Play-Doh has launched its first ever book for parents – Notes on Messy Parenting – as part of a new campaign which is seeking to celebrate the honest, unspoken truths about parenting.
As a brand that embraces mess and dislikes instructions, its new Parenting is Messy campaign comes in direct response to research that has revealed that 67% of parents feel an overwhelming pressure to be a ‘perfect’ parent, with 41% stating they’d received unsolicited or unrequested parenting advice from others.
65% of parents stated that they feel overwhelmed and bombarded by the amount of advice and ‘parenting ideals’ that are out there, with the sources most attributed as the cause of said pressure including social media (72%), other parents (46%), family members (40%) and even friends who don’t have children (34%).
The list of contributors in the book offering tales of parenting fails, worries and messy mishaps includes TV personality and presenter, Ferne McCann; Steps singer, Ian ‘H’ Watkins; presenter and podcast host, Vogue Williams; TV presenter and Paralympian medallist, Ade Adepitan; and journalist, author and popular blogger, Anna Whitehouse.
As part of the wider Parenting is Messy campaign, Play-Doh will also be hosting the House of Messy Parenting, a one off free event in London on Saturday 1 October.
Promising a guilt free zone to embrace messy parenting, the event will provide a chance for parents to come along, share and smile at the daily dramas and inevitable ball drops, while the kids get creative with some Play-Doh messy play. All attendees will take home a physical copy of Notes on Messy Parenting, as well as Play-Doh products for the kids.
The brand is also encouraging parents across the UK to submit their own messy parenting stories and hang-ups online, in exchange for prizes for both kids and adults. This can be done via the campaign website or by using the #PlayDohMessyParenting hashtag across social media.
“As a brand that embraces mess and imagination without instructions, Parenting is Messy is all about celebrating the less polished moments in people’s lives as parents,” commented Nicola Fox-Haggarty, commercial director at Hasbro UK and Ireland. “Our Play-Doh products aim to fuel the kind of creative thinking that can help us all inspire a better future and encouraging learning, creating, and imagining freely without judgment is at the heart of this campaign.
“Whether you’re laughing at one of the stories in Notes on Messy Parenting, sharing your own messy mishap via the campaign hashtag, or physically shredding your parenting guilt at our House of Messy Parenting, we hope to provide a small, light-hearted way in which parents and caregivers can hopefully get rid of some of that pressure that is worryingly higher than ever before across the UK.”
