Parents are stereotyped as either "feckless" or "pushy" in a society that puts huge pressures on families, experts say.
The Family and Parenting Institute says intense scrutiny of parents has led to claims they are responsible for a deterioration in adolescent behaviour.
But its chief executive Dr Katherine Rake says there is no evidence of a decline in parenting standards.
No evidence of a decline in parenting standards? We will come back to that later, but for now what does that mean? Does it mean we can do away with all the expensive and useless family intervention projects, Sure Start centers and all the fake charities that make their money from 'helping' problem children.
Or does it mean that The Family and Parenting Institute is just another fake charity looking to justify their piece of the taxpayers pie? We all know the answer to that.
In an article to mark the start of Parenting Week, Dr Rake says parenting has become "one of the most charged political and cultural subjects of our age".
"The scrutiny of parenting has led to the idea of a parenting 'deficit', and the view that there are growing number of parents who are incapable," she adds.
"Yet, this focus of parenting skills is not matched by conclusive evidence about a decline in our standards of parenting."
You don't need conclusive evidence, you just need to walk outside and open your eyes. When I visit my parents who still live in the house I grew up in, I'm appalled at the vast mount of evidence of declining parenting standards. Little horrors out to all hours damaging peoples cars, the street and the area, swearing, fighting and generally behaving like a bunch of feral yobs. This behaviour is so normal to them they are unaware they are doing anything wrong.
Crime committed by children is rising year on year.
A large portion of the London rioters were under eighteen.
Gang culture is centered around children.
And for the last fourteen years, children and parents alike have been taught that there are no consequences to their actions, while the welfare state will reward the parents of unwanted children with a roof over their heads and money to pay their way, encouraging more children to be born to parents who cannot be bothered to raise them properly.
Dr Rake continues: "There is a risk that the current debate on problem families unhelpfully adds another stereotype to a modern mythology of parenting.
"Alongside the 'pushy parent'; who helicopters around their child and elbows others out of the way in pursuit of their child's interests, we have the deficit model of a feckless parent, who is need of corrective state intervention."
There are many parents who do not fall into these two categories but there are also many who do. Not only have we been taught that actions do not have consequences, we have also been taught through New Labours 'child centric' rubbish that that children come first, children somehow have rights above adults and that children should have some kind of opinion as to how they are brought up and educated.
When a baby is born it is nothing more than a wild animal. It needs to be taught right from wrong and how to behave in civilised society. A child cannot decide how this happens, as by definition, they don't have a clue.
When the state intervenes to stop parents even chastising their children, the child will grow up with the belief that it can do as it pleases.
She continues: "Working mothers now spend more time with their children than non-working mothers did in 1981."
She also quotes research that suggests that more parents in 2006 expected their children to be polite and do their homework than did so 20 years earlier.
I'm not sure how the non-working / working mother thing works in that statement. I don't know where the non-working mothers were in 1981 if they were not with their children.
Working mothers can now spend more time with their children because the state forces employers to allow women to have almost a year off work after giving birth, plus allow them to keep disappearing from work every time little Poppy has an upset tummy.
Working mothers do tend to be more responsible on the whole. I hope these 'studies' did not only look at working mothers because the bulk of the problem will lie with the benefit mothers.
As to more parents expecting their children to be polite and do their homework, maybe it's the definition of politeness and homework that has changed over the last 30 years.
She adds that "while it would be impossible to ascertain conclusively whether the 'quality' of parenting has improved or declined over time", a recent study suggested there was no evidence for declining standards of parenting over all.
Impossible to ascertain? I'm sorry, I thought you were telling us that you had done just that. There is no evidence that Guinness always causes black poo but anyone with experience drinking the stuff will tell you it does.
On problem families, Dr Rake said greater credence had been given to the idea that the government should intervene in what she described as "cases of market failure".
But there was an important distinction between so-called "problem families" who drive criminal activity and families who experience multiple problems, she said.
If the two were confused, the policies tackling the issue would fail, she suggested.
Eh? The only government intervention required is stiff punishment for criminal behaviour. We are already apparently seeing a drop in crime since the London rioters were dealt with more harshly than would have been the norm.
No amount of family intervention rubbish and labelling people as deprived will do any good. Punishing criminal behaviour will result in less criminal behaviour.
Family Intervention Projects which have been seen as one of the main methods of doing this would require an investment of between £1.5bn and £2bn, she said.
Hmm..
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