Colman Noctor: ‘Behaviour is always the signpost to a problem. It is very rarely the problem’

Colman Noctor: ‘Behaviour is always the signpost to a problem. It is very rarely the problem’

From Conversations with Parents by The Irish Times

April 21, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

Colman Noctor discusses the challenges of parenting and the realities faced by parents despite theoretical knowledge.

Colman Noctor is a well-known child and adolescent psychotherapist, so you’d be forgiven for presuming with all this expertise at hand that he always gets it right when it comes to parenting his own three children. Not so, the father-of-three says on the latest episode, explaining his children “slam doors” and face the same “trials and tribulations” as the everyone else’s children. He shares the “sobering” moment he realised that you can read all the books and have all the theory, “but in Dundrum Shopping Centre when you’re kid kicks off, it’s a lottery. Parenting is an act of failure. It’s just not failing too much.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Guest: Colman Noctor

Topics covered

  • parenting
  • child psychology
  • family dynamics
  • adolescent behavior
  • personal experiences

Keywords

  • parenting
  • child behavior
  • psychotherapy
  • family
  • adolescents

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Irish Times

Places: Dundrum Shopping Centre

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