Parentline gets more calls from men while vaping grows into 'a huge worry'

One of the new growth areas is vaping, which Ms Hickie said is “a huge worry” to many parents with more and younger children purchasing and using vapes. File picture

There has been an increase in the number of men calling the national parenting helpline as the number one concern remains aggressive children.

Parentline is also due to reveal in their annual report for 2023 that — for the first time ever — parents are now calling about concerns around vaping.

Parentline CEO Aileen Hickie, who will release the 2023 figures in full later this month, said: “Last year was our busiest year in our 42-year history. Calls were up 5% on last year to 6,147. 

”By far the biggest single issue was anger and aggression being displayed by a child to their own parents, with almost one in three calls concerning this issue. These behaviours leave thousands of parents fearful of their own child in their home.

“Many of the calls reference violence but there can also be issues around verbal abuse, emotional abuse and coercive and controlling behaviours.

“Although the number of calls on this issue is slightly down on the previous year, the issue around parents being in fear of their child in their own home is still the number one issue.

“This does not always involve violence, and there are issues around coercive control and emotional abuse.” 

Calls from men have increased from 17% last year to 25% in 2023.

She also said that while the organisation runs non-violent resistance programmes to help parents of aggressive children, those running the courses have noticed there are now more men taking part.

The initiatives to attract more men to call Parentline included having a dedicated section on the parentline.ie website for men, and producing a number of leaflets and online slogans, such as “Dads struggle too. It’s OK to ask for help” and “Being a dad can be difficult. Let’s talk about it.” Other big issues were childhood anxiety, school refusal, loneliness and isolation, eating disorders, social media and internet use.

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One of the new growth areas is vaping, which Ms Hickie said is “a huge worry” to many parents with more and younger children purchasing and using vapes. However, parents are very concerned about how easy it is to buy these products and about both the long-term and the short-term effect and unknown effects of these products on children as young as 13 years old.

”We didn’t go looking for information around vaping, parents themselves started talking about it.” Parentline had 51 calls from parents about vaping but just four about smoking.

Asking for help in dealing with issues around anxiety in children amounted to 10% of calls, and 8% were because of school refusal.

Ms Hickie said: “Parents are struggling and they are often in crisis and distressed and sometimes they just need someone to listen to them and validate their concerns in confidence and without judgement.

“We provide a critical service to parents. It’s very much a needed resource because at the end of the day, parenting isn’t easy.” 

The charity was set up in 1982 as a support group for new mothers with young babies but it has since grown into a national helpline. The organisation now has 60 volunteers working for it, up from 40 in recent years.

• Parentline can be contacted 10am-9pm Monday to Thursday and 10am-7pm on Fridays at 01 873 3500.