As parents, what we say can have a massive impact on our children. And sometimes it’s what we don’t say that has the greater influence.

This week, I’ve picked posts by one dad and one mum blogger that emphatically illustrate both these points. In triplicate. And fluorescent yellow highlighter.

Goodbye, Pert Breasts: The Diary of a Newborn Dad

It’s funny the things that draw you to a blog, isn’t it? Ben Wakeling’s amusingly titled corner of the web first caught my eye because we both have academically inclined sons of a similar age named Isaac. But I keep coming back because he is a funny and insightful writer whose posts always brings a smile to my face.

Stop showing off is just such a post. Three words designed to bring a child down a peg or eleventy-five, an interjection surgically timed for maximum impact. It shouldn’t be a laughing matter but it is because it’s just so true. Admit it: we all do something similar from time to time, don’t we?

The Adventures of a Potty Mouthed Mummy

Sian is a fellow Berkshirite (I don’t know if that’s a word, but it sounds better than ‘berk’, doesn’t it?) who writes from the heart about life with her three-year-old son H.

However, she is also the product of a home in which she grew up largely without her father from the age of five. In her post Always love the other parent, she talks about how her mother had the wisdom to let her develop her own opinions about her absentee father as she grew up, rather than imposing them upon her.

It’s a sad but ultimately affirming tale of a mother who passed up short-term satisfaction for the long-term benefit of her daughter, and it’s a lesson all parents would do well to remember.

If you have any suggestions for great posts by other bloggers you’ve read this week, feel free to add them in the comments below.