September 10, 2026 — 8:00pm
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Columnist Jenna Price sounds angry in her article on parental responsibility (“Teachers aren’t here to raise your kids. That’s your job”, 9/9). We can’t blame her. For a long time, teachers have been expected to do many things apart from teach the curriculum. We have all sorts of different medical conditions now that weren’t diagnosed in the past, including autism and ADHD. There has been demand on teachers for increased amounts of time for admin. As Price indicates though, many parents expect teachers to teach values and behaviours that parents themselves need to teach.
Parents are so much more involved with their children now than in decades gone by and children are protected sometimes from consequences of their bad behaviour. Baby Boomers were parented with benign neglect: “come home when the street lights go on”. From my experience with working with parents, many of them want to be the friend of their child. You cannot be. Your role, especially in the early years and up into the teens, is to set boundaries and help your child to stay within them. There can be negotiations, but there must be consequences. Your child will respect you and ultimately themselves. It takes some courage I guess, but the time for a different relationship with your children is when they are adult.
