#Parenting

A popular parenting essay asks if spending on fancy activities gives kids an unfair edge. (Business Insider) The question matters for families and for social fairness across Thailand and the world. (Business Insider)(Business Insider)

The essay describes high-cost options like infant survival swim classes and premium baby products. The author says some families face pressure to buy early advantages. (Business Insider)(Business Insider)

New peer-reviewed research links extracurricular activities and school sports to better child mental health. The study found lower depression and attention problems among participants during the COVID-19 years. (Frontiers)(Frontiers in Sports and Active Living)

Across Bangkok’s affluent neighborhoods—from Thonglor to Ekkamai—Thai parents increasingly face an agonizing dilemma that reflects broader global tensions about childhood, fairness, and social mobility: whether investing thousands of baht monthly in premium children’s activities creates essential competitive advantages or perpetuates unfair inequalities that undermine Thailand’s Buddhist values of social harmony and equal opportunity for all children.

A provocative parenting analysis published by Business Insider has ignited international debate by questioning whether families who spend heavily on elaborate childhood enrichment—from infant survival swimming courses costing 15,000 baht to exclusive language immersion programs—are providing necessary preparation for modern success or creating insurmountable barriers that prevent less affluent children from competing fairly in education and career advancement.

A popular parenting column described an 11-year-old girl who wants a side-shave haircut. (Slate reported the column and the family conflict.) (Slate column)

The column asked whether parents should let the child decide. (The advice columnist urged support with safeguards.) (Slate column)

The case matters for parents in Thailand. (Thai families also face school teasing and social pressure.) (UNESCO data shows peer violence in many countries.) (UNESCO report)

The central dilemma is simple to name. (Parents weigh a child’s autonomy against the risk of bullying.) (Experts call this a common parenting conflict.)

The modern parenting dilemma crystallized in vivid detail when an advice columnist received a letter about an 11-year-old girl demanding a radical side-shave haircut. The mother worried about potential bullying while the father insisted their daughter should learn from her own choices, creating a family standoff that mirrors countless Thai households grappling with similar questions about children’s self-expression and social consequences.

The Universal Struggle Thai Families Know Well

For Thai parents, this scenario resonates deeply across cultural lines. School environments throughout Thailand present unique challenges where peer pressure intersects with traditional expectations about appearance and conformity. Recent national surveys reveal that nearly half of Thai students experience some form of bullying, with appearance-based teasing representing a significant portion of these incidents.

A US mother’s simple change — hanging a mirror at her two-year-old’s eye level and moving clothes and books to low shelves — has gone viral after the toddler began choosing her own outfits, picking her own books and dressing herself more often. The change fits with Montessori principles of a “prepared environment” and is supported by education research showing Montessori-style settings boost young children’s self-regulation, confidence and practical independence. For Thai parents and early-childhood professionals, the example points to low-cost, evidence-aligned ways to make homes more supportive of children’s development (People: One Simple Change This Mom Made…) and to a broader research base showing Montessori methods improve academic and non-academic outcomes when well implemented (Systematic review: Montessori education’s impact).

When an American mother shared how placing a mirror at her toddler’s eye level sparked unprecedented independence, Thai parents took notice. The simple change — combining a low mirror with child-height storage for clothes and books — transformed daily routines for a two-year-old who now chooses outfits, dresses herself, and selects bedtime reading without constant parental assistance. This viral parenting moment illuminates evidence-backed Montessori principles that research confirms enhance children’s self-regulation, confidence, and practical skills.

Social media erupted when a prominent American parenting influencer candidly admitted she regularly provides homework answers to her children and completes significant portions of school projects herself. Her confession sparked intense debate about the boundary between supportive assistance and counterproductive interference, illuminating research findings that challenge conventional wisdom about parental homework involvement.

The influencer’s frank admission resonated because it exposed a universal parenting struggle. Exhausted after demanding workdays, parents naturally want to minimize their children’s academic stress and family conflict. “Sometimes I just give them the freaking answers,” she explained, describing her strategy for avoiding prolonged homework battles and emotional meltdowns.

A popular U.S. parenting influencer recently admitted on social media that she sometimes gives her children the answers to homework and takes a large share of school projects — a candid confession that has reignited debate about where support ends and over‑helping begins. The episode has drawn fresh attention to a growing body of research showing that the way parents help with homework matters for children’s motivation, emotional health and learning independence. Evidence suggests well‑intentioned assistance can improve grades in the short term, but persistent, controlling help may raise anxiety, reduce autonomy and blunt problem‑solving skills unless it is framed by warm communication and scaffolding from adults. (People’s reporting of the influencer’s admission is available here (Mom Influencer Defends Why She’s Been Doing Her Kids’ Homework for Years)).

