Tracy Bartram

Our first celebrity parent is Tracy Bartram. Tracy is a longstanding supporter of the Every Child is Important Campaign. She is a mother and very successful comedian. She is also a Patron of the Australian Childhood Foundation. 

In this excerpt from an interview she gave to us, Tracy spoke about how she tries to make children important to her.

What do you see as some of the challenges for us as a community in prioritising children?

Children need to feel more part of their families and their community. They need to be involved and included. We need to turn the TV off more and talk to each other. We need to make sure we make time for our children. Children need to feel part of something that is bigger than their family, so we try to draw people to us a lot and participate in lots of things that go on in our community.

Children’s feelings need to be acknowledged and not negated.

Parenting is so challenging. It is really hard work and it doesn’t come with a manual. Talking to other parents about our experiences and finding out that ‘it’s not just me’ is great. Being open to new ways to parent is the way to go.

People often don’t believe that children have rights but I absolutely believe they do. A child has rights from the moment he/she is conceived – the right to be born into a loving family where he or she is wanted. We don’t own our children, they come through us but they don’t belong to us. I look at my son and think I want to be more like him. He teaches me so much about life. Too often the concept of rights is confused with power and control. I don’t want to control my son. I want to teach him about values, life skills and independence, about relationships and how to be a great person. I’m really tough with him in as far as he’s got jobs to do and he’s expected to contribute to family life. I want to teach him about routine and responsibility.

Children need to be empowered, but giving children power doesn’t necessarily mean that power is taken away from the parent. I believe that empowering children teaches them that they can negotiate and discuss things with adults and not have to accept everything their parents say. Parents are not perfect, they do make mistakes. Sometimes I contradict myself with my son and he is right to point that out to me.

Children need to learn the power that comes from love, self esteem, integrity and respect. As parents, we need to learn how to foster these qualities in our children.