Channel 4 celebrates the good and the bad of bringing up children

28 July 2016

Channel 4 has today announced it will be celebrating the many sides of modern parenting with a new series, Parenting For Idiots.

 

The three-part series, from Electric Ray, will shine a humorous spotlight on the ever-widening gap between what parents think bringing a baby in to the world will be like - and the reality of nappies, tantrums, health & safety nightmares and the swearing and drinking often required to get through it all. The series will feature famous mums and dads from Jonathan Ross, Vic Reeves and Freddie Flintoff to Carrie Fisher, Katherine Ryan and Sally Phillips sharing their best war stories. “Child-free” celebs - like Jamie Laing and Janet Street Porter – will also be road testing other people’s children for the first time, Parenting For Idiots will be a no holds barred account of everything from new-borns, the terrible twos and beyond.

 

With celebrities at their most candid, Parenting For Idiots promises to offer tips for a generation of parents scared to admit they sometimes fail. It will be a celebration of the struggle and an acknowledgment of the long hidden truth that being a parent is wonderful…. but incredibly hard work.

 

The series was commissioned by Dom Bird, Head of Formats and Jilly Pearce, Commissioning Editor, Formats at Channel 4.

 

Dom Bird comments, “As modern parents, we spend a large chunk of our time worrying about whether we are bringing our children up properly. The truth is most of us are making it up as we go along and it’s time to admit it. Expect laughter, embarrassment and inappropriate tales as Parenting for Idiot invites you to sit down with a large glass of wine and revel in the reality that you’re not the only one to get it wrong as often as you get it right.”

 

The Executive Producers for Electric Ray are Karl Warner and Meredith Chambers. The Series Producer is Kate Staples.

 

Meredith Chambers said, “Yes it’s the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do, yes they’re adorable, but parenting is hard and mums and dads are becoming increasingly honest and funny about their stressful, dirty, unpaid work. We’re slowly getting over the myth of perfect parenting and for the first time this show will capture what bringing up baby is really like.”