Parents used to weigh whether a cute photo, a milestone video or a birthday album was worth sharing with relatives and friends. Today, the calculus has shifted because new artificial intelligence tools can take any uploaded face and instantly create convincing sexualized images or nudes — a threat that makes posting children’s photos online far riskier than many realise. The recent reporting on AI “nudifier” apps describes easy, inexpensive services that can turn an ordinary portrait into nonconsensual pornographic imagery, fueling calls for parents to reconsider sharenting and for policymakers to act quickly to protect children. ( (Why A.I. Should Make Parents Rethink Posting Photos of Their Children Online](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/technology/personaltech/ai-kids-photos.html)).

Thai families celebrating their children’s excellent high school grades may be unprepared for what awaits at university level, according to alarming new educational research from the United States. A comprehensive investigation by leading parenting experts reveals that record numbers of high-achieving high school graduates are arriving at universities academically unprepared, despite earning mostly A’s and B’s throughout secondary education. These students face scholarship losses, academic probation, and course repetition at unprecedented rates, creating financial strain and emotional devastation for unprepared families.

A Slate parenting column this week captured a growing concern for families: more recent high school graduates are arriving at college underprepared for the academic demands they face, losing scholarships, ending up on academic probation, or needing to repeat introductory courses — even when they left high school with mostly A’s and B’s (Slate parenting column). New research from U.S. education organizations confirms the columnist’s anecdote and shows a wider pattern: high school grades have risen while standardized test scores and some measures of college performance have dropped, leaving many students — and their families — shocked by the rigour of college-level work (College Board report; ACT/EdWeek coverage). For Thai parents planning university paths for their children, these findings underline practical steps families and schools must take now to avoid similar shocks when Thai students transfer to provincial, private, or overseas universities.

New research suggests that sleep can amplify a tendency among anxious children and young adolescents to generalise negative experiences, meaning that a single upsetting event may be more likely to cast a wider shadow over similar, harmless situations after a night’s sleep. In a controlled experiment of 34 participants aged 9–14, higher clinician-rated anxiety was associated with a greater chance of falsely recognising new-but-similar negative images as previously seen — but only in the group that slept between learning and test (PsyPost coverage; Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry abstract) (PsyPost, PubMed record).

Groundbreaking research reveals that sleep—typically considered restorative and healing—may actually strengthen negative memory biases in anxious children, potentially explaining why some young people develop persistent worry patterns that spread across multiple life situations. A controlled study of 34 participants aged 9-14 found that children with higher clinician-rated anxiety showed increased tendency to falsely recognize new-but-similar negative images as previously seen, but only after sleeping between learning and testing sessions. This discovery suggests that sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes may selectively strengthen threatening associations in anxious youth, creating a neurological pathway through which single negative experiences expand into generalized fears.

A 15-year-old’s confession that she stumbled on her father’s anonymous Reddit posts — private-seeming messages that aired resentment toward his partner, guilt about parenthood and even sharp words about his daughter — has drawn fresh attention to a little-studied but increasingly common family fault line: what happens when parents use the internet as an emotional diary in a household where children share devices. The Slate advice column that published the teenager’s letter framed the dilemma as both a privacy breach and a worrying red flag for parental mental health; researchers say the episode is precisely the kind of everyday encounter that illuminates how family communication, adolescent wellbeing and online culture now overlap in complex ways (Slate). Recent psychology research on adolescent information management, studies of online parenting communities and public-health guidance on social media suggest that the consequences can be serious — for teens who feel forced into an adult role and for parents who use public platforms to vent without support.

Hearing relatives describe the same childhood in sharply different ways is common — one brother remembers a warm, adventurous upbringing while a sister recalls strict rules and missed opportunities. New popular coverage and decades of behavioural-genetics research say this is not just family myth-making but a predictable result of how children experience the world differently even under one roof. A recent explainer in HuffPost lays out the clinical and practical reasons siblings can have vastly different childhoods, from changing family circumstances and parental moods to birth order and personality differences HuffPost. That observation aligns with long-standing scientific work on the “nonshared environment” — the environmental influences that siblings do not share — and has direct implications for Thai families navigating shrinking household sizes, rapid economic change and shifting gender and filial expectations.

No one warns you about the anger. New reporting and recent research suggest that irritation, seething resentment and occasional “mom rage” are common, understandable responses to the sustained mental and emotional labour of parenting — not signs of moral failure. An in-depth feature by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found mothers routinely suppress anger because cultural narratives of the “perfect mother” label such feelings as unacceptable, leaving many women feeling “socially gaslit” into silence (ABC News). Academic studies reinforce that the mental load — the invisible planning, organising and emotional labour of family life — falls heavily on mothers and is closely linked to frustration, burnout and mood disturbance (University of Bath / University of Melbourne research release; ScienceDaily summary).

