Child-care guru gives hope to 'Kevin' parents everywhere

Steve Biddulph gives tips for 'Happy Boys' at Latymer Upper School

Child-care guru STEVE BIDDULPH, author of best selling books The Secret of Raising Happy Children and Happy Boys, started his UK lecture tour at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith on Thursday 24 April.

The Australian family psychologist had been invited by Latymer Parents to talk to them and the ticketed meeting was fully subscribed. The charismatic speaker, described in The Daily Telegraph recently as �a cross between Billy Connolly and Dr Spock,� talked to parents about bringing up boys and their education.

In his thought provoking address, Steve Biddulph delivered many nuggets of wisdom which plainly struck a chord with the audience.

Much of what he said is summarised in his five key points concerning the interaction between fathers and sons:

1. What should you spend on your son? Time! Especially between the ages of 6 � 14. Why 14? Because at 14 boys� testosterone level rises by 800% and development of a father/son relationship will be difficult at this time. He stressed the need for boys to have mentors � other adults to whom they can sound off about their parents.
   
2. Fathers should play rough and tumble games with their sons. Typically, this is something mothers don�t care to do, but it teaches boys to control their emotions � to learn to restrain anger and physical aggression.
   
3. Fathers should teach their sons to respect women, especially their mothers. Eventually, sons will be bigger than their mothers which may lead them to bully them if they haven�t been brought up to respect and honour them.
   
4. Fathers should honour their sons� tender feelings. They should let them know it�s OK to cry and to be physically affectionate.
   
5. They should teach their sons how to do housework! Through this they will not only learn to look after themselves but learn they are not in this world only for their own benefit.

This first event on Steve Biddulph�s lecture tour of the UK was oversubscribed many times over and was considered a huge success by all who attended.

Interestingly Latymer boys will soon be educated alongside girls as the school moves to full co-education next year. This follows the success of Latymer�s co-educational Sixth Form to which girls were admitted in 1996 and where two out of three girls and boys expect to get AAB or better at A Level and then go on to university. One in ten go to Oxbridge.

This article was contributed by a parent at Latymer. ChiswickW4.com welcomes contributed items from local writers.

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