Balancing act

When Sarah’s son William decided he wanted a motorbike for his 13th birthday, he begged, cajoled and pleaded with his mum to cough up the cash to buy it. Sarah’s initial “no” soon became a “maybe” and before long William was zipping around the local bike tracks on his new “toy” and Sarah was struggling to pay her credit card bill.

Some say modern parenting is far too lenient, that parents overpraise their children and don’t discipline them enough. Are parents these days pandering too much to their kids? Buying them things they can’t afford or trying to be their best buddies? But many would argue that going back to the old authoritarian way of doing things (“No means no and I don’t need to tell you why”) or administering a belting for misbehaviour isn’t good, either. So, what’s the answer?

And the winner is ...

When six-year-old Reilly arrived home from school grinning from ear to ear with a silver