Declan Lynch: Forget the Lego and the pre-prepared plans, it’s time Irresponsible Parenting got a look-in | Irish Independent

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May 1, 2026, 1:43:59 PM (2 days ago) May 1

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Declan Lynch: Forget the Lego and the pre-prepared plans, it’s time Irresponsible Parenting got a look-in.

A collaborative Lego-building project can be considered as a non-screen distraction. Photo: Getty

Newstalk presenter Sean Moncrieff discussed screen-free parenting. Photo: Damien Eagers

Declan Lynch

Yesterday at 14:30

I think I’ve cracked it. We’re all looking for that opening in the market, some weird speciality that nobody else has claimed. Last week, I mentioned that the excellent parenting advice of David Coleman on RTE1’s Today with David McCullagh had put this notion in my head that there must be room for a different kind of advice – the kind that is not so, shall we say, responsible. That may even border on the irresponsible.

Then I heard an equally challenging contribution by psychotherapist Joanna Fortune on Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays, 2pm) and I knew that at last I had found my true path in life. I was driving when I heard this, and I had to stop the car and take a moment to let it all seep in.

A listener had asked for advice: she is very busy with a new project at work, which is exciting, but it means she needs to work late at home. Her husband is out working at that time, so when the children are home from daycare, she needs some tips on how to keep them distracted. Without screens.

Right there she had thrown me a curveball, but we’ll park that thought to admire the way that Fortune immediately was seeing all the possibilities.

First, she suggested that the woman needs to be mindful of burnout, and to this end she wondered if the additional work could wait until the children were in bed. She reminded the parent that she hadn’t mentioned other tasks such as feeding the children, playing with them and doing bedtime.

“It’s a lot, isn’t it?” Fortune added, with Moncrieff very much in agreement.

Yes, it is a lot, but there was more. As a non-screen distraction, Fortune had in mind “a collaborative Lego-building project”. The busy mother could pick a theme, get the children to build a house or maybe a car. Thinking of everything, Fortune also suggested that there could be parallel themes, in case of disputes.

Another strategy would involve the parent taking a book or a movie that the kids like, and assigning different tasks such as drawing or creating a new character, imagining a new plot twist, bringing in a new villain, rewriting an ending – “non-screen-based distraction, play-based occupying activities”.

Again, it wouldn’t be my preferred route, but we’ll move on. If there really is no alternative to a screen being involved, the listener was advised to put together some “pre-prepared scavenger hunt lists”.

What snagged my attention here was the pre-prepared bit. A more lackadaisical soul might regard simply preparing as enough, but pre-preparing is clearly better. This scavenger hunt list, in case you’re wondering, would involve the kids looking at a screen, but ticking off items on the list that they see, such as a clock, a plate, a table, a bed, maybe an aeroplane. This would make the screen-based time “a little bit more engaging”.

And this is where I would come in, with my Irresponsible Parenting Initiatives. I would weigh up the merits of the collaborative Lego-building project with the parallel themes; the re-imagining and re-writing of books and movies; the screen time with the pre-prepared scavenger hunt lists – and I would say there is another way: Do your work and let them watch the telly.

Maybe make them some popcorn, it if makes you feel better. I’m here to tell you that most of my education came from the telly, and when I hear the “responsible” alternative, it sounds so exhausting I have to stop the car and have a rest.

But really what I’m saying here is that I should have my own radio spot, telling tormented young parents what they want to hear – not so much an Influencer, as a Bad Influencer.

People have had enough of experts.

While people are wrong about that, they’re right in their suspicions about the billionaires of Silicon Valley. On Down to Business (Newstalk, Saturdays, 8am) with Bobby Kerr, the panel was doing the business round-up when Louisa Meehan expressed the hope that if Meta makes Irish workers redundant, it won’t just send them an email, like Elon Musk did. Hopefully, she said, “Meta do follow the Irish legal system”.

While she was correct in her analysis, the idea that it’s now normal to merely express the “hope” that certain parties will follow our legal system, is most disturbing.