Wednesday 12 November 2014

Why Bother Having Children?

Why Bother Having Children?

Why do so many parents have children then as soon as they can shove them in a Nursery. then they go to school till their 18 then hopefully start work/leave home? Where are the family values etc of raising a family?
I despair.
To me this is the root of ALL society's problems now. We have no Family unit, we don't "care" for each other. We are isolated, just me, me, me. Parents spend all their time on iPADs or phones, I know a teacher who had to ask a parent at parent's evening to "stop using the phone" (she was texting) while he was talking about her daughter.She gave him mouth full of abuse and left.

Money isn't everything, I know its important and essential to a good healthy life but what's wrong with prioritising your Children first? We did. Sacrifice when they're young and teach them your values etc. the benefits will come later.

Look at this letter written to BBC news , highlighted by MHMT

Dear Sir/Madam, I have been married for nearly 18 years and we have 3 children aged 13, 11 and 9. When we got married we bought our house with the intention that we would be able to pay the mortgage on one salary so that I wouldn't have to work if we had children. I do work, thankfully I managed to secure a permanent part time job as a Community Paediatrician in my local hospital. I chose not to continue my training to become a consultant as the hours I would have had to work would have meant barely seeing my children!
My children did attend childcare when they were pre school age - for up to 2 days a week which they loved but those hours were more than enough and they were exhausted after those days!
As they have got older and attended school I have been very fortunate to be able to work fairly flexibly and have my mum nearby to do school pick ups if I can't.
As my children have got older they need me more rather than less and I tend to come home from work earlier than I did when they were younger. If my job had not been so flexible and I had felt that it was impacting on my children I would have given it up. Money would have been tight but we would have managed.
I certainly would not ever consider more childcare regardless of how cheap or expensive it might be. My children need me.
I spend my days at work trying to pick up the pieces for children from chaotic broken homes and also from middle class homes where children never see their parents apart from the weekends!
Obviously some people have to work to make ends meet and not all children suffer negative effects of long hours of childcare. But why as a society can we not make it easier for parents to care for their own children instead of forcing them into the workplace and taking even more parents away from their children to care for other people's children!!
Let's think about what children need, not what the economy needs or what parents need! Our children are the economy and the society of the future so their needs are what is really important!
Thank you to the author of this letter from MAHM. Let's hope someone listens somewhere!

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