The holidays are about family time and togetherness, but how do you ensure your teenagers are present this Christmas and not AWOL on their screens, asks Helen O’Callaghan.

WHETHER it’s your child’s play date persistently snatching the best toys, or a loudmouth kid on the bus shouting swear words, is it ever OK to discipline other people’s children?

PARENTING is not instinctual. We learn it, says Noel Janis-Norton, founder of the London-based Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting Centre. “Increasingly, we live away from extended family, so we don’t have role models. Parents are trying to make it up as they go,” he says.