Reflect

My mum and dad often tell me that they feel that they had it easy raising kids in the 70s, 80s and 90s. When they compare my upbringing and that of my siblings with my children’s and that of my nieces and nephews, they see today’s parenting landscape as much more complex, with many more issues to think about and navigate. Thinking back to my childhood, I certainly remember spending hours playing outside with friends in the fields around my house, coming home when I was hungry and, from my early teens, enjoying the independence of a part-time job and frequent unsupervised adventures with my peers. I think I was lucky, but I didn’t really have that much angst. It kind of seemed simpler perhaps.

Whether or not parenting is harder now than then is open to debate. After all, nostalgia has a habit of giving us rose-tinted glasses. Every generation has faced its own unique pressures and uncertainties. Parents in previous decades may not have had access to the information, support or understanding we have today about many common parenting concerns. But it’s clear from even my short list that whilst some parental concerns have been part of family life for generations, others barely existed even a decade ago. In fact, some would have been almost unimaginable when today's parents were children themselves, and yet now, they are everyday challenges.

Alongside perennial worries about safety, sleep, friendships, behaviour and learning, today's parents are regularly confronted with entirely new and complex concerns which often seem to arrive almost out of nowhere. Whether it’s AI companions, deepfakes, algorithms, online pornography or climate anxiety, as parents, we perhaps feel pressured to understand these issues, weigh up competing opinions, decide what we think and guide our children, even before an evidence base has had time to fully develop or a clear expert consensus has emerged. It's little wonder that this can feel overwhelming and many of us might feel understandably unsure about how best to respond, or even tempted to avoid tricky topics altogether.

Motivate

One of our more mammoth end-of-year jobs has been updating our A-Z of Parenting Questions, which has grown considerably since we first produced it! We think that it’s a reassuring document which reflects the fact that, whatever the challenge, there's almost always something we can do or an evidence-based action that really can help.

Updating the A–Z reminded me just how much brilliant work our researchers and expert contributors have produced this year. It also reinforced just how quickly the parenting landscape continues to evolve, with significantly expanded sections on many emerging topics. Rather than trying to mention every alphabetical topic, here are a few of the resources that have stayed with me...

With the help of a number of brilliant experts, AI has been one of my favourite topics to explore this year. It's a fascinating area, partly because it seems to evolve almost weekly and partly because it's one where parents and educators often tell us they feel a bit lost. If you only watch one resource, I'd recommend our Smart Tech, Safe Choices webinar. If you have younger children, check out our interview with former Researcher of the Month, Dr Nomisha Kurian. I also like our philosophical activities on AI and friendship, which offer great conversation starters which encourage children to think about what it means to be a good friend and whether an AI companion can ever offer the same support as a human confidante. We’ve also created practical guidance on AI chatbots, deepfakes and supporting children with special educational needs in an AI world.

(Oh, as an aside, to keep up with the times, we now have our own Tooled Up AI learning assistant, TULA. Not only is TULA an appealing triangle with a very cute little face, but it has been trained to be knowledgeable about all of our trustworthy content within the Tooled Up platform - and nothing else. Try it for yourself now if you are a Tooled Up subscriber with a parenting question).

If AI shows how quickly the world is changing, our rapidly expanding emotional wellbeing resources remind us that children's core emotional needs haven't changed at all. Numerous parents (and teachers) have asked for our guidance in responding to emotional challenges and struggles with care and kindness, and compassion stands out as a key theme in our work throughout the last 12 months.

I’ve loved working closely with Dr Kathryn Hollins, a wonderfully empathetic consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, who has made a whole range of wise and thoughtful video resources for us on topics including panic attacks, talking with children about serious parental illness, restorative conversations, young children’s developing brains, identity formation and empowering young children to understand their bodies. We’ve also worked extensively with Julie Harmieson, Director of Education and International Strategy at Trauma Informed Schools. Her webinar on Parenting for Emotional Health explores the impact of stress and adversity on younger children’s emotional responses and offers lots of practical parenting tips to help children make sense of their thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Another new initiative that I’ve enjoyed exploring this year is our growing Careers Goals series. Designed to be shared with young people, these videos explore real jobs and the many different routes into them through interviews led by curious teenagers. So far, our volunteers have spoken with a paediatric nurse, a special effects make up artist, a celebrity make up artist, a cybercrime expert, a product and systems designer, medical students and clinical psychologists. They're such fun resources to work on, but my favourite part is sitting back and watching young people ask our generous guests such thoughtful, perceptive and often unexpected questions. In the current climate of career uncertainty (addressed brilliantly in a recent webinar by Laura Knight), we hope that this little series offers inspiration for you and your teens and perhaps provides a springboard for further family discussions.

Support

Whether they are talking about masculinity, friendships, teen parties, technology use, bereavement, coping or anything else from our parenting alphabet, the experts we have worked with repeatedly come back to the importance of curiosity, open communication and empathy.

So, in family life, we can try to have challenging conversations rather than shying away from them. We can lean in, ask questions, listen carefully, stay connected and don’t feel that we need all the answers. We can stay curious, keep communication open, listen before jumping in with solutions and remember that nurturing important relationships matter more than them always feeling perfect or easy.

We hope that our resources offer evidence-informed guidance, thoughtful perspectives and practical ideas for whatever challenge parenting brings next.

A quick note for our Tooled Up teachers... On Monday, the UK government published its much anticipated statutory guidance on Allergy Safety in Schools, making allergy awareness training mandatory for all staff in maintained schools and academies. The government also intends to introduce equivalent expectations for independent schools, including independent special schools. One of our summer projects will be working alongside paediatric allergy specialists to develop a training module that supports schools to meet these new requirements. Watch this space!

Finally, we hope many of you plan to join us for our online Inclusive Education Conference on 9th October. Among other topics, a fantastic line up of experts will discuss trauma informed teaching, universal screening, intersectionality in education, emotionally based schools avoidance and masking, inclusive RSHE, therapeutic classrooms and neuroinclusive education. Book your place now!