No more parenting programmes for me

TV parenting guru Dr Tanya Byron has decided to call it a day. The trained clinical psychologist who first came to the public's attention in the ground-breaking parenting programme Little Angels has decided not to film any more parenting shows.

In an interview with Raisingkids.co.uk to promote her involvement with a new family range of films, 1-2-3 DVD, Tanya told us about her decision to quit her role as one of Britain's most respected parenting advisors. 'Parenting's become a well-marketed product and that's why I'm not making any more parenting television programmes,' she said. 'I'm not doing any more parenting programmes as a clinician at all.'

'The ones I've made I'm proud of,' she told us. 'They were well made and well researched and really helpful to the families and you know we follow our families up. But as far as content goes, I've done as much as I'm comfortable with doing on television with families and I think the genre was moving into an area that I didn't want to be part of – a much more well marketed area.'

When we asked her whether parenting was becoming more prescriptive, she told us: 'You could say that about me. I'm prescriptive as a clinical psychologist, but I've always tried to balance that with 'make a decision and make a decision for the rest of your life'.

'I think it's important that parents find their own way with their children,' says Tanya. 'Advice is helpful, but you need to trust your own instincts. I still do one day a week's clinical work and I find a lot of parents come to me feeling completely disempowered, because there's a lot of advice and they don't know what to use.'

Click here to read the full interview with Dr. Tanya Byron

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