From the West Australian

Kathy Walker sees a lot of parents who want to be perfect. Anxious and guilty, they torture themselves, believing that if they don't get it right, they'll mess up their kids for life.

This anxiety was one of the reasons Walker, an education and parenting consultant based in Victoria, decided to write her latest book, Parenting.

"The reality is there is no such thing as a perfect child or family," Walker says. "I think if you start
your parenting life thinking, `I have to make this child behave in every way 100 per cent of the time in every thing,' it's going to be a pretty tough family life for everyone. Parents are going to be in a constant state of frustration and the child is going to be in a constant state of frustration."

She says parents shouldn't see themselves as being there to fix everything.

"That mentality of fixing, I think, sets us off into a direction of thinking there must be a perfect, right answer. And I don't think there is.

"I'd prefer parents to think they are just helping their children move through their childhood and addressing particular behaviours and strategies that might require some extra help along the way."

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