Pnewsology

The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 29/05/2026)

Week ending 29/05/2026

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

Parenting is hard and this week the news has been filled with stories highlighting how difficult it is to get it right.

There have been a series of tragedies involving teenagers and somewhere in the background many parents must feel just devastated.  The news of the 3 teenage boys who raped and filmed 2 teenaged girls but avoided a custodial sentence, rumbles on as it is referred to the higher courts.  

A teenager was stabbed in Brighton and at least 7 young people have drowned in open water this week during the heat wave.

How do we keep our children safe? Where is the line between stifling them and keeping them indoors under our watchful eye versus giving them enough freedom to grow up and learn how to deal with risk? And how do we teach our children to behave well and respect others without driving them into rebellion through relentless preaching?

I was always more risk averse when my kids were little than I probably should have been but then heard about a tragedy happening during a gap year in South Africa.  I looked at my little ones and thought – when you are 18 you can do whatever you like.  Between now and then I need to let you takes risks, fail and learn so that when you go on your gap year you are better prepared. I think it worked (so far) but it was hard going and definitely much more work and much more worrying than having them bubble wrapped!

And then we have had reports about a ‘lost generation’ of young people who are out of work and education due to a perfect storm of COVID, mental health, AI taking entry level jobs and social media.  And we also had the report that ‘social media is as bad as smoking’ causing all sorts of problems particularly for young people.  All of this making it even harder for parents to get it right. 

How do we get our children off their phones (when they love them), into school (when they hate it) and into jobs which are boring and not what they expected adult life to be like?  And how do we get them to move out so they can on with their lives when wages are low and rents are high?

I am quite conflict avoidant, hate rows and don’t like public arguments!  But parenting is not just about managing risk it’s also about managing conflict and deciding which fights to have and which avoid.  This generation are being dealt a difficult hand by factors beyond ours and their control.  But parents also need to step in and whilst sometimes this can seem like a battle (get off your phone, get into school, just get a job any job!!) these are battles worth fighting for the longer-term gains! 

So – I think parenting is a job which is really difficult to get right.  But sometimes it’s better to make it difficult now (take risks, have the battles) and reap the rewards in the future than go for an easy life now but which backfires later.