THE last week has had some unusual examples of how individuals interpret parenting today.

On TV’s This Morning, husband and wife Adele and Matt talked about the “off-grid” parenting they employ with five year-old son Ulysses and toddler daughter Ostara. Both Adele and Matt’s fathers died of heart attacks and they had vowed to bring up their own children in as natural and stress-free environment as possible.

This means no school, no medicines and not in the system. The children are obviously loved and well-cared for (Adele is still breastfeeding Ulysses because he still wants to) and she is also a blogger and author, writing a book called The Unconventional Parent.

I’m sure they’re sincere people, with the best interests of their children at heart, but viewers were absolutely riveted by the behaviour of the children. Ostara wandered around the studio, presumably nappy-free, and made a large puddle on the floor and Ulysses basically did what he wanted while his parents looked on indulgently.

Another interesting parenting-related story concerned a Suffolk seaside café owner. She posted on Facebook asking parents to curb their children throwing “screaming tantrums” and stated that if they were too scared to employ their parenting skills she would tell off children after “five lenient minutes.”

I suspect both points of view divide the nation, but it does reveal today’s reigning styles of parenting.

Personally, I don’t see why others should suffer in any way because of the manner that individuals are parenting their children. Parents are in charge of their offspring at all times and need to prevent youngsters from behaving badly in public places.

Any parent has sympathy with another when young children suddenly start screaming or playing up in what can quickly become an embarrassing situation. But not to try to fix this behaviour by taking charge in some way is not only lazy parenting but creating problems all round. Small wonder the café owner felt she should tell off children herself.

While disciplining children is always the responsibility of parents, it’s easy to understand the sheer frustration of other adults especially when this happens on your premises.

Maybe the café owner is right on a “my house, my rules” basis but most parents won’t see it that way. The truth is that if adults don’t employ any structure or rules to their children then they won’t automatically behave well – probably quite the reverse.

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