Mum sparks fierce debate on Good Morning Britain after letting kids do what they want

The mother-of-three insisted that she wasn't choosing the 'lazy' parenting option

A mother-of-three has sparked a fierce debate on Good Morning Britain after ditching her 'authoritarian' style parenting.

Nic Bescoby, who is mum to George, eight, Ellie, seven and Aimee, six, insisted that she wasn't 'lazy' for allowing her kids to do what they want.

Her children decide when they want to go to bed, when they want to eat and even whether they want to ditch school.

Speaking to hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, she said: "I value freedom. And the children really value freedom.

"We realised that the more control we gave them over their lives, the happier they were.

"It's not just about letting them do whatever they want, there is guidance."

She added: "It’s a lot of work laziness is completely the wrong.. I mean, I work from home, I am doing a uni course at the moment so there are a lot of elements in there.

“It’s constantly answering questions, researching the questions that they ask because half the time I don’t know the answer to the questions they ask.

“So we have to go and find the answer which is teaching them another key skill to find answers to questions."

When Kate asked if she ever resorts to telling the children to go to bed, Nic brushed it off as the 'lazy option'.

She said: “The lazier option would be saying 'you have to do what I say' because that is easier for me.

"Where as actually we would sit and discuss why, and it does take a lot of work to go through that.

“They are children, they are very willful, and sometimes I do because it’s mutual respect and sometimes I do have to put my needs first.

“Sometimes I do say, we have to do this right now because I need to do it. It’s give and take, it’s not just allowing them to do what they want. That takes a lot of work.”

The mother also defended her decision to educate her children at home, saying: “If we look at the society we’re going into, there has to be massive changes to the world we’re living in if you look at environmental factors, the way the world is changing, the technology we’re producing, we need out of the box thinkers.”

GMB viewers were left divided on Nic's parenting style.

One said: "This was the way my parents raised me and it messed me up for a long time. By the time I was an adult it was incredibly hard for me to cope with bosses being bossy. I hated being told what to do. I went from job after job.”

Another wrote: "Just pure laziness on the mums part.”

A third said: "The job of a parent is to raise kids to become independent functioning adults. Wait till they grow up and have to follow society’s rules.”

"To be fair I agree with some of the things said as I worked in nurseries and pre schools and children learn faster doing the things they enjoy like playing" explained another viewer.