Parental Advisory Manual
As if parenting wasn't difficult enough, now every new, exhausted, poo-covered mum or dad feels duty bound to prop their eyes open with matchsticks and wade through endless parenting manuals instructing them how to be the perfect parent.
Thankfully, however, Natasha Desborough, radio presenter, tv pundit and mum of two, is here to quell your feelings of inadequacy and discuss 'real' parenting, warts and all. Drawing on the experiences and confessions of real life mums and dads she uncovers the truth about life with children.
She discusses an extraordinarily broad range of subjects including
through this controversy can been seen a light of hope, its not an 'all for everyone' solution but taken in bite sized chunks could help the struggling parent retain their sanity
Replacement swear words to use in front of your children (Plaps, Twunt, Flufflenuff...)
The advantages of using a Parkinson's disease sufferer to get your baby to sleep
Substitute Willy Names (and the top 5 places little boys have put their willies)
The Language Of The Playgroup - what other mothers actually mean
Substitute Fanny Names (Tuppence - is that all its worth?)
What sex is really like after childbirth.
At last struggling parents of the world can unite. rejoice and bathe in their inadequacies as a real-life parenting bible is born.
This woman is a prime example of the type of parenting that has led to the breakdown of family values. This handbook should be banned.
reader letter The Croydon Guardian
What we think:
Natasha evokes controversy, note the comment from the Croyden Gaurdian, but through this controversy can been seen a light of hope, its not an 'all for everyone' solution but taken in bite sized chunks could help the struggling parent retain their sanity we loved it amusing different yet strangley pertinent, it will be a bit like Marmite you will either love it or hate it - Joclyn Manners Book Critic
Four Star ****
The Author: Natasha Desbourough
Natasha was born on the summer solstice in Wimbledon in 1974 part hippy and part womble in equal doses.
She grew up in Croydon, the armpit of south London, went to a posh all girls school before discovering the joys of booze, fags and boys at 6th form College in Reigate. It was here that she decided to pursue a career in film.
She got a job as a runner on feature film where she suffered from Trench Foot due to the set being 6 inches deep in water. She worked on a number of pop videos for mega famous popstars including: MN8, Sean Maguire and who could forget Worlds Apart.
She then realised that working as a runner was shit, so she helped set up and run a radio station for her favoured football club Crystal Palace. Her time at Palace Radio was spent mainly watching Palace lose dreadfully and snogging lots of footballers. After narrating a trail for the station, Natasha’s voice was heard by the Programme Controller of Invicta FM in Kent and she was given a late night graveyard slot.
The Big scary boss of the Capital Group Richard Park liked what he heard and brought Natasha over to London’s indie station XFM where she presented what can only be described as ‘radio porn’. The Chill Out Room was a great big, throbbing, pervy show, full of erotic poetry and sexy music. It was filthy dirty but she needed the money. Thankfully she was rescued from the radio porn before she caught something nasty and fronted the XFM Breakfast Session for a year before finding happiness on the mid-morning show.
She then joined BBC 6 Music to host the Weekend Breakfast Show, had a couple of kids, learned ‘The Gruffalo’ off by heart and lost her social life.