Child Care...

The United Nations or some similar weighty organisation has in the past day or two issued a report suggesting that children in the developed world are being rushed into education or into Nursery care too soon. This means that the bond between parents and children suffers. And it probably does the child some harm.

Of course there is an argument that the child who socialises with others and experiences life outside of his or her's home may have some benefit making that child a whole person, less insular but when I was a child my Mother worked but not during the formative years she was there for me and I was not a latch key child coming home to an empty home. Nor was I farmed out to grandparents or relatives.

How many of today's families could hold down/afford to work if they had to pay for the child care which is still for many too expensive or non-existent or not have relatives that either offer to help for free or take next to nothing to care for children? And if money changes hands it is not declared. Also, any agreement is looked down on because of stories of child abuse and anyone looking after a child other than by a parent is suppose to have been on some professional course with a qualification at the end of it. Not forgetting having had a police check done on all concerned in case the person is a pervert.

The ideal model is two parents bringing up their offspring but you can always find situations where that is not the case. Just as you can find single parents that are not suitable to be a parent(but whose model are we following as being correct?)but some will do as good a job or their best and put their children first and battle to give them a stable home life and try to see that they are not deprived of love or what their friends have so they feel disadvantaged. Sometimes a family will stay together for the sake of the children or a home breaks up and it ends up as a single parent household. It's too easy to condemn those involved, there are too many variables. Divorce, seperation, desertion and we haven't mentioned step families.

We have in the UK(and I am sure it is similar of other countries)more than ever a Government with plans to get parents out to work. The children must be put into the education system as soon as is possible. When I was a child I am sure that I mixed with other children but it was informal and an arrangement between parents who were in a similar situation. For those who make decisions today in many cases it is too rigid and there is little room for maneuver.

Unfortunately, as I have said elsewhere in previous blog entries, some families that live in poverty or take benefits etc...are often classed as being the same as those who give all a bad name. The genuine parents that want to try and have a close and loving home life and be there for there children are being pressured into having a child and getting back out there virtually as soon as the child is dropped from the womb. Some have to go back for economic reasons.

And the few anecdotal cases that come up in the media only make matters worse. I can see the idea of getting away from the culture of having something for nothing and trying to say work gives you an incentive but its not a black and white decision, there is a grey area. There could be times when this is not the best policy.

There are genuine families who would like to give their children a life that resembles what they had, a carefree and innocent childhood will suffer to some extent, sometimes because the income is too low, the daily cost of living is too high and jobs are not guaranteed for life parents go back to work too soon.

The Government of the UK are wanting to teach the subject of Sex to an even younger section of children(I forget the exact age)but I know its too young and their minds should not even be thinking of such matters.

You cannot have it all ways...they say that there are too many unruly children on the streets involved in violence and crime so there is an argument for having parents at home but if parents are working long hours and away from home who is watching these children? And I am also afraid that many who do work find themselves still unable to provide what in a modern society is a decent standard of living and families still have to make do. There will always be families able to do more than another.

I'm not saying that it should be the female who stays at home or the Male that in today's world has to be worked out between those involved. I'm afraid too many of those who make the decisions are out of touch with the kind of lives most of the population live.

And still the care offered for children so parents can work is still hit and miss in quality and I am afraid for many it is still too expensive to afford on the wages many jobs pay or shall we say that some jobs pay well but the daily bills soon eat away what income is being brought back into the home.

I have to be careful that I do not look at this through rose coloured spectacles and maybe see a world that really never existed or be accused of being sexist by suggesting that the female stayed at home and ran the home whilst hubby went out to work. That's why I said maybe all that is important is that one parent is able to stay at home whoever that happens to be.

I'm sure someone can pick holes in my argument and I am talking in general terms having no children of my own. I hope that I am reasonably fair in what I think...