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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think this man must be the ugh-est smuggest parent in Britain

98 replies

parrots · 17/08/2016 09:37

"I pride myself on being what I call a ‘Golden Parent’ - taking the top spot on the winners’ podium of parenting..."

Can't see a thread about this, but here's Lynne Franks' son outlining his parental perfection in the Daily Mail....

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3730468/My-AbFab-mother-absolutely-awful-parent-PR-guru-Lynne-Franks-inspired-Absolutely-Fabulous-son-says-baby-boomers-like-selfish-raise-children.html

OP posts:
NotYoda · 17/08/2016 11:32

I don't really know what to say. The whole thing is an unedifying psychodrama played out in a misogynist rag

NotYoda · 17/08/2016 11:32

Do PR gurus really refer to themselves as PR gurus?

NotYoda · 17/08/2016 11:34

I don't like either of them, BTW

blindsider · 17/08/2016 11:46

When I asked at playgroups and the school gates, it was self-evident to everyone I spoke to that they were better parents than their own had been.

Imagine my surprise...Hmm

We are all human, the VAST majority of parents do the best they can.

diddl · 17/08/2016 11:51

Was it supposed to be funny?

NotYoda · 17/08/2016 11:52

diddl

I can't decide. I think maybe it was, but it's not a good sign that we aren't sure

OTheHugeManatee · 17/08/2016 11:53

I don't think he sounds smug. I think he sounds unhappy and still utterly overshadowed by his mother to the point where he is still defining his entire life path in reaction to her choices and probably with her money.

bikerlou · 17/08/2016 11:58

In my experience people who go all out to avoid the mistakes their parents made usually make even more awful mistakes.
I'd just go with the flow and do what feels right with your child and try to avoid being a monster. That's all you can do.

diddl · 17/08/2016 12:07

I enjoyed my childhood, but still parent differently.

Different parents, different times!

So he doesn't think muh of his mum but is happy to live off her?

I guess he figures that she owes him that?

What about his dad though-did he also work such long hours?

OliviaStabler · 17/08/2016 12:08

Bet he gets written out of her will.

scampimom · 17/08/2016 12:13

Well I suppose it's just as well he's the world's number 1 super parent, because he can't write for shit. Perhaps his appalling mother can lend him the phone credit for him to call a waaaahmbulance.

zeezeek · 17/08/2016 12:21

What a horrible little sanctimonious shit. Generally only the people who grew up with money - and all the things that money can buy and the freedom that it brings can afford to be so blase about their incredible fortune. Also, generally, those people tend to whinge about what they perceived they didn't get - in his case, the hypothetical earth mother and domestic Goddess.

I also believe that making your children the centres of your universe can have a detrimental effect on both the children and the parents. Is it really a good idea to do so much for your child that they grow up incapable of coping in the real world? There are numerous posts on here every day about entitled parents and special snowflakes. What will happen when those children get a job? Will their helicopter parents call their boss to complain about mistreatment?

And what happens to the parents when (if) those children leave home and actually do manage to get a life for themselves - possibly some distance from their suffocating parents? What will they do then when there is a massive child shaped hole in their lives?

Sometimes the most useful thing you can do for your child is to prepare them for life in this world. One where not everyone will praise them; where they may well fail and fail spectacularly; where people are selfish and where they are not the centre of the universe - merely a little speck in a distant galaxy.

Crunchymum · 17/08/2016 12:26

Mordechai really?

Fuck me!

cosytoaster · 17/08/2016 12:30

I think that is the most self absorbed, absurd and twattish thing I have ever read. Never mind 'Golden Parent' he's actually an A1 prize knob.

janinlondon · 17/08/2016 12:30

His oldest child is seven? So not a clue of how those children will turn on him in the teenage years then. Mwahahahaha!

VelvetSpoon · 17/08/2016 12:31

Good lord. Does he have so little self awareness that he can't appreciate the only reason he has the luxury of not having to have a proper job is because of all the money his mother has made (and given to him as handouts) over the years? Smug fucker. Put him in a council flat on a rundown estate, on a zero hours contract and top up benefits and let's see how child focussed he is then.

I agree with a pp who said that children of successful parents often (on the back of family money) bleat on about how deprived their childhood was. A relative of mine (child of parents who weren't quite self made millionaires but certainly had done very well) works for the family business and is paid well over the market rate and makes a big deal of how he and his wife are committed to her being a SAHM, unlike his own upbringing, forgetting that if his DM hadn't worked so hard, he now wouldn't have the choice!!

verystressedmum · 17/08/2016 12:45

He didn't write anything about his father as it wouldn't have been as newsworthy as most people would have no idea who he is.

MyNightWithMaud · 17/08/2016 12:46

I hoped his article was an ironic spoof, but if that was the intention, it didn't come across. The true irony, of course, is that it seems to be his mum's money that is bankrolling his career as a comedian I've never heard off (unless his partner has a very successful practice as a therapist).

Just5minswithDacre · 17/08/2016 13:00

His mother guarantees his mortgage Grin

CharminglyGawky · 17/08/2016 13:03

He thinks he is at the 'vanguard or parenting' does he Hmm Not sure trying to be the best parent he can is exactly unusual.

I do get the wanting to do things differently, my parents are amazing and I feel very very lucky to have them. They both worked full time as they couldn't afford not to. I still always felt like I was more important that work and they had a good work/life balance. Still I have always wanted to be a sahm at least partly because they were at work. I don't think I will be a better parent though Hmm

Now to go back and read his poor mothers response to his whining.

Just5minswithDacre · 17/08/2016 13:05

I also believe that making your children the centres of your universe can have a detrimental effect on both the children and the parents. Is it really a good idea to do so much for your child that they grow up incapable of coping in the real world? There are numerous posts on here every day about entitled parents and special snowflakes. What will happen when those children get a job? Will their helicopter parents call their boss to complain about mistreatment?

Oh come on. I've seen it work the other way too (plenty); parents working long hours who overindulge their DC in compensation and SAHPs who manage a wonderfully relaxed relationship with their DC and their own side interests precisely because time is plentiful. There are many ways to skin a cat Smile

Let's not make this a WOHP v SAHP thing. It's a puffed up silly man thing Grin

NotYoda · 17/08/2016 13:06

I agree Just5mins

furryminkymoo · 17/08/2016 13:18

I read both stories and prefer her by far!

Oldraver · 17/08/2016 13:43

I noticed his Mum commented on the amount of screen time the children had Grin

blindsider · 17/08/2016 13:47

Crunchymum

Mordechai really?

Pretty common name in a Jewish household.