PARENTAL GUIDANCE
New series, Monday, 7.30pm Nine
Dr Justin Coulson is the resident expert on Nine’s provocative new reality-TV series, Parental Guidance. Described by host Ally Langdon as “the Ninja Warrior of parenting”, the show puts 10 couples with wildly different child-rearing philosophies (tiger, free-range, strict, helicopter, attachment, et cetera) through various challenges to determine which is best. Coulson, a Today show regular and author of six books on raising children, admits there is no one-size-fits-all approach, nor is there such a thing as a perfect parent.
<img alt="Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson and presenter Ally Langdon in Parental Guidance.” src=”https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.374%2C$multiply_0.3541%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_137/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/7311372b087ccdbf147cb4ddd9e0b5d6a7dbc669″ height=”212″ width=”375″ srcset=”https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.374%2C$multiply_0.3541%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_137/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/7311372b087ccdbf147cb4ddd9e0b5d6a7dbc669, https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.374%2C$multiply_0.7082%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_137/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/7311372b087ccdbf147cb4ddd9e0b5d6a7dbc669 2x”>
Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson and presenter Ally Langdon in Parental Guidance.Credit:Nine
“Just last night, I was overtired and stressed because it’s the real world and there’s work to be done, and I found myself not being my very best. So I apologised to my family, I sent myself to my room and had a good think about how I’d been behaving. After I’d had a lie down and some quiet time, I was able to re-enter the family and do a much better job of being a nice dad,” he says.
It was his relatable struggle with the “big emotions” of child-raising that led Coulson to quit a regional radio career, which had taken him from Mount Isa to Warrnambool, and enrol in a psychology degree.
“I was not a particularly attuned husband and I was an angry, authoritarian father of a toddler and a newborn, and I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just do what they were told. My frustration spilled over so badly one day that I acted shamefully towards my three-year-old … I really wanted to get it right.”
Since completing his PhD (he stresses he is not a registered psychologist), Coulson has become a go-to commentator on parenting for media outlets, including Christian publications.
“My faith is really important to me and it has provided a foundation of powerful principles by which I try to live my life and raise my family,” he says. “Things like patience, kindness, charity and gentleness. When it comes to family science and parenting, the data supports the same approach.”
Originally titled “Parent Jury”, the show was to feature Supernanny Jo Frost before she became unavailable due to travel restrictions.
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