Butlins Redcoats to Provide Parenting Advice

05 Oct

Posted by Little Mummy as In the News

I’m not sure I’ve heard anything quite as riduculous for sometime.

Butlins are offering parents midweek breaks where they’ll be able to get advice on avoiding tantrums and sticking to eating/sleeping routines whilst on holiday. The ‘advice’ will be given by specially trained redcoats.

I have more than a few problems with this. For a start, I go on holiday to relax, not to make appointments to discuss my parenting skills with a complete stranger, who doesn’t even know my child.

In my experience redcoats are young, single, and highly unlikely to be parents. They’re either waiting for their ‘big break’ or have aspirations of becoming a club 18-30 rep. They most likely drink too much, smoke too much, and party too hard, that’s the rep/redcoat culture, and good for them, but parenting advice? No. I think I’ll stick with my own parental instincts, or worse case scenario, seek a ‘professional’.

Does anyone find this proposition appealing?

12 Responses

t-bird

October 5th, 2007 at 7:21 am
1

The word that springs to mind over Red Coats giving me advice is probably not publishable on a family oriented blog…. Then again, given a choice between a holiday at Butlins and a week of dental treatment (without painreleif) I’d go for the dental treatment, it would be more fun….
Little Mummy

October 5th, 2007 at 8:43 am
2

lol
Emma

October 5th, 2007 at 10:37 am
3

Nope this sounds terrible! In fact i was horrified reading!
christine roberts

October 6th, 2007 at 11:46 am
4

Re: redcoats parenting advice!!!!parenting advice is better coming from the older members of the community who have done it all before!
and have learnt it ‘the hard way!’ and could pass on their knowledge and experience to those wishing to learn.Would these redcoats know how to handle a small child or baby that constantly cries? a demanding tot, who requires your attention 24/ 7.( especially when Mum hasn’t had a proper nights sleep for weeks!) or a belligerant teenager,who is hell bent on turning your hair prematurely grey? I don’t think so!! they may read all about it,and think they have all the answers, but there is one thing they have to remember, Babies don’t read!!! and therefore don’t follow any rules, all children are different, and what one will respond to another will not! Come on Butlins, don’t try to teach your mother ‘to suck eggs!’ please get real!
Little Mummy

October 6th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
5

Excellent points, you have to have done it yourself at least before trying to teach someonelse.
beta mum

October 7th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
6

only useful if they’re prepared to do a bit of free babysitting so they can put their advice into practice
t-bird

October 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
7

Actually I’ve been thinking on this one for a few days now and after the initial knee jerk reaction of bleugh! I thought a bit more.

What I find sad is that Butlins will have done market research for this (they aren’t going to pay money to train up some pimply teenagers if there isn’t a demand) So there must be a resonable chunk of their target market who feel they need this sort of service. Which begs the question of how it it that so many new mothers are so cut off from their own extended family that there is no one else they can go to for help and advice on some of teh most important actions they will ever take? How do parents get so switched off from their own children that they don’t know how to deal with them? (no, wait, I know the answer to that one, it’s when they are under so much pressure to get their kids into the system that they never get to form a relationship with them first) And whilst I’m ranting, how on earth can we expect young mothers to have even the first idea of what to do when every **** child rearing expert on the TV spouts different versions of the ***** on a theme of leave them crying until they learn, give them a star chart and you can cure them of every type of undesireable behaviour and take your child into every stressful situation you can think of then inflict the resulting tantrum on the world because that way the child will learn to cope…..
Little Mummy

October 9th, 2007 at 12:42 am
8

You’re right T-Bird, I don’t think parents use their instincts enough. They’d rather rely on a book to guide them.
Little Legends Blog » Blog Archive » Carnival of British Parents

October 9th, 2007 at 10:12 am
9

[...] discusses Butlins Redcoats Providing Parenting Advice over at [...]
Mother at Large

October 11th, 2007 at 11:38 am
10

They’ve got a cheek, haven’t they?!! I wouldn’t listen to anyone who doesn’t have children themselves - and even then, I’d be selective about whose advice I take on board. Sorry, but they’re none of them Supernanny!
Kelly

January 4th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
11

It does seem that those without kids are the first to offer advice. If I want advice I’ll look at the many different websites on the web. For now I’ll stick with my instincts, thanks.
grace

July 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
12

I agree with your guys totally. I would have difficult time to listen to parental advices from somebody who read a book and never did parenting themselve.