Parenting the Kirstie way is just smashing

AFTER what feels like a summer spent mostly watching other people’s children bratting it up in public – on beaches, in the park, in supermarkets, beer gardens and airports – I have to applaud plummy property guru Kirstie Allsopp’s no-nonsense parenting style. ‘Kirstels’, as her ‘Location, Location’ co-host Phil insists on calling her, admitted this week that she smashed her sons’ iPads after they broke the family’s rules on screen time. While many applauded the unorthodox decommissioning of the tablets, some bleeding hearts insisted Allsopp should have donated them to charity rather than pound them into oblivion against the kitchen table. My view – and yes, that’s the uninterrupted vista afforded by my Scandi-chic and decidedly child-free ivory tower – is that sometimes a little tough love is just what (other people’s) children need. This isn’t the first time Allsopp’s no-nonsense approach to raising children has come under the spotlight. Earlier this year she told a British red-top that, while her brood flies economy, she and her husband prefer to live it up in business class. This makes so much sense. Paying thousands of euro so children can fly firstclass is a complete waste. They don’t need the extra leg-room, they can’t drink the free champers and I suspect they don’t appreciate the specially umami-enriched menu on offer. In saying that, though, my support for Kirstie would plummet faster than a nosediving Boeing 747 if I was left sitting between her unsupervised and iPadless sons in economy.