Am I the only one who thinks this is just utter bullsh*t?
Many years ago even I bought in to that romantic idea of it taking a village to raise a child, now I just wish everyone would keep their noses out of other people's business, unless asked.
The village of old ain't what it used to be. There's all kind of ugly weeds growing all too abundantly in the community garden.
The P manufacturer down the street, the gang on the corner, the eleven paedophiles between your letterbox and the school's front gate that no one has had the decency to tell you about, the drunken domestic abuser, the neighbourhood bully tormenting our children daily, the list goes on and on.
Honestly, between the real dangers lurking in society and the perceived ones, spouted by those with other motivations I don't know why people are continuing to have children at all, in a time when we won't allow them to be kids.
They can't run, can't climb, can't clap, can't trust anyone or anything.
We might as well bury them at birth with a iPhone and a pre-loaded Facebook page and dig them up at 18. It might go a long ways to solving the child obesity epidemic too.
It's a more preferable option to re-branding exercise as "movement". Another bloody PC joke, whereby if you give something a softer sounding name, our dumbed-down kids won't make the connection to physical effort. Movement - I thought that was reserved for Beethoven and bowels.
Kids are happy to move for the right reward. The latest Pokemon craze is proof. Chunksters the world over are out and about, exercising to the max, trespassing if necessary in pursuit of imaginary critters. If only they were so easily motivated to catch school subjects.
They could be, if the schools directed their efforts in to creative learning processes rather than coming up with ways of constantly stunting their development for fear of offending those who hide behind whatever trendy affliction is doing the rounds.
At a time when our children are killing themselves in record-breaking numbers, we seriously need to question how best to re-engage with them and encourage a little fun back in to their lives instead of oppressing them with countless rules, regulations and unrealistic expectations.
If we continue to raise our kids in pressure cookers we should at least allow them the courtesy of blowing off a little steam once in a while and applaud their successes ... audibly.
Kate Stewart is a politically incorrect reluctant mother of three, a staunch advocate of common sense and three-ply toilet tissue - feedback to investik8@gmail.com
