through the spice markets and bazaars of Istanbul, cruised along the Bosphorus and listened as the calls to prayer rang out and echoed across the city. We explored the impossible, otherworldly rock formations and ancient underground cities of Cappadocia, trying to fathom both the natural phenomena that had whittled the chimneys of stone and the human hands that had dug layer upon layer of tunnels deep below the ground. It became hard to remember that, back home, real life, jobs and school awaited.
02/09/2026
Totality and Term Time
There was one item in the family diary this summer that couldn’t be moved or negotiated with. At around 7.10pm on the evening of 12th August, the Moon would pass in front of the Sun, and whatever else we happened to be doing was going to simply have to stop.
26/08/2026
Sport and Summer Odysseys
With my husband away on business in Canada, one son spending the summer in Bologna and the other in Barcelona, there have been moments when I've felt rather like Odysseus's wife, Penelope, waiting by the loom, hoping that the men I love will return safely with stories to regale me with.
08/07/2026
The A-Z of Parenting
One thing my role at Tooled Up has taught me is that there is no such thing as a typical parenting question. Every day, we receive queries from our Tooled Up subscribers… about anything and everything. It might be anxiety. ADHD. Friendship fallouts. Sometimes, we’re asked about career choices. Screen time. Body image. Pornography. AI. Sleep. Dyslexia. Climate change. Vaping. Starting university. Sadly, we are often asked about bereavement. I could go on.
01/07/2026
Summer Stress and Stoicism
Hello, loyal WW readers. As the blazing heat that has engulfed my corner of the world finally eased this week, I found that I could breathe again and, more importantly, hear my own thoughts. The extreme temperatures experienced across Europe have brought with them a particular kind of cognitive exhaustion. Many of us have simply been trying our best to eat, sleep and function, whether at work, at home or online, under genuinely challenging circumstances. We often associate sunshine with rest and relaxation, but summer can bring its own unique pressures.