Parents are mollycoddling children, says PM's adviser on childhood

Parents are smothering their children, leaving them unable to cope by themselves as they grow up, the prime minister's adviser on childhood has said.

Claire Perry, the MP for Devizes, said children's lives were too regimented with organised activities, and parents were shying away from disciplining their children.

Perry, 48, Cameron's adviser on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood and a mother of three, said she was guilty of organising every aspect of her children's lives.

"We've created a treadmill. It's usually the mother that is orchestrating all of that and doing all the driving. We have created rods for our own back. Children need time to be bored," she told the Times.

Perry, who took a seven-year break from her career in management consulting when her children were young, said mothers were often behind youngsters' cosseting because their own careers struggle when they start a family.

She said: "A lot of it is women who, because it is difficult to get on, subjugate their own ambition into their kids. That makes it harder when they get to university and realise they haven't got a mother to help them with their homework, watching their every move.

"We've all done it. Now, I just can't, so I don't, and I think they're probably better off as a result. Good parenting isn't just about making sure they come top in maths but all the difficult stuff too. If they don't learn the limits from us, who will tell them?"

Most parents have no idea what their children are doing on the internet, according to Perry. "Most parents are too busy, don't know the words, aren't aware their children are doing it. They are living in digital oblivion," she said.

Perry also criticised the fashion of 1950s-style homemaking which has added to mothers' burdens.

"I like baking but I don't want to make that my life's purpose. We worship this feminine motherhood thing and I don't think our children have benefited actually. They're babied a lot," she said.