Parenting ‘difficult’ due to social media
And grounding children no longer works as they will only turn to social media to turn on you.
Parenting has never been so difficult, according to a leading British headmistress, who suggested that the rise of social media has left mothers and fathers constantly questioning their decisions.
Alice Phillips, of St Catherine’s School, a private girls’ school in Bramley, Surrey, said parents are becoming “less bold and intuitive” in raising teenagers.
Social networking sites mean that mothers and fathers are aware that their every action is subject to global scrutiny.
Instead of stalking off to their bedroom to calm down after a fight, children are now more likely to continue the argument by broadcasting the details of their parents’ unreasonableness to their friends online, she suggested.
Mrs Phillips, who is also president of the Girls’ Schools Association said: “Parenting has never been as difficult as it is today.
“Why? Because one’s instincts are constantly challenged and spontaneous confidence dissolves. Parents are becoming less bold and intuitive in parenting adolescents. Today, social media means they are conscious that their every action is the subject of global scrutiny.
“Children, as grumpy as any of us were when given the answer ‘no’, retreat in the same way to their bedrooms but instead of reflecting for a while to blaring music, broadcast their parents’ apparently unreasonable behaviour to all their Facebook friends, or Twitter followers, whose own parents are apparently also ’completely out of touch’.
“Where once they might have taken time out to come to their senses, apologise and ‘move on’, now they are more likely to continue the fight.”
