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Jennie Bristow
The new parenting catfight: Tiger Moms vs Fun Slobs
The nature/nurture debate is as unhelpful as ever in solving the problem of raising children.
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| Tuesday 28 September 2010 |
Jennie Bristow
Bringing up baby is not an exact science
Okay, I’m not a neuroscientist or a psychologist, but I’m going to trust my gut feeling that most ‘parenting science’ is utter rubbish.
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| Tuesday 22 June 2010 |
Jennie Bristow
Sure Start: a fancy new way to police the family
Sure Start’s main achievement has been to transform the social problem of child poverty into an individual problem of poor parenting.
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| Thursday 8 April 2010 |
Jennie Bristow
The ‘Mumsnet election’ doesn’t get my vote
Britain’s political leaders are fawning over professional, campaigning mums, but they still look down their noses at ordinary parents.
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| Monday 16 November 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
There’s more to human character than sharing toys
Demos should go on the naughty step for arguing that parenting style determines whether kids become good, bad and even middle class.
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| Monday 21 September 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
There’s more to parenting than egg production
Treating all women as mothers-to-be, who must conform to certain health and behaviour norms, turns us into little more than farmyard hens.
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| Thursday 13 August 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
Why parents should oppose vetting
For generations, parents invited other adults to help raise and care for their kids. Now those relationships are being corroded by the state.
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| Monday 15 June 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
Hands off home education!
The UK plan to clamp down on home-schooling, partly to ensure children aren’t being abused, is a serious assault on parental autonomy.
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| Wednesday 27 May 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 19: Your child’s Body Mass Index is nobody’s business but yours
As part of its fatwa against fat the government is measuring every schoolkids’ height and weight. It’s a waste of time – and bad for children.
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| Tuesday 17 February 2009 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 18: be sceptical about ‘bad childhood’ reports
With so many shrill studies telling us that parents are selfish and uncaring, is it any wonder some children might feel a little insecure?
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| Monday 15 December 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 17: The kids don’t know it all
In Britain’s ‘new vision’ for primary education, adults are reduced to the mere flatterers of techno-savvy kids. It’s a recipe for ignorance.
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| Wednesday 22 October 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 16: Strong families need more than money
With both the state and market proving unreliable, maybe families will look to each other for support in hard times.
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| Thursday 18 September 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 15: Not everyone you know is a latent paedophile
Allowing everyone to vet their neighbours and partners won’t save children from abuse, but it will have a poisonous effect on community life.
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| Tuesday 9 September 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 14: Nobody needs a ‘Grandparents’ Charter’
The army of unpaid conscripts who look after their grandkids is growing – but they don’t need a rulebook to manage their childcare affairs.
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| Thursday 17 July 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 13: You don’t have to love your maternity leave
Month after month bonding with baby can be tiring and stressful. But dumping more of the burden on to men is no solution.
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| Wednesday 4 June 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 12: An ‘action plan’ won’t stop teen drinking
The problem with teenage drinking is not their livers, but their lives: they’re sticking two blurred fingers up at today’s stifling adult culture.
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| Thursday 8 May 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 11: Parents are allowed to get drunk on holiday
The mad reaction to the story of a mum and dad who got paralytic in Portugal reveals a snobbish and unforgiving attitude towards parents today.
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| Thursday 10 April 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 10: school choice is a myth
The schizophrenic promotion/demonisation of parental choice in schooling leaves parents dejected, and kids no better educated.
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| Tuesday 11 March 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 9: Concerns about older mothers are based on moralism, not medicine.
Let us challenge the ‘procreational ageism’ that labels teen mums as feckless Vicky Pollards and older mums as selfish career-obsessives.
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| Tuesday 22 January 2008 |
Jennie Bristow
Rule 8: There’s nothing wrong with ‘electronic babysitting’
Ignore the organic-obsessed supermums and mumsy officials who say kids shouldn't watch TV: there's nothing wrong with electronic babysitting.
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