As a food psychologist, I have spent my career working out how to get children to eat vegetables when they say they don’t want to and have boiled it down to three rules – be a good role model, control their environment and say the right things.
Parents now seem to have much more on their plate than just leftover vegetables. Last week we heard about the “lost generation” of young adults (NEETS) who are neither in work nor education and how “social media is as bad as smoking” for young people, creating an addiction to scrolling and constant comparisons to unrealistic ideals.
In our rapidly changing world and challenging economy, parents now have to manage school absenteeism, endless screen time, mental health problems, poor self-esteem, children who never leave home, struggle to work and an inability to “just do it”.
In part, this is clearly due to so many factors beyond their control – from the pandemic to smartphones and now AI, and the rise in neurodiversity. But parents themselves have played a role in it, too. In the new culture of “gentle parenting”, they have become increasingly conflict-avoidant, fearful of causing trauma and taking the path of least resistance. Plus, parents want to be liked and even their child’s friend.
