With the school holidays now in their final furlong many parents are quite worn out, writes Julia Stephenson

Two months of feverish activities have left some mums on the verge of psychotic breakdown and seeking relief with large glasses of medicinal Chardonnay by bath time.

Tom Hodgkinson might be the man to calm them down. In his new book The Idle Parent he asserts that helicopter parents who hyperactively intervene in their children’s lives should JUST BACK OFF. Pushy parents don’t help by making childhood into a stress-filled period of anxious striving and competing. Shops, theme parks, expensive holidays, television and shopping are out. Playing is in. Spend time in nature. Socialise with other parents (children in large groups “practically vanish into thin air”).

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