KEY POINTS:
Two-thirds of parents feel the Government does not place much importance on their role in society.
A Research New Zealand poll of 500 people for the Families Commission has found that only 33 per cent of parents feel that the Government sees their role as "important" or "very important".
The finding has sparked an $800,000 Families Commission campaign to make parents feel more valued and to give them useful information.
Slogans such as "Parenting is the best job you'll ever do", and "Parenting is a complex task offering several different roles", will appear soon on supermarket trolleys, bus shelters and other media.
The advertisements will refer people to the Families Commission's website, which has been revamped to include parenting advice and links to agencies such as Plunket, Parents Centre and Barnardos.
The commission's chairman, Dr Rajen Prasad, said the Research NZ poll showed that parents felt, "We value our role as parents hugely, and we think our friends and family do, but we don't think society does."
Not surprisingly, 98 per cent of the 156 parents in the poll said they personally felt their role as parents was important or very important. Only 1 per cent said "somewhat important" and the other 1 per cent refused to answer.
Almost as many (95 per cent) said their families saw their role as important or very important, and most said the same for their employers (60 per cent) and their partners' employers (57 per cent).
But fewer than half (48 per cent) said society as a whole saw their role as important or very important.
In-depth feedback from the commission's online consultation group "The Couch" found that people saw society as preoccupied with buying houses and possessions at the expense of time with children.
Only 33 per cent said the Government saw parents' role as important or very important, with a further 37 per cent saying the Government saw their role only as "somewhat important".
A quarter of parents (27 per cent) said the Government saw their role as "not very" or "not at all" important, with the remaining 3 per cent unsure.
Feedback from The Couch pointed to resentment that both parents had to work.
Bob McCoskrie of the Family First lobby group said parents felt undermined by Government measures such as the removal of reasonable discipline as a defence against assault charges.
But Cary Hayward of Relationship Services, a key partner in the commission's parenting campaign, welcomed the push to encourage parents to look for information and attend courses.
"There is help available, be it attending counselling or education programmes run by Relationship Services, or accessing self-help material on our website, or the Families Commission's new parenting website," he said.
Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson said the Government had shown that it valued parents through initiatives such as 14 weeks of paid parental leave.
SOCIAL VALUES
What importance do you think these people place on the role of parents?
Per cent of parents answering "important/very important"
Parents themselves - 98 per cent
Their families - 95 per cent
Their employers - 60 per cent
Their partners' employers - 57 per cent
Society as a whole - 48 per cent
The Government - 33 per cent
Source: Research NZ, Nov 2007
ON THE WEB
www.nzfamilies.org.nz/parenting
www.relate.org.nz
