Megan Nicol Reed
Columnist for Canvas magazine
Columnist for Canvas magazine
We are your advocate, Aotearoa. Uncovering stories that matter, asking hard-hitting questions of those in power, live-blogging sport events, monitoring the highs and lows of the NZX and providing Premium expert opinion and analysis. Bringing you distinctive, quality journalism and breaking news from across New Zealand and around the world. With specialists working together to create indepth reads, engaging video, and unmissable podcasts.
Check out Megan Nicol’s latest content
Megan Nicol Reed: How to write a will
It's a cumbersome task. The kind you put off. Until it's too late.
Megan Nicol Reed: The problems I'm fortunate to have
Megan Nicol Reed knows she's fortunate to afford these problems, but they're still tough.
How to cope with the opposite sex
'I am so glad my son knows females as human and not some rarefied beings'.
Megan Nicol Reed: Take me back to childhood
Megan Nicol Reed on why we all need still need our mums.
'Why I'll never be a fan of the royals'
'I cannot understand the slavish adoration of a person or persons you do not know.'
Megan Nicol Reed: How to avoid entitled kids
What do you do when your child has a privileged upbringing?
Opinion: 'Am I a fake feminist?'
How can I tell my daughter to treasure her body while loathing parts of my own?
What happens when you see your teenage crush years later
Megan Nicol Reed sees her teen crush for the first time in 25 years. Here's what happened.
Why children are not always the innocent party
Megan Nicol Reed on the innocence — or not — of youth.
Megan Nicol Reed: Confessions of a Canvas columnist
Megan Nicol Reed answers her most commonly asked question.
How to tell if you're the 'man' in your relationship
Megan Nicol Reed on roles within a relationship.
Why do we fight with our partner during holidays?
Megan Nicol Reed opens up about travel tiffs.
Open letter: 'I want to move house, my husband doesn't'
I am hungry for change, writes Megan Nicol Reed.
Sex every night for a year? If only
Life has a tendency of coming between you and your good intentions.
Why do we fear we won't be liked?
We need to put ourselves out there and speak up without fear, writes Megan Nicol Reed.
Why don't we make fewer resolutions with more resolve?
Megan Nicol Reed shares her two key intentions for 2018.
Opinion: Overcoming the diet roller coaster
With nothing to look forward to, dieting used to make me not get out of bed.
Opinion: Why all we need is love
Sometimes I am ashamed that I am happy ... in spite of everything I have.
'I admit it, shopping makes me happy'
Megan Nicol Reed: I'm not quite sure what to do about it but shopping makes me happy.
Why I was wrong about millennials
I've been left both pleasantly surprised and strangely perturbed by millennials lately.
'I'm late, I'm late ... yes I'm always late'
Megan Nicol Reed comes clean about being chronically late.
Megan Nicol Reed: Why hoarders are selfish
Megan Nicol Reed on the moral imperative to declutter.
'Yes, I yell at my kids and I'm ok with it'
When dad's away, things can go one of two ways. Will the kids behave or not?
Forget passion, it's duty we need
We like to think of ourselves as passionate, subversive even.
Megan Nicol Reed: I miss my reckless youth
Megan Nicol Reed reminisces on her adventurous thrill-seeking days.
'Climate change is real and coming'
History has shown us to be both frequently and wilfully blind to great danger.
Are you having a mid-life wardrobe crisis?
When Megan Nicol Reed turned 40, she thought she'd sorted out her wardrobe for good.
Megan Nicol Reed: Ticking off life's tasks
Why, in a fire, I would save my to-do list over passports and jewels...
Megan Nicol Reed: Facing changing times
There are as many ways of being old as there are young, writes Megan Nicol Reed.
Are you a party animal or homebody?
OPINION: I have come to realise I am neither total party animal nor complete homebody.
How do you teach children who to trust?
How do I teach my son to expect the best in and of people, and yet to be wary?
Should you ever mix your friendship groups?
I will happily organise an event but would never just pick and choose my friends.
Megan Nicol Reed on children's hobbies
Horse-riding is one hobby Megan Nicol Reed hadn't imagined for her daughter.
Opinion: Losing and the art of pessimism
Last Friday was the Canon Media Awards. I was not a winner. And I was okay with that.
Reed: On envying younger women
Megan Nicol Reed writes an open letter on younger women and their effect on self-esteem.
Megan Nicol Reed: In praise of kid-free holidays
Mother and wife Megan Nicol Reed goes on holiday without her kids.
Opinion: The pros and cons of perfection
"You might be a bloody perfectionist, but I'm not." My son was right. I am.
How do we distinguish vice from virtue?
OPINION: The first time I met my husband I caught him out in a lie.
Megan Nicol Reed on how we live
OPINION: We were Melrose Place. We were Friends. We were literally having sex in the city.
Reed: Why I postpone pleasure
OPINION: I've been perfecting the art of postponing my pleasure as long as I can remember.
Megan Nicol Reed: The passing of time
Tomorrow we gain an hour. I think that's right. Yes, we fall back into winter.
How to stay sane in the age of Trump
Opinion: Lately, I find myself wondering what shape my death might take.
Coming to terms with who we really are
OPINION: Does it begin at 7 or 8 or 9 years of age? This knowledge of what makes you you.
The low moods inspired by the season
OPINION: I am not someone who buckles under a schedule. But in my current state of melancholia, every task hangs over me with a terrible inexorability.
Opinion: How life can lead us in unexpected directions
OPINION: Mostly we are ignorant of what we will become, writes Megan Nicol Reed.
The joy and despair of missing your partner
COMMENT: Megan Nicol Reed discusses the dichotomy of missing and relishing being separated from a partner.
The art of non-competitive friendship
COMMENT: Admittedly it took me years of tears, whole soap operas worth of dramas, to realise you don't own your friends.
How romance changes with time
She put it in caps: The Sex Issue. It was an email from the editor, signposting this weekend's theme. She does that from time to time
Megan Nicol Reed: How to teach a child to be fair
So that was January. How unrelenting it was. As if the school holidays might never end. Of course there was the weather. That didn't
Which rules we should (and shouldn't) follow
COMMENT: In my wildest imaginations there I go, leading the charge. A rebel, a renegade, a revolutionary - but, in truth, I am no rule-breaker.
Opinion: What makes a good mother
OPINION: These summer holidays have presented me with umpteen long and uninterrupted spells with my children, writes Megan Nicol Reed.
Megan Nicol Reed: Living communally
We come together in summer in irregular ways. Hot, tipsy, temporarily unchained from work and duty.
Opinion: Starting anew for a new year
Why hello there! Happy New Year! Welcome back! Here's to 2017!
Forgive yourself this festive season
Every week I entreat you to write and you have and you do. Sometimes you've been cross, occasionally cruel, mostly, though, you've been thoughtful and you've been kind.
Megan Nicol Reed: Last-minute disasters
The fall in itself was nothing special. It was more the terrible inevitability of it, toppling so sickeningly slowly. Four stricken
The pleasure and pain of giving
My son didn't like the shorts I had bought him. Wrong colour, apparently.