A TRADITIONAL UPBRINGING
Fronting Britain’s Best Parent? – a Channel 4 show in which mums and dads are judged on their parenting techniques – could have been difficult for Anita but she insists that not being a parent herself has helped her to stay impartial on the show.
‘I try not to be too judgemental because I don’t have kids,’ she said. ‘Also, I’m godmother and aunt and surrounded by children. For me it’s totally up to the individual about how to bring up their children, no one else.’
Anita was brought up in Bradford and when it comes to her own parents, she laughs about how her father let her mother take the bulk of the parenting responsibilities.
She said, ‘My dad is hilarious – he’s definitely a father of his generation and never changed a single nappy – and he now feels he’s perfectly placed to give my brother advice on parenting, which we all find very amusing!’
She added, ‘They did so many things that were just bonkers and completely wrong but somehow, we muddled through it and they’ve got two relatively well-formed children out of it. If you asked them, they’d say the same.’
She finished, ‘If they could go back and do things differently, I’m sure my mum would say she would. But they gave me and my brother the best start they could, given their circumstances.’