Is it ok to be best friends with your child, or should you solely occupy a parental role? Is there room to be both? The Loose Women panel discussed.
When it comes to parenting styles, everyone has a different approach. For some, it's the Lorelai and Rory dynamic in Gilmore Girls and for others, parents should be more authoritarian.
You do what you think is right.
The topic of whether it's ok to be best friends with your child recently came up in a Loose Women discussion. The debate was sparked after a head teacher in the UK asked parents to stop complaining when their child is disciplined as it deters teachers from dishing out punishments and maintaining order. He said it comes from a place of parents wanting to be best friends with their child.
The panel agreed that teachers have such a difficult job these days and Colleen Nolan said that parents should only be marching down to the school if their child has been told off on multiple occasions by the same teacher, then it's an "on-going" issue and the child could be being targeted, she said.
Stacey agreed saying that she has often complained to schools about the lack of disciple - "not because I'm some scary crazy mum" she laughed but said, "there wouldn't be any consequences to their actions" if discipline wasn't implemented.
On the subject of wanting to be best friends with your child she said:
"I don't think it's a bad thing to have a friendly relationship with your children. I think that back in the day my grandparents had such an unfriendly relationship with my mum and dad that it was counterproductive. You do have to have a happy medium. You do have to have a friendship and a love and a disciple and they have to know who's in charge - kids want boundaries."
The panel also touched on different family dynamics and how that affects discipline. Nadine said that she often finds that she's the bad guy, while her husband gets to have all the fun with the kids, while Stacey said it can be difficult to navigate discipline when it comes to blended families.
What do you think, mums?
