John Sharry

3 days ago | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionI’m worried about my 13-year-old. She has become very private and spends lots of time alone in her room. Two years ago she was a very chatty girl telling me all her news and now she is much quieter and does not talk to me much. I don’t get any news about school. She had a couple a friends in primary school and we used to have them over to the house, but that has stopped now she is first year.

2 weeks ago | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

My daughter is seven and is very anxious about going to sleep at night on her own. She is fine if a parent lies in bed with her, but if we leave she can get upset. Sometimes, she will come out of the room crying that she can’t sleep and we have to go back with her. She seems to be very troubled about being unable to fall asleep immediately when she lies down. She does not provide any reason for why she feels like this and is very outgoing and happy in all other aspects of her life.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

My daughter is 10 and in fourth class. Her teacher has reported that she is having difficulty with class work – task initiation and completion, lack of focus and so on. She often doesn’t complete class work, and gets emotionally overwhelmed in class because she has zoned out while instructions were being given to the class. A classroom strategy has been devised and implemented, but I think she needs more help. I know her abilities very well and I would understand her to be neurodivergent.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionI am struggling with potty training my daughter. She is three years and two months old and we have been potty training for more than three months. She never asks to go to the toilet herself and she will wet or soil herself twice or three times a day if I don’t put her in pull-ups. If I ask her to go to the toilet she sometimes reluctantly will go for me and sit on the toilet, but not regularly.

1 month ago | irishtimes.com | John Sharry

QuestionMy partner can be a fun, kind, loving father. But he can also be a raging bully, parenting by threat, chasing my son and sometimes hurting him physically. We’ve been through ultimatums, he has been to therapy, which seemed to help for a while. I can no longer watch him damage my son with his verbal abuse and physically threatening behaviour. He just can’t see the damage he is doing and brushes off everything I say now as “your way”.