Comments on: Competition: What are your biggest challenges?

By: jay

jay — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 19:13:22 +0000

As my eldest gets bigger I find the most challenging thing is to say “yes” as much as possible, as opposed to, “in a minute” or “not right now” or “maybe later…” I suppose it’s tied up with work and money and time, too, but I’d love my children to look back at their childhood and remember the things we did rather than being told (either overtly or subconsciously) that they are second priority to work or worse, housework! Some days I realise I’ve pretty much only said “no” to my child’s requests to play (I’m a wahm – sometimes without childcare) and it makes me so sad. Recognising that makes me actively aware of the need to say “yes” and “let’s go!” and “I’d love to” instead of fobbing him off to meet my quota of hours. I won’t regret the work I didn’t do, but I will always regret the time I’ve missed out on playing with my kids.

By: Dean

Dean — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:51:00 +0000

To me and from working with hundreds of new and expectant parents i think you can sum this up in one word. GUILT or trying to avoid it. Everything we do as parents seems to be judged, everyone has an opinion and will try labeling your child (recent blog on website about this!) parents need good non judgemental advice that allows them to parent in way that suits their beliefs.

If i could make one wish for new parents, it would be that everyone lets them get on with learning to be a parent in way they choose and keep their opinions to themselves

Dean – http://www.thenatalcompany.co.uk

By: Sarah Watkins

Sarah Watkins — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:32:16 +0000

The biggest challenge is to balance science with instinct, discipline with freedom, playtime with working time. Today’s parents have so much on their shoulders, unlike our parents generations who had much simpler duties and far less parenting gurus to follow. We live in isolation from families, trying to do our best but never being good enough. We are told what to feed our babies, how to bring them up, and if they end up rioting and looting its going to be our fault. Meanwhile our parents aunts and cousins are all telling us completely different things. Mustve been much simpler when there was only one older woman to listen to! We also have to control our emotions so much more, we can’t lash out and smack our kids when they’re naughty, we have to find ways to react calmly and positively every time. My parents still smacked me as a teenager! Its definitely more complicated now. We were looking at old childhood photos recently and there we were 4 or 5 years old playing in the back garden with broken mirrors, wire fencing, dirty and muddy and wild. Now my kids get to go to the park but it doesn’t compare to the freedom and adventures we’d have as kids. So maybe the question should be, what are the biggest challenges our kids will face?