COLUMN Family Matters: Georgina Fuller discovers she is apparently a "fun mum"

Ever since the word parenting became a verb, sometime around the 1970s when the popularity of books on parenting reached new heights, mums and dads (but, let’s face it, mostly mums) have been trying to define their parenting ‘style.’

Helicopter, free-range, attachment – what type of parent are you? Over the last few decades we as a society have become increasingly child-centric. The term ‘intensive parenting’ was first described in the 1990s by social scientists in the US and has since become ‘the norm.’

So, I found it very reassuring to read about a new poll defining what makes a ‘fun’ parent. As someone who was raised on what my mother defined as ‘healthy neglect’ in the 1980s, I have struggled with the pressure to oversee every aspect of my children’s lives as seems to have become the general expectation nowadays.

According to this list, I am definitely a fun mum which makes me feel better about not doing the other mundane, day to day parenting stuff such as spending hours helping with homework, sewing on name tags and joining the PTA. I struggle with those admin aspects of parenthood and generally try and stay away from them as much as possible. I'm good at organising days out, doing board games and watching films with my three though.

In the last month alone we’ve had a weekend of sailing and paddle boarding at the brilliant UK Sailing Academy in the Isle of Wight, been to watch the spectacular Dragon Slayer at Warwick Castle, done a day trip to London to see Kidzania, a mini city/fun careers fair and danced the night away to the Sugababes and The Human League at The Big Feastival. If that doesn’t count as fun, I don’t know what does!