One in 5 parents often told they are a failure

Study discovers one in five parents have been told they are ‘bad parents.’

One in 5 parents told they are a failure

The study conducted by chocolate giant Kinder, consisted of 1500 parents of primary school-aged children. They discovered a staggering 20 percent of mums and dads have been told at some point in their life that they are a “bad parent”.

As many as 36 percent of parents feel they are underperforming as a parent, and the average mum or dad feels like a bad parent on as many as seven occasions every week.

• 17 percent of respondents claimed they had been publicly shamed by a stranger in public.
• 30 percent have been told by their own parents that their parenting skills are lacking, while more than one in ten (13 percent) have been admonished by their own sibling.
• More than half (51 percent) regret how often they lose their temper with their children.
• 46 percent feel awful about how much screen time they allow their kids to have.
• 20 percent said that they have been pulled up by a work colleague

Nine out of ten parents admitted that being a parent is much harder than they could have imagined, also confessing that they often feel jealous of other mums and dads who seem to be doing better than them.

A huge 61 percent of parents simply wish they could spend more time with their children.

Meanwhile, 94 percent responded that they do believe there to be no such thing as a perfect parent.

“Parenting is one of the toughest jobs we’ll ever do, and parents are always striving to do their best, yet feel guilty when they think they are not,” Elizabeth Kilbey, leading clinical psychologist of the research told The Sun, adding that the trick is to keep it simple.

“What children value most is the time they spend with their parents, enjoying simple pleasures over grand gestures.”

A Kinder spokesperson commented: “Whilst parents may be feeling guilty about how much time they spend with their children, and it’s clearly still a struggle to find that work/life balance for many families, it’s actually the little shared moments of joy that mean a lot to children.”

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