You can’t have a fully fledged toy craze unless there’s a hefty dose of bad publicity featuring angst-ridden parents fearing for the

You can’t have a fully fledged toy craze unless there’s a hefty dose of “bad publicity”, featuring angst-ridden parents fearing for the moral well-being, nay the sanity, of their darling offspring. Penny Wilson says she started the project to keep herself sane through her son’s illness. When Jane Cobb and Penny Wilson appeared on Carlton TV, 50 per cent of the e-mails and letters they received were from men. “There are no pounds 400 kiddies cardies or organic meals they won’t eat. That’s what people love about it.”And finally, WiPE will also include articles by and for men – yes, men, those forgotten parents.

With the exception of the latter (test driving a Porsche on the school run and weekly shop), the magazine is definitely “non-aspirational,” says Jane Cobb. “Ours tells it how it is – for real parents rather than someone’s idea of how a parent should be.”The first edition sports Ruby Wax on the cover, with coverlines such as “Entertain your child from the sofa” and “Porsche Parenting”. There was nothing for parents but more guilt,” says Penny Wilson, a 32 year-old single mother, whose four year old son was born with a serious brain disorder. While the sales of other parenting titles have fallen year on year, with two titles M and Parents closing altogether, WiPE, which promises “parenting with attitude” look set to become quite a success.What started six months ago as an alternative, semi-underground newsletter for “real” parents, with only 200 copies of the first edition, is now set to launch in December with a distribution deal with COMAG and a print run of 100,000.”Everything on the market told parents how to make their children happier, healthier and more PC. Now it looks like the gurus are getting their come-uppance.December in Britain will see the launch of a new magazine aimed at parents called WiPE.

The brainchild of two full-time mothers, Jane Cobb and Penny Wilson, it is the antidote to that particularly sanctimonious, pastel- coloured brand of parenting magazine on sale at supermarket checkouts. “They’re like cook books in which no one tested the recipes,” commented the mother of a one- year-old. “They tell you what to do but when it doesn’t work, it’s your fault.” Each chapter of Mad Cows begins with a quote from a childcare manual and then cuts to the reality. Most new parents at some point ceremonially burn their copy of Penelope Leach or Miriam Stoppard. You have to make a compromise with children,” she says, “give them what they want so that you get what you want.” Their children, she insists, are better for it, even if her methods sometimes contradict the child- centered, routine-obsessed advice from the childcare manuals.Every month, every year, dozens of new magazines and books tell parents how to do their job better. Vanessa and Steve have conciously tried to avoid the trap of only socialising with other people with kids. Vanessa says that if she has a philosophy it is “not to make rules that you are going to be constrained not to break.