Should parents be more than just spectators at sports day?

Liz Fraser, author of books about how to be a parent, believes that part of the job of being a parent is to teach your children "what humiliation is about" and the egg and spoon race "is all about that".

She told the Today programme's Justin Webb that you have got to give it your best, and if you fall over "well so much the better.... the whole point is just to have fun".

Viv Groskop, a writer and journalist, says she has been training all year for sports day, but is still "scared".

"It's a horrible humiliation," she told the programme. "On the one hand you want to show your children that it's important to participate but on the other hand its shaming".

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