Press
Information on the Back To The Table campaign for the media
State Of The Nation's Parents Survey
We surveyed 3500 parents for the launch of this year's Back To The Table Week on their attitudes to parenting. The results were as follows:
The Parent Pendulum Swings Back!
British parents turn their backs on permissive parenting
British parents are embracing the more disciplinarian techniques espoused by parenting programmes such as Supernanny, according to a survey by UK parenting website Raisingkids.co.uk. The survey released at the start of National Back to the Table Week, polled 3,388 parents on parenting issues. The results show that parents are taking steps to redress the balance of power between children and parents.
Stressed, Violent and Insecure…
Recent reports of a generation in crisis are confirmed by the survey. 93% felt that children today grow up too quickly and 87% believe that kids are less respectful and polite than in previous generations. Parents said they felt today's children were more stressed (67%), more aggressive (78%) and more emotionally insecure (37%).
Who's To Blame?
Parents understand that the buck stops with them. Almost half of those surveyed agreed that parents are to blame for their children's lack of discipline and respect.
76% believe that today's parents are less strict than before
67% felt that parents don't spend enough time with their kids
The Times They Are A-Changing
Asked to describe their own attitude to parenting, a clear majority showed support for stricter methods:
73% said that good behaviour was more important than making children feel good about themselves
76% were unafraid to discipline their children in public
68% would insist rather than persuade their children to something
And against all the tenets of permissive parenting, 58% often told their children 'Because I say so'
Dr Pat Spungin, psychologist and founder of Raisingkids.co.uk comments: 'I've seen this coming for a long time. There have always been swings in child rearing. Back in the 1950s we had the parent-centred family and in the 1960s, a more child-centred notion of parenting took over. There seems to be another shift underway now. My view is we should move towards a family-centred notion of parenting, in which the family is a team where there is mutual respect and everyone pitches in.'
What's Behind The Change?
Parenting programmes have had a huge impact. 69% of those surveyed said that TV programmes helped parents by showing them techniques to use in difficult situations. Of the current crop of programmes, one in particular stood out, with 57% of parents choosing Supernanny as their favourite. Half of the parents surveyed had used Time Outs and Reward Charts to influence their children's behaviour and 43% had used the naughty step. But contrary to the advice of most parenting gurus, one in three parents owned up to smacking their children.
Back to the Table
Asked what they could do to improve family life and children's behaviour, nine out of ten parents surveyed said that ‘Eating together as a family on a regular basis.’ was the answer. That said, there's still a long way to go – one in four of those surveyed only ate together as a family only at the weekends or even less often.
Dr Spungin comments, ‘We were genuinely surprised to see the very high number of parents who recognised the value of the family meal. This is the third year we have run our Back to the Table campaign, and these results give us confidence that our message is striking home’.
National Back To The Table Week 16-22 October 2006
Real Food. Real Life. Real Families
Back To The Table Week began its third annual campaign on Monday 16 October with the launch of the campaign site www.backtothetable.co.uk.
This campaign to encourage families to eat together is supported by top cookery writers Annabel Karmel and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – as well as Hugh's mother, grandparenting guru Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, Toxic Childhood author Sue Palmer and founder of the Boden catalogue, Johnnie Boden.
Notes To Editors:
The State of the Nation's Parents survey was carried out in October 2006.
The sample size was 3473 parents from the Raisingkids.co.uk registered database, which is representative of the UK population as a whole.
About raisingkids.co.uk
• The UK’s leading parenting website
• Online since May 2001
• Over 65,000 registered members
• 120,000 unique visitors per month
Both Dr Spungin and Catherine Hanly, Editor of www.raisingkids.co.uk, are available for interview and comment on this survey.
Dr Pat Spungin
pspungin@raisingkids.co.uk
Catherine Hanly
editor@raisingkids.co.uk
Telephone:
0208 444 4852
0208 883 8621
To find out what the media have said about our 2006 campaign and previous Back To The Table campaigns and research results, click here.
