Are British children seeing too little of their parents?
Peter Hoskin 2:24pm
For those who haven't read it yet, I'd recommend Rachel Johnson's article in the latest issue of the magazine. Her thesis is neatly contained in this paragraph:
"If you add up all the nine-to-five jobs, the extra me-time and us-time and evenings out for the stressed parents trying to keep their marriages alive (two nights’ babysitting is usually thrown into the au pair deal), on top of school and the private extra lessons for the children, well — it becomes all too clear that some children hardly intersect with their parents at all. And the frightening fact is that we won’t really know what effect all this is having until these children are grown up and becoming parents themselves."
It seems like a ripe topic for some Monday afternoon debate. So, do CoffeeHousers agree with Rachel? Or is she overstating the case? Leave your comments here, or on the article itself.
Previous
idle
June 16th, 2008 3:03pm Report this commentSome of us, Rachel, hold down busy jobs and have a decent social life and see lots of our children. Most of us, in fact, but you don't know us.
Suggest moving away from Notting Hill and giving up the meeja/PR party scene.
Tom Ogg
June 16th, 2008 3:26pm Report this commentI work with children who has been expelled from school. This is definitely a big problem with the students we teach- whether from the middle classes ('latchkey' kids who let themselves in and out and don't see their parents because they are working too hard) to the working classes, who tend to boot the children out the house for all the hours of the day.
Fergus Pickering
June 16th, 2008 5:14pm Report this commentWell of course if you are rich, what the DT calls 'the coping' classes' you see damn little of your children because they are away at boarding school. As for the old working class - they booted the children out to play in the street and I thought we said this was a wonderful thing. Seems a total non-story if you ask me. Every child nows what parents are for, to provide food and shelter, pocket money and lots of lifts.
dexey
June 16th, 2008 5:15pm Report this commentI work with children from very middle class families. The children lack for nothing but their parents love.
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