Parenting in 2026 can sometimes feel like a nauseating all-you-can-eat competition. Without a traditional ‘village’ to turn to, you consume a dizzying glut of conflicting information online, trying to digest what is actually useful amongst the bloat of opinions on social media. 

It would be lovely if we could trust parents to do what is intuitively right for their child, but given that primary school teachers are now wasting an hour a day changing children’s nappies, then clearly some intervention and guidance is needed

It would be lovely if we could trust parents to do what is intuitively right for their child, but given that primary school teachers are now wasting an hour a day changing children’s nappies, then clearly some intervention and guidance is needed

My first year of parenting I spent far too many hours fretting on Mumsnet forums and scrolling through Facebook scraps in which mums disagreed on everything from bottle-feeding to baby-wearing. It left me with more questions than answers: for example, should I try letting my child ‘cry it out’ (as many parents did in the 90s) for the hopes of a good night’s sleep, or will I emotionally damage them forever? Official guidance says that bed sharing goes against safe sleeping advice, so why is my Instagram feed full of influencers telling me that babies are biologically wired to want to be physically close to caregivers? Parents are told categorically not to start solids before six........

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