Child’s play!
Anita Rani meets mums and dads who think they’ve got parenting sorted...
What’s the right way to bring up a child? That might seem like a question with no clear answer, but in this new five-part series, 12 sets of parents are convinced that their approach is best. Will the rest of the nation agree?
‘Every week we have three different parents with three distinct styles, who have all had the chance to parent each other’s children,’ explains Anita Rani, who hosts the series. ‘In the studio, they watch how their children got on with each other’s parenting styles, and have to justify why they choose to bring up their children the way they do.’
The sets of parents in each episode debate their approaches before fielding questions from the studio audience – who will then vote on the outcome.
‘The studio audience decide who has the best parenting style that week,’
says Anita. ‘The winners of each four episodes go through to the final, and then we decide on Britain’s best parent. It was surprising – you couldn’t predict who was going to go through in each round, it was very much based on what happened on the day.’
Different strokes
Episode one features Joana, who has adopted a genderfluid approach with son Willow, along with Kerry and Kevin, who describe their own style as ‘lazy’, and Rin and Robin, who set clear rules and boundaries.
‘There are moments when it gets heated, but you want debate,’ says Anita. ‘They were all brilliant parents who were totally up for it, who knew they were coming on to talk about this and were interested in what the other people had to say, too.’