Can swapping wine o’clock with magic mushrooms make you a better parent? Genevieve Roberts finds out

Genevieve with her three children (Photo: Supplied) author avatar image When my friend-of-a-friend Bill was at his daughter’s school fete a couple of weeks ago, his usual nerves about small talk , especially at school functions, were completely absent. Instead, as he wandered around the playing field, he felt connected to the parents around him and smiled at the sight of the kids running around in the sun.

“It was a little bit of a confidence boost, I felt sociable and enjoyed representing the family,” he explains. The remedy for his anxiety ? One drop of oil to his tongue carrying a microdose of magic mushrooms.

Now, if this was happening down in hippy Brighton where I live, I wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. But this is happening all over the country – and it’s property developers, health enthusiasts and CEOs, many of them parents who are taking mushrooms as a way to keep calm and carry on. Read Next

Lifestyle Big Read ‘My daughter got her period at nine’: why girls are starting puberty younger

Read More

Many are taking them instead of their evening glass of wine – a way of decompressing, feeling calmer and lighter. They can come in chocolate form, a tincture that you take by the drop – or even plucked from a field and chewed on.

Despite the illegality, over the past few months I’ve heard magic mushroom microdosing lauded for reducing parental overwhelm, increasing focus, as a cure for menopause symptoms , for finding a deeper level of understanding in what people are saying and meaning and – that I was most struck by – for improving connection with children.

One microdoser tells me she feels more empathy when playing with her son. “I’m more creative and open,” she explains. “I used to have a constant chatter in my mind while playing Lego or drawing: what I need to do next; what we’re going to eat for dinner; distractions from my phone. Now I’m more present.” She does reassure me […]

More parents are microdosing mushrooms – here’s why I won’t