To think David Cameron has a nerve setting standards for good parenting?

[echt]

You couldn't make it up, though to be fair he thinks everyone is bit shit and needs Tory guidance, not just the feckless proles, for once.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/10/david-cameron-parents-children-lessons#comments

Articles like these telling us what someone WILL say (rather than reporting what has been said) really get on my tits.

"DC will say this weekend ...." And it's published Sunday morning.

People who are probably in "need" of parenting classes won't be beating down the door to these classes.

Only 7% of the last lot were attended by men!

And yes many kids have parenting issues, because parents are people and people have issues.

"So - Cameron should accept that people - in spite of his best efforts - will separate."

??

His acceptance of that is included in the article linked to the OP.

We went on a parenting course specifically for parents of children with ADHD. It was really useful and one offered to all families in our area with a diagnosis. I get the feeling though, especially reading the SN and behaviour boards that we were very lucky to have this offered this, it's not something that happens all over the country. At the time (might still be the case now) the organisation that run it feared their council funding would be cut and they'd not be able to continue. There if no other support like this round here.

It also suspect its the sort of course we could probably do with when we get to the teenage years but I know there's nothing for that round here for that.

I really like the idea of parenting courses but I really hope they listen to what parents actually need, and what health and social care professionals can see is needed nationality and locally.

Has DC or his wife ever done any parenting?
They seem to be too busy, except for a quick publicity photo here and there.
Of course, nanny/ staff will have had to take instruction of coordinating their clothes for the picture.
Don't they just make you laugh.

Children or teenagers with very challenging behaviour need specialist help and I doubt any parenting courses offered will be like that.

NewLife4Me - see, that's an attiutude I hate - even though I am a SAHM, I don't think parents who work aren't 'real parents' - yes they both have full time jobs and a nanny, but that doesn't mean they don't spend any time with their DCs who are kept elsewhere by staff at all times, except when there's a photo op to bring them out for. You can attack Cameron for a lot of things, but having a job doesn't mean you aren't a loving, involved parent who uses their DCs just as an accessory.

"Yes - and did you see the rest of the stuff"

Yes. The services this funding will provide will be available whether people separate or not.

IME, parenting classes and counselling can help enormously regardless of whether parents end up together or apart.

Of course, if the classes are crap or counselling is substandard it will all be a waste of time. But I hope that existing professional norms and standards would prevent that.

Haven't read the whole thread, just the Guardian article. I must say, I think that it's an excellent idea. I really struggled as a parent of a challenging child and would have leapt at the chance to attend free parenting classes.
I have long thought that Child Benefit should be conditional on attendance at some sort of parenting group. A bit extreme, I know, but it would be a way of ensuring that everyone had the benefit of education in child rearing, as well as the financial benefit.

Really not sure how this sits alongside the current rhetoric encouraging all adults to work all hours regardless of childcare responsibilities. Government help with childcare stops at age 12 as does NI protection for CB recipients. The implication being that 12 year olds should all be coming home to an empty house and coping with the sresses of secondary school and being a teenager. This before even addressing changes to benefits for LPs.

I had DD1 14 years ago at a time when parent and toddler groups where ran for DC right up to age 5 in my area. 10 years later, increasing pressure to return to the workplace and use of formal childcare means these groups are now mostly populated by Grannies and Mums of babies under a year. After age 2 all DC are in some form of daycare. There is little opportunity for parents to mix with other parents in the toddler years.

I think DC has no idea how to offer parenting advice to 2 parent middle class families like mine, let alone those being continually battered by the changes his policies have brought.

Massive fucking nerve! Attempting to shift responsibility from themselves for benefit cutting etc to women for being inadequate. He can shove his parenting lessons.

80smum, linking CB to parenting classes and even cooking/hygiene/housekeeping/budgetting is a great idea. Those who need the classes won't be the ones that will go with being told its compulsory. Sure start had an enourmous amount of classes only attended by the middle class so we know it doesn't work.

A family unit is best for children and most polititians would promote that. However given the number of children born outside relationships lots aren't even together prior to the birth or were for two minutes so it's never going to be full achievable.

I don't think him working makes him less of a parent. Opting out of financially providing for your child is a far worse example to set (and in most cases costs the state) than a working role model.

Personally (and although I am no Cameron fan), I don't think parenting classes are any bad idea. I find it exceptionally challenging parenting two challenging children and would welcome resource being put in to support parents. I'd love to have someone to ask about specific teenager problems!

But the devil is in the detail, who will actually do this? How will we be able to target everyone and not stigmatise people who go etc etc. the bigger challenge is in making sure proper resources are there for SEN children and parents, for help with difficult children etc- and it just isn't at the moment. You can't just offer a few classes, it's much bigger than that.

Can't believe I got deleted.

Just for saying he sgovedhis penis in a pig and his many many Nannys raise his kids but hey, Let's not upset the sensitive Cameron's.

He allegedly did the pig thing, Majestic. Play the game, pip pip.

I refer families to parenting classes. They are fine for people who have a regular family set-up and no special needs in the mix. They are also only for parents of children up to age 11. Nothing at all for the teenage years.

And of course they're voluntary. So what do you do when the parent stops attending?

Dinosaur

I don't neither, but it is obvious there is little time for parenting in their roles.

I have been to parenting classes, my own free choice and completed the 10 week course.

I really don't use any of the practice in that class as I didn't agree with them.

For example 1 lesson was to drop everything and listen to your child. Now things need to be done and it's not like I can stop making lunch or eating and listen to what ever little thing my children say.

"Dinosaur

I don't neither, but it is obvious there is little time for parenting in their roles."

Really? So parents who work "have little time for parenting"?

There is plenty to attack Cameron over. We do ourselves no favors by attacking him over ridiculous things like the alleged pig incident and having a nanny.

David Cameron is still married to the mother of his children, and they live as a family, despite an incredible workload; this is a good example to start with.

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange's comment shows exactly why it is so difficult to improve poor parenting skills.

'For example 1 lesson was to drop everything and listen to your child. Now things need to be done and it's not like I can stop making lunch or eating and listen to what ever little thing my children say.'

Total inability to apply common sense.

'The devil is in the detail', as always. Will they actually be designed and aimed at those who will benefit from them most, or will they just be part of the ongoing drive to make sure children grow up as 'good citizens', a nobel intention and one that litters our recent Ofsted report but one that somehow bugs the shit out of me.