If it were up to my children to choose what they ate at every meal, their diet would be terrible. As a parent, I need to be the one who decides what they eat, for their own good. What they want is not always what they need.

Sometimes, I do let them choose. As a treat, I sometimes take them to a foodcourt and let them have whatever they like for lunch. It is a balance I need to find but one where most of the time, I need to be the one deciding what they eat.

It is an obvious example of a principle I need to apply to other areas of parenting. As a teacher, I see more and more the negative impacts of parents who let their children decide what should happen.

Another example is letting children have unrestricted access to their phone. It is what the child wants, but what they need is time to disconnect, focused study time and a good night sleep which all require them to not have their phone on them. Note that a laptop connected to the internet is used by students as a phone through messaging.

Where it becomes less clear is the desire to protect our children from challenges or difficulties compared to the need for them to learn how to overcome them. It is necessary for children to become resilient by working through difficult situations and learning that they can overcome them.

Also, children need to learn to take responsibility for their actions. As parents we like to defend our children but there needs to be the right balance there – if we step in and defend our children when they do something wrong, they do not learn to take responsibility for their actions. It may seem difficult in the short term, like me not letting my children eat M&M’s for breakfast, but teaching my children to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences that come with that will benefit them in the long term.

Secondary Photo Day - Tuesday 5 March