Parents as role models: Our topic in July
Editor-in-chief Nik Niethammer introduces you to the dossier topic «Being a role model» and other topics in the July/August double issue in our cover film. The new magazine will be published on Thursday, 1 July 2021. You can also order the magazine online.
Dear reader
«Everyone looks for role models,» Erich Kästner once wrote, «because there are some.» It is completely irrelevant whether it is a great dead poet, Mahatma Gandhi or Uncle Fritz from Braunschweig. «If he's just a person who says or does what we hesitate to do at a given moment without batting an eyelid.» Like the other day on the train, when young people made fun of a woman of small stature. While we stared at our smartphones all around us, feeling increasingly uncomfortable but also unable to react, an older man stood up and said in a firm voice: «How dare you? Your parents would be ashamed. You stop that right now!» That hit home. While the young people trolled off, I thought to myself: Wow! So much civic courage would do me good too.
«Children imitate role models, set themselves apart and thus find their own identity» - this is how the dossier «Being a role model» by my colleague Birgit Weidt begins. One sentence in particular stuck with me while reading: «Children orientate themselves far less on what parents demand of them than on what they are actually shown by them,» writes Remo Largo in «Babyjahre». «Parents therefore have the challenging task of questioning their own behaviour and considering how they act as role models for their children.» Our dossier provides a kind of instruction manual; I highly recommend it.
«There is no other sensible education,
than to be a role model,
when there is no other way,
a deterrent.»Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), German physicist with Swiss and US citizenship
«Many children have missed the boat at school because of coronavirus,» says psychotherapist Ruth Huggenberger in an interview. «It's not just children who are in distress, parents are also at their wits' end, suffering from burnout, depression and anxiety disorders.» With this text, Claudia Landolt says goodbye to you, dear reader. The mother of four has worked as a senior author for Fritz+Fränzi since 2016, writing numerous texts and interviews for print and online. With dossiers such as «The strong child», «How much sleep does my child need?» and «Puberty», she has set important trends. Since 2017, the trained yoga teacher has been responsible for the special kindergarten editions she co-developed. I would like to thank Claudia Landolt very much for the fantastic collaboration over the past five and a half years, for many inspiring conversations and inputs. We wish our former colleague all the very best for her future career and personal life. And always a light heart.
We welcome a new «old acquaintance» to Fritz+Fränzi: Virgina Nolan. The mother of a seven-year-old daughter was already part of the editorial team from 2010 to 2014. After her departure, the Swiss-Irish dual national continued to write for us as a freelance author; her most recent dossier «Being parents, staying a couple» was published in June. Welcome back to the Fritz+Fränzi family, dear Virgina Nolan. We are delighted!
I hope you enjoy this double issue, packed with tips, background information and humour on family and parenting. Have a good summer!
Sincerely,
Your Nik Niethammer