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The Pause: Parenting a football club

PETER ETHERINGTON: At the weekend, while the second-rounders were putting yet more minutes in their legs on the heavy pitches of December, Hayes Lane stood...

08.12.25, 21:30 Updated 08.12.25, 21:30

Peter Etherington

Peter Etherington

Among the reams of modern parenting advice is a fairly useful technique called The Pause. It starts in infancy, instructing parents to wait for a moment before attending to their crying baby. Listen to the cry. What does the child need? If you’re lucky, it might even stop before you intervene. 

As the child grows, you use The Pause to calm yourself and consider the child’s perspective and needs before stepping in. Master the art and you’ll become the most obnoxiously considerate parent in the playground. You still have to wash the jam out of the hair, but you’ll feel slightly more saintly while doing so.

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