Being a parent is hugely rewarding, but can also be incredibly hard. Having children completely changes the way you live your life - the shift in priorities, the stress, the financial pressures... the list goes on and on.
For example, one problem area that comes up repeatedly is the cost and availability of childcare, which the new Stormont Executive says is an issue it wants to tackle.
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Against this backdrop, charity Parenting NI is running its Big Parenting Survey 2024 to find out if parents are getting the help and support they need.
“Parenting NI has always been a representative of the parent voice in Northern Ireland and has been the lead organisation in providing parent support for the last 40 years,” says senior participation and research officer Emma Hitchen.
“This study is the first of its kind as we wanted to get a real, unvarnished view of the experiences of the parents in Northern Ireland.
“A lot of the other research is Britain or Ireland-based but obviously we have a very different landscape than them, so it was designed to give parents across Northern Ireland the opportunity to tell us about their experiences of parenting.”
Previous surveys have consistently shown that more than 80 per cent of parents in Northern Ireland do not receive enough support.
“One of the things we try and do is look at what kind of support parents would want, which is actually one of the questions in this year’s survey,” says Emma.
“This then helps us to shape our services accordingly and then whenever we are talking to policy makers, we are accurately representing the voice of parents.”
We thought that social media was going to be a big factor. However, through listening to parents and holding focus groups we have been able to establish that it’s actually things like the challenges of gender, sexuality and vaping that are the main concerns
In addition to highlighting recurring difficulties facing parents the survey it also shines a light on how shifts in society have created new, generational problems.
“Something that came up very strongly in our last survey was the changing needs of teenagers which has never been a prevalent issue in previous years,” Emma explains.
“In that survey we asked about changes in society, and we had actually thought that social media was going to be a big factor.
“However, through listening to parents and holding focus groups we have been able to establish that it’s actually things like the challenges of gender, sexuality and vaping that are their main concerns.”
The 2024 survey is also assessing what impact Stormont’s suspension has had on families.
Parenting NI offers a range of services including freephone support, parenting programmes, home visiting and training as well as a dads’ project which has proven to be both successful and popular.
“There was a real increase in dads contacting the support line due to a change in circumstances especially when they had separated from their partner, so it was a whole different dynamic in how they were caring for their child and were just looking for some support,” says Emma.
“Initially it was a project for separated dads specifically but that has changed now and instead of having a dad project we have a dad strand of our core work and we support any dad going through similar challenges to mums.”
The survey is anonymous and talking part will help to shape support for families across the north.
“It takes about seven minutes to complete,” promises Emma, who insists it has been compiled so that completing it isn’t tedious...
