Meet the parents
The Government wants to help us all to be better parents.
The Cabinet Room in Downing Street was transformed into a mothers’ meeting on Tuesday when women from housing estates in Peckham and Stoke-on-Trent gathered to share with the Prime Minister their worries about their children’s behaviour.
“There is nothing more challenging or difficult than being a parent,” said the PM with feeling. The gathering appeared to be presided over by the Vicar of Dibley — an ebullient woman who spoke very quickly and told a lot of jokes — but it turned out to be the PM’s respect czar, who claimed that you could spot a future ASBO candidate when they were as young as 5 or 6. This was the age, she said, when parenting courses could help to nip a hoodie in the bud, as it were.
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All the mums (and one dad) in the room had been on parenting courses, learning how to cope with children who had tantrums, refused to eat and gave them cheek. Blair listened attentively. “We all recognise these things; I could share my own experiences with you, except I won’t with this lot here,” he said, indicating the press. Family conflict affected people’s performance at work and school and lowered self-esteem, the gathering heard. The Prime Minister nodded: “There is nothing more depressing than feeling you can’t cut it as a parent.”