Britain's best parent

[BizarreBizarre]

Anyone watching? Basically 3 different styles of parenting being shown from 3 familys

Yeah it's a pretty inflammatory basis for a TV show. Calling each set of parents "competitors"?!??!
I can't turn it off though 🤣🤣

The parents who let their kids do whatever I wouldn't be happy if my child wasn't comforted if upset in someone else's home

Ooh What channel

Channel 4 but you'd be better to catch it on channel 4 plus one now... it's definitely interesting viewing!

You might be better getting it on 4 plus one at 9

I'm torn between feeling sorry for Willow and thinking he's rather badly behaved and rude tbh.

@WellGoshDarnIt

I thought the same. Actually, I thought he was behaving rather spoilt, which is ironic, because the 'lazy parents' son did not come across like that.

The "lazy parenting" son was really lovely! Joined in and polite etc....

I think Willow was better when he saw how much fun he was missing out on and then would join in

Really interesting.

In a way, as always the extremes are not good. Too much structure or too much freedom, neither is great.

I really enjoyed watching this.

I enjoyed it too.
Who did everyone think the 'best' parent was then? I thought somewhere between the strict and the lazy. Agree extremes are not good.

The gender neutral one didn't make sense to me. How come all his toys/clothes and name were typically 'girls', where was the 'boy' stuff?
When I first had my Dd she had 'boys toys' and 'girls toys'. I thought that was a normal thing to do. Why make a big issue about it?

PickwickThePlockingDodo I felt the gender fluid parenting was totally wrong.

Gender neutral or unisex clothes and toys are great but I felt maybe she had made her little boy look like a girl. Confusing for him and others it's different if a child chooses it.

I think early on she said she liked girls things better or felt that girls something (was it traits/toys can't remember) were better.

Just catching up. The first lady isn't bringing up her son to be gender-fluid, she is bringing him up to be a girl.
Why couldn't she say if she was male or female when the children asked?
She feels like a boy sometimes, I saw no masculine behaviours or appearances from her.
Nonsense.

The "gender fluid" parent actually introduced herself as the "feminist" parent. I can't say that her definition of feminism is the same as mine and I don't think this portrayal will help feminism.

The ‘lazy’ can’t be bothered parents, allowing a very young child to hurt themself, refusing to comfort an injured child and saying they were sulking. Even worse was allowing two very young children to play on the road far too far away from the adult supposedly supervising them.

I'm two families in and so far I think there's good and bad in both. I thought Joana made good points about guns, which were dismissed in the discussion. I understand Kerry letting Willow try after she'd warned him not to jump off, but I think he needed some support with managing the hurt and she didn't look great going on the trampoline.

The "lazy" parents actually said some really good stuff but the way that it played out in reality wasn't cool. They said they wanted their children to make decisions and see the consequences but the dad was clearing up after the nerf gun war, that's not taking responsibility for actions. Did they do their own washing or cooking? That's what I'd think from their approach but it ended up the kids ruling the roost and eating crap and having wall to wall screens. I think it's really important for children to solve problems and ascertain risks themselves but it's got to be age appropriate, and the risk of a child doing a serious injury to themselves has to be curtailed.
The gender fluid parent was very dangerous, her child didn't know he was a boy! It's not something you choose based on your like of clothing or length of hair - I liked what the "oriental style" dad said in relation to this - give examples of lots of ways to be a boy or man, but don't pretend they aren't male. Poor boy.
I hate that I'm a predictable person to watch this but I will and it will get me thinking!

I think the right couple won! I'm all for relaxed parenting but the playing in the road bit was too far for me!

Yeah especially as they were other people's children and the girl was on a scooter and didn't look like she was very confident on it, either.

@PatricksRum

Just catching up. The first lady isn't bringing up her son to be gender-fluid, she is bringing him up to be a girl. Why couldn't she say if she was male or female when the children asked? She feels like a boy sometimes, I saw no masculine behaviours or appearances from her. Nonsense.

I agree with your first point. Could she make it any more obvious she wanted him to be a girl. It was almost deceptive how she sent him to the other families, long hair, dressed in pink and unicorns, as though she was trying to prove they would think he was a girl.

I think it highlighted that any parenting extreme isn't great, and a balance of styles and adapting to the child's needs and situation works best.

I agree. The right parents won.

Yes, playing in the road very dangerous! You might know how your own 7 year old will a T but not how other kids will and the other two kids were under 7 I think. Way too dangerous.

'lazy parenting' sounded like they had made it up!

I an so glad the gender fluid parent and lazy parents didn't win.

I agree with lots of what the lazy parents said, but their practice was shoddy. Letting your child make their own mistakes is not the same as not being there for them when they are sad or to keep them safe. I practice a lot of the same ideas but with kindness and proper safe guarding. They also shouldn't be cleaning up after them if they are taking responsibility (though I do find myself doing that a lot too!)

The feminist annoyed me because it wasn't feminist parenting. I am a feminist and a parent and that spills over into most of my children's toys being gender neutral. It doesn't need to be so extreme. You paint children's nails if they want them painted not because it's "girl stuff" but because it's something they enjoy. We don't have boy stuff and girl stuff, we have conversations about the difference between girls and boys anatomically in an age appropriate way, but do not relate those issues to their play or life goals. It's not contrived, it's just not rigidly conforming to gender stereotypes. And it doesn't have much to do with feminism really it's just an over spill from the real issues (discrimination, domestic violence, wage inequality, etc.)

I like the chess, martial arts and cookery lesson. They had some good ideas and it seemed to work well, initially I thought it was a bit controlled and the man was quite domineering, but seeing him have fun with the kids and how happy the wife seemed with it, I think it works well even if it wouldn't be for me (their relationship) I think their parenting was the best. I will be dusting off my chess set and limiting screen time a bit more, we already do cooking and karate. I especially liked where he spoke about the importance of letting kids have free time to be creative. I think we forget that a lot.

I do think these programs always focus on extremes when actually kids benefit more from a flexible approach. There is no reason to not have a gun free zone and do karate. To have no foods off limits, but also do healthy cooking with them. To encourage them to explore their gender but also know their sex. To let them have free reign in lots of ways, but also have appropriate safeguarding and boundaries. When you have more than one child it becomes apparent that what works for one doesn't always work for the other/s.