Britain's best parent

[BizarreBizarre]

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

Not keen on the lazy parents. Too permissive. Playing in the road with cars 😲

I didn't like any of them I particularly disliked the Eastern style dad, he was very controlling and said something about the man having to be the Head of the household. I thought they were all extremes and probably wouldn't have voted for any of them.

I disliked him too, the husband as head of the household ? Not a hope in hell of that here.
Playing in the road though, they were playing out under supervision.

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

Willow was very clear that he's a boy though, when he arrived at the laid back parents house he said he was a boy with long hair.

I thought that all the parents had some good and not so good points. Willow wasn't being brought up as gender fluid, he was being brought up without the traditional male gender stereotypes. It's a shame that the things he did have were typical stereotypical girls things, like pink ballet skirts. Also, he was the youngest of all the children I believe, and from a single parent home with no siblings living in a very small flat, so was more likely to be more reserved when faced with two parent multi sibling families in much bigger houses. He was totally out of his regular environment. I'm with his mum though on children not having 'toy' weapons and playing online games involving violence.
The 'lazy' parents had some great ideas on what they wanted for their boys, but in practice some of their ideas were a bit dodgy, such as letting them eat whatever crap they wanted a any time, or having total unlimited screen time.
The third set I really disliked. The man was totally alpha male, and too authoritarian for my liking. He was all a bit new age woowoo living in middle class suburbia. DD his wife have a job?

@3LittleMonkeyz

Willow was clearly a boy, his mum referred to him as a boy, and he told the other parents he was a boy. He doesn't have 'gender fluid' pronouns. The lazy parents assumed he was a girl because of the name and long hair. Even after he said he was a boy, I think they still though he was a girl 'pretending' to be a boy for a while.

Going to watch this
Radio times says it's a repeat on their website and it's not! So annoying

@PeppaisaBitch

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.

Why on earth should there be boundaries around gender? And what should those boundaries be? That's like saying boys can't be midwives and girls can't be car mechanics because they were traditionally gender specific jobs at one time. Why does Willow have to be a girl's name only? There are plenty of names that are used for either sex. Chris, Alex, Jo, Jay.

The man was totally alpha male, and too authoritarian for my liking. He was all a bit new age woowoo living in middle class suburbia. DD his wife have a job?

I think she does. Oh how I laughed when he was spouting off about the children knowing not to leave the table and his son does exactly that

One of them says 'there's no boy stuff there'

This is such a wierd programme

I really disliked the parents that 'won'. It was a very sexist, patriarchal household. We also laughed when he said his children knew not to leave the table ... as his little boy left the table Did anyone else notice that the strict dad, wasn't involved in the cooking and neither was his son? Perhaps they see cooking as a life skill for women and visitors' children.

I'm not surprised they thought Willow was a girl. He must get that a lot
But they lazy parents were very stereotypical weren't they thinking immediately because he was a girl that he'd like pink!

But Rin and husband!
The husband sets the tone!!
No elbows at the table, so old fashioned
Far too strict and rigid for my liking
Was surprised they 'won'
Can't imagine my child who likes getting messy and dirty in that household

The wife did have a job. He was a life coach and she was, I think, a company director. I actively disliked him, although I agreed with some of their parenting in principle. He was so smug when they won, I expected him to bounce his elbow and say "get in!" (Bet he had to restrain himself) I liked all of the parenting to varying degrees. I would use elements of all 3 styles. Silly to make it a competition - would have been more interesting just as a social experiment.

I thought he was pretty humble when they won. (Only the first round.) He said it made him feel humble.

I can't really see how any of the other parents could have won really.

'Chris, Alex, and Jo' are normally short for something else. The full version of the name usually tells you whether it's a male or female person. The name Willow is normally used for girls.

Interestingly Rowen is also a plant, and it's often used for boys.

I think the thing about taking a name that is usually used for one sex and using it for the other is that it can be confusing. i think Willow will encounter this confusion of others in his life and that cannot be helpful, IMHO. There are some genuinely unisex names but I think in most cases Willow is not one of them.

The problem with parents giving their kids names which can be unusual (like an unusual spelling) is that yes, the parent has to explain about the name (or how to spell it) when the child is young. But the child is stuck explaining it for the rest of their lives.

The name Willow is normally used for girls.

I wonder if that is due to the weeping willow tree, it's not going to be the kind of connection you'd want with a boy because we all know that boy's don't cry nonsense. I'm not a fan of tree names to be honest so I doubt I'd use one for either sex.

There are two Willows in my sons year at school, both boys.

@SimonJT

There are two Willows in my sons year at school, both boys.

That's very unusual. I believe it's a top 20 girls name, but i've never come across it for a boy, let alone 2 in the same year.

According to the ONS in 2016 there were 17 boys called Willoughby but none called Willow, at least not as a registration name.

There are lots of genuine unisex names. I just think willow isn't one of them. And let's face it, everyone would assume girl seeing that little boy.
When I wrote my other post I hadn't seen the full episode. I was under the impression that willow didn't know what boy/girl were etc. I was obviously wrong as he pointed out he was a boy to the lazy parents.

And let's face it, everyone would assume girl seeing that little boy.

Yes it wasn't just the name or the hair, as I said in my previous post the way he was dressed was deliberately done. Almost as though the mother wanted to deceive the others into thinking he was a girl.

Agree there were some good bits of parenting and some not so good in every family. Typical telly 'contest' everything HAS to be a bleedin' contest !

IMO it's the child's needs that are important, the gender fluid woman seemed to be imposing her own extreme philosophies on Willow (who seemed quite young) we weren't told his age. I'm not sure that he'll be happy at school. If she doesn't home educate.

The 'Gun' thing is soo interesting. IMO violence seems to be within all of us. Just banning guns won't stop children play fighting with sticks for guns etc. I remember a family who banned guns but smacked their children!

I stopped banning toy guns when it became apparent that my kids will play fight with just about anything, and being shot with a nerf dart is much less painful than being hit with the mop

@Marsalimay

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.

And yet prisons are full of people who had a very dysfunctional childhood.

I watched it and thought the titles were ridiculous

Lazy parents? Nope - just relaxed. They had boundaries and supervision. Lazy to me means kids just do everything alone. These parents were involved in play and meal prep etc.

Eastern parents? Strict and a bit dull but nothing really. Not a tiger mum or anything extreme.

Gender fluid? No. Just a bit of a hippy that was doing a fine job of letting children play as they liked. I don't think she did him favours with his name and clothing though. It seemed to be a bit provoking to send him like that to the other houses.