Beck Vass: The family that makes me feel better about my parenting

COMMENT:

If, like myself, anyone needs assurances about their parenting abilities during these particularly long summer school holidays, you need not look much further than the news.

The visit to New Zealand of a feral UK family has stunned Kiwis. We've watched as the group has travelled around the North Island causing chaos.

I'm not usually one to advocate judging anyone else's parenting. You never know what tiny snippet of someone's life you are making a judgement on: it could be the worst five minutes they've ever had, or it could be the best. Whichever is the case, your judgement isn't going to help.

But these people appear to cause problems everywhere they go, starting with littering one of our beautiful beaches, so I'm happily throwing my two cents in.

Don't you just love that New Zealand is a country small enough for us to be able to call this out? Krista Curnow for New Zealander of the Year!

Upon seeing the disgusting mess, she stood up and said: No, Mate. That isn't acceptable here.

In other countries, such behaviour may not have been noticed. Not here. It's national news. Everyone, everywhere, is talking about them, disgusted. They have nowhere to hide.

Then the footage of a boy, believed to be aged six, confronts Curnow's group, and threatens to knock their brains out.

The tourist family accused of bad behaviour leaving the Hamilton District Court. Photo / Christine Cornege

Think of the examples of bad behaviour this tiny thug appears to have seen in just the last couple of weeks alone, let alone what has led up to it.

He was later photographed, shirtless, flipping the bird at media.

This photo brought me so much joy. At least my kids haven't done that. Yet.

In addition to theft charges and other disagreements they've been caught up in throughout their travels, they've also been in trouble with police for not having their kids belted into the car properly - and had to buy car seats.

So if you, like me, have growled at your kids for fighting, for being under your feet, for whining or arguing about the food you've made for them, for having a meltdown when you said they couldn't have an ice cream at 9am, for being rude, obnoxious or ungrateful (or a combination of all three), chuck the saddle back on your high horse and straddle it because no matter how much you have to feel guilty about as a parent these holidays, it could always be quite a lot worse.