Britain's best parent

[BizarreBizarre]

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

The gender fluid parent was very dangerous, her child didn't know he was a boy!

That’s not quite true. He clearly corrected Kerry and told her “I’m a boy with long hair”.

I can't say that her definition of feminism is the same as mine and I don't think this portrayal will help feminism.

No, poor little thing. Surely the best way to bring him up is to be the best man he can be. All the things wrong with men you make sure your boy is not like that. I have 3 boys and that's what I've tried to do, not turn them into girls.

Also when the mum said she felt like a boy sometimes, Willow was clearly trying to tell the other girl that his mum was a girl but she cut him off. Poor boy.

There was good and bad in all three. One thing I did notice was that all their houses, except gender fluid Mum, seemed lacking in personality, very bland. Bit off topic I know!

Just catching up now. I don't get why it's a competition. Who genuinely thinks they are the best parent. I can't get over the first woman. She even gave her son a girls name. I actually think it's important that children understand their sex and gender. I agree that children can wear, play do whatever regardless of gender but I think it's important to have boundaries around their gender.

I too agree with letting children have autonomy, but the lazy parents were setting them up to fail with the 'snack drawer and fizzy drinks are in the fridge. Help yourself whenever you want'.

I don't think the 'lazy parents' were lazy. They were actively involved, playing with the kids. Neither of their boys were overweight so obviously don't over eat.
I think the winning parents would have been a lot more strict if their own child had refused to sit at the table. And I did find it interesting that the other parents saying their girl didn't know what she liked and looked to the adults to tell her.

I watched this and thought it interesting. I liked aspect of all three of the families' approaches. Which I guess is probably the same as most people, not following a strict parenting style with a name!

My DD is only 2 so it was interesting for me to think about the kind of parenting we will do in the future. For example at the moment when she's at home with us she tends to watch 2-3hrs of TV a day since lockdown began. She would watch more if we let her! We feel uncomfortable with this but it's difficult as there's very few places we can take her as even though we can go out more now, we don't have a car and it's obviously not advisable to use public transport atm unless absolutely necessary.

The snack drawer was interesting to me. Ours is locked so DD can't access it. However my DPs raised us to have free access to the snack drawer and like the lazy parents they always had all kinds of food in, fruit, veg, biscuits, crisps, ice cream etc. There is 3 of us, two of us are right at the bottom range of healthy BMI occasionally going into underweight, and both decent eaters i.e. eat 5 a day and not very fussy. The other one is underweight and a very fussy eater and hardly eats any fruit and veg. So overall that approach has mostly worked, but then it's interesting to see how it worked out better for 2/3 siblings and not so much for one. Which underlines like PP said that all children are individuals so what works for one may not work so well for another. This makes me wonder how you parent in a way that your children feel is fair, without favouritism etc but in a way that your parenting is still tailered to meet the needs of your children as individuals, which wouldn't be possible if you strictly treated them all the same?!

I was listening to a podcast that said actually parenting has very little effect on how a child turns out and that is much more determined by nature/genetics.

Did the controlling dad say that one of their influences was Buddhism?? I saw a lot of attachment and clinging in their household.

I was listening to a podcast that said actually parenting has very little effect on how a child turns out and that is much more determined by nature/genetics.

What do you think? I'm very convinced by the evidence that our childhood experiences influence our personalities strongly. I'm looking forward to next week's attachment style parenting.

I don't know what i think really. But the podcast was basically saying that parents want to think that they influence their kids much more than they do. Which is true.
My friend is adopted (from birth) as is her sister and they are polar opposites despite having the same childhood. It's interesting.

@PeppaisaBitch that's a ridiculously simplistic way of looking at something very complicated, the interaction of genes and environment isn't just one versus the other, it's not the 70s! Of course it's not all one or the other. I think the theory that children can be "dandelions or orchids" has a lot of truth - children vary a lot in how parenting and the rest of their environment impacts their development. I have one dandelion child and and one orchid child and they require very different parenting altogether!

But they had a different experience in the womb and the first few days, presumably? Theirs a wealth of research in to the affect of our childhood experiences, it seems strange to dismiss that on the basis of one podcast.

Watching this on catch up now

It was science vs so looked at both sides. I'm not saying I believe it. I just think it's interesting.

Is this on all 4? I’d love to watch it.

"It was science", ha. I'm a psychologist so... Uh no it's not that simple.

The podcast is called science vs. I'm not an idiot.

Bit rude Mrs

It is interesting Peppa, and nobody really knows, do they?

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.

I thought that as well. I consider myself a feminist and my children could have whatever toys they wanted (within budget) regardless of any perception of boys or girls toys, I don't see that as being gender fluid, it's just children being children and choosing their preference.

The people who most promote gender fluidity seem to have the most rigid ideas of what it means to be male or female.

There seems to be a misunderstanding of what science is. It is by definition our best understanding of the world.

It is the opposite of opinion.

If you make a big deal about your sons favourite tv show being my little pony or his favourite toy being a barbie or only buy him unicorn clothes, then you are part of the problem IMHO
It was an idea they tried half a century ago, it's not new and there's nothing new to learn from it.

Fill your life with all the colours of the rainbow and always have an open dialogue with your kids, give them choices and options, space to ask questions and form their own opinions, and the safety and reassurance of boundaries framing that. Imposing gender fluid pronouns on a child is just political posturing to make the parent feel right on. It's not beneficial to the child. It's confusing for everyone