Groundbreaking investigative reporting and cutting-edge research are dismantling one of parenting’s most persistent myths: that good mothers should never feel angry about the relentless demands of childcare and family management. Recent comprehensive analysis by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalists, combined with peer-reviewed studies from leading universities, reveals that irritation, seething resentment, and occasional episodes of “mom rage” represent common, understandable responses to the invisible mental and emotional labor that society places almost exclusively on mothers’ shoulders. The investigation documents how cultural narratives of the “perfect mother” systematically gaslight women into suppressing legitimate frustrations, leaving countless mothers feeling isolated, ashamed, and unable to seek the support they desperately need. Most significantly for Thai readers, these findings expose how traditional expectations of maternal sacrifice and emotional composure—deeply embedded in Buddhist concepts of patience and familial harmony—may be inadvertently trapping mothers in cycles of silent suffering that ultimately harm both maternal mental health and family wellbeing.

A groundbreaking parenting experiment conducted by a Swiss mother has triggered international debates about the future of child-rearing after she publicly credited artificial intelligence with revolutionizing her family’s daily management while raising profound questions about the appropriate role of technology in intimate family relationships. The 33-year-old Zurich resident’s viral confession that she feels like she’s “cheating at mom life” by using ChatGPT for everything from meal planning to tantrum management has sparked intense discussions among parenting experts worldwide about whether digital assistance represents liberation for overwhelmed parents or concerning erosion of authentic human connection in child development. Her bold embrace of AI co-parenting offers crucial insights for Thai families increasingly dependent on digital tools, particularly as rapid technological adoption intersects with traditional Thai values emphasizing warm family bonds and intergenerational wisdom sharing.

As Thai students prepare to return to school, parents across the country are quietly debating a familiar question: should children be rewarded with cash or gifts for bringing home top grades? This parenting dilemma, recently discussed in a widely-read Slate article, is now the subject of renewed scientific interest as new studies examine whether financial incentives actually boost academic achievement—or if they undermine learning in the long run.

The question isn’t just hypothetical. In many Thai households, as elsewhere, parents sometimes offer cash, new gadgets, or outings as rewards for school success. A father’s proposal, detailed in the Slate column, to pay his children per grade sparked a debate between him and his wife—she insisted that learning and grades should be their own reward, while he argued that incentives mirror the real-world bonuses adults receive at work. This parental tug-of-war mirrors what many Thai families experience, shaped by Thai cultural norms valuing education, family honor, and academic competition.

A revolutionary wave of educational psychology research has shattered conventional assumptions about academic incentives, revealing that parents who offer cash payments and material rewards for good grades may unwittingly sabotage their children’s natural love of learning while creating psychological dependencies that undermine long-term educational success. This groundbreaking evidence arrives at a crucial moment for Thai families, where escalating academic competition and rising educational costs have intensified parental anxiety about securing children’s future prospects through any means necessary. The research findings challenge deeply held beliefs about motivation while offering Thai parents scientific guidance for nurturing genuine intellectual curiosity without falling into reward-based traps that transform education from joyful discovery into transactional obligation.

A Swiss mother has sparked intense discussion online and across parenting communities worldwide after revealing she uses ChatGPT—a prominent artificial intelligence tool—as a “third co-parent” in raising her 3-year-old daughter. Her unconventional approach, which recently went viral on TikTok and was featured on major media outlets such as Good Morning America, underscores the growing fascination and contentious debate over AI’s role in everyday family life (Independent).

The story, originating from Zurich, Switzerland, centers on a 33-year-old mother who openly credits ChatGPT with significantly easing her daily parenting load. “I feel like I’m cheating at mom life,” she admitted in a widely shared TikTok video, explaining how AI helped manage everything from meal planning and drafting grocery lists to navigating toddler tantrums and even supporting her own emotional well-being. Her candidness struck a chord with countless viewers, instantly fueling both admiration and skepticism about the technology’s reach into the home—and, by extension, the boundaries of modern parenting.

A wave of new research is calling into question the widely held assumptions about parental influence that have driven generations of mothers to feel overwhelming guilt for every misstep. As digital platforms and parenting “experts” continue to amplify messages about the supposed lifelong impacts of everyday parenting choices, psychologists and researchers are now pushing back against the idea that mothers alone determine the psychological fate of their children. The latest findings challenge not only traditional advice but also the culture of maternal self-blame that has become pervasive in societies such as Thailand, where family bonds are central and mothers are often seen as the linchpin of child development.

A new study conducted by researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) has shed light on the dynamic ways in which stress transmits between parents and their children, specifically demonstrating how this transfer affects sleep quality and overall health across the family unit. As families in Thailand grapple with the pressures of modern life and work, these findings offer new insights into the interconnectedness of family well-being, calling for a renewed focus on mental health strategies that address not only individuals but the entire household.

A viral phenomenon celebrating innovative and sometimes “unhinged” parenting strategies has captured global attention while resonating powerfully with Thai families struggling to balance traditional child-rearing expectations with contemporary pressures including economic uncertainty, changing family structures, and post-pandemic educational challenges. This grassroots movement toward creative parenting solutions reflects a fundamental shift in how Thai parents approach child development, moving from perfectionist expectations toward pragmatic strategies that prioritize family wellbeing, mental health, and sustainable daily routines over Instagram-worthy parenting performance.