Pie Fight

Yapping about childcare

A Kenan Malik-led talk on childcare in the early years.

A length of string and an old piece of gum were good enough for me

And they're good enough for today's kids, too. Hi-tech 'educational' toys offer nothing that parental interaction doesn't, according to research.

A government-funded study examining the role of technology in the lives of three- and four-year-old children and their families found that the hi-tech devices - one of the fastest growing sectors of the toy market, aimed at infants as young as nine months - are no more effective than traditional ways of introducing basic literacy and number skills.

Toy laptops and mobile phones were of greater value to young children as an aid to imaginative play such as pretending to make phone calls than in teaching specific skills, researchers at the University of Stirling concluded after tracking families for 15 months.

Youngsters also gained an understanding of the social role of technology simply by watching their parents use computers, digital cameras and mobile phones for work and leisure - far outstripping the benefits of using computers for unrealistic exercises and games while at nursery.

[....]

Lydia Plowman, professor of education at Stirling University, said parents interviewed experienced "a lot of anxiety" about the role of new technology, and felt under pressure from manufacturers to buy educational electronic toys such as Leappads and games consoles.

Professor Plowman, announcing her research yesterday at a conference, Happy Families?, hosted by the Family and Parenting Institute, said such toys were neither harmful nor "particularly beneficial".

She said: "I don't think there is any problem about children having these toys at home, but in terms of basic literacy and number skills I don't think they are more efficient than the more traditional approaches."

Childre are...

horrible ghastly beasties, and our only solace is to tell them cruel lies. As the commments section explains.

Actually, beyond the first handful of comments, that section is very poor by unfogged standards - a bunch of childless people commenting knowledgably on how to be a good parent.

Just as everyone who can read the written word thinks they know how to write, everyone who was once a child thinks they know how to parent.

Praiseworthy?

Via Unfogged, and NY magazine article arguing that praising clever kids for being clever fucks them up; instead, you should praise them for working hard. Bronson and his partner also have some posts on the topic.

From unfogged comments, a potential book reference:

I'm really surprised the article doesn't mention Alfie Kohn (does it?), whose book Punished by Rewards is far and away the most readable, straightforward treatment of this issue.

Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 02-15-07  4:21 PM

 

Old ladies and their babies

Via the Times, new research indicates that becoming mother at 50 doesn't appear to impose additional physical or psychological risks on women, as compared to those who become women in their 30s or 40s. However, the children of the women studies were just becoming teenagers at the time of the study, so the question of parenting a teenager while in one's late 60s or even above hasn't been addressed.

Even more interesting, here's an article arguing that advances in egg freezing will completely revolutionise current fertility issues. The impression I get is that within a generation, it will be fairly  normal for women in their 20s or early 30s to freeze their own eggs in order to use them when they are ready to have kids. There are of course loads of intersting questions here regarding women's reproductive rights (positive rights as opposed to the negative ones we have historically focused on) and whether the state will be required to fund such procedures on the NHS. I would argue that they should - and that it will be politically popular, as it will benefit the middle class (the poor being unlikely to put off childbearing). Others will argue that women should be beholden to the timelines laid down by nature, or that the money would be better spent helping the poor.

There are links to several other articles from these pages, as well.

I wouldn't mind doing a dissertation on this topic, you know. I could look at arguments for and against extending fertility rights in this direction.

Why don't kids walk to school anymore?

The smarties at CT have a look. And here's a general discussion of how kids should be raised. And here's something on what makes a good childhood.

Plus comments on what seems to be a poorly worded open letter about childhood written by some famous-ish people while I was away. From which I also like the looks of the following posts:

Of course, we’ve been around this track before, arguing about why kids don’t walk to school anymore, about how to raise kids in ways counter to the dominant meritocratic culture, about the value of work in the home in comparison to “productive” work outside it, and about the value of being a slacker. But still, those were some fine and important arguments; it wouldn’t be a bad thing to run through them all again.

Parent hacks

Parent hacks to pass on to sistah

A little bit pregnant

Reading recent stories about the troubles that women in their late 30s and early 40s have in bringing their pregnancies to term - whether because of the high miscarriage rate or whatever other reason - it occurs to me that the old saying about it being impossible to be a little bit pregnant is, in fact, wrong.

Saint Dad

Mums who take care of children are, well, mums. Dads who do it are saints - even in the eyes of mums doing exactly the same job. Just goes to show how entrenched our sex roles still are - though things are getting better before our eyes. 

Count me in!

From the Indy:

80% of dads would rather stay at home and raise children

By Arifa Akbar

16 June 2005

The vast majority of new fathers want to combine careers with caring for their child, according to a study, which reveals a dramatic shift in male perceptions of fatherhood.

Research by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), published today, suggests that most men are keen to avoid being distant dads like their own fathers and grandfathers, and want to be able to devote more time to bonding with their baby.

The study marks a stark contrast to a similar EOC survey 20 years ago, when more than half of the fathers questioned saw their roles strictly as breadwinners.

The EOC questioned 1,200 fathers of children aged between three and 15 months and almost eight in 10 working dads said they would like to stay at home and look after their baby

Nearly nine out of 10 men felt as confident as their partner when changing nappies, feeding the baby and taking charge of childcare duties.

The results of the survey show the extent to which attitudes towards fatherhood have changed in two decades. More than 50 per cent of men in the previous survey believed the mother's place was in the home. Twenty years on, that figure has shrunk to just 20 per cent.

Jenny Watson, acting chairwoman of the EOC, said the research highlighted how different this generation of fathers was to previous ones.

"All the evidence shows that fathers today are different from their own fathers and grandfathers. This research reveals how much attitudes to fatherhood have shifted in recent years," Ms Watson said.

"Dads no longer see themselves solely as the breadwinner. They want to spend more time at home, actively sharing the responsibility of caring for their baby."

The EOC is calling on the Government to increase paternity rights beyond those proposed in its consultation paper, Work and Families: Choice and Flexibility.

Under the Government's proposals, working mothers will be allowed to transfer their maternity leave to their partner beyond the first six months.

But the EOC believes the proposals do not go far enough and is calling for shared parental leave rights in the second six months of a child's life, whether the mother was working before the birth or not, to give both parents an equal chance to rear a child.

Ms Watson said policy makers needed to "catch up" with the changing needs of the modern family.

"While the Government's transferable maternity leave is a step in the right direction, it only gives fathers access to leave where the mother has been working and has maternity rights to share," she said.

"Shared parental leave, as we are recommending, enables dads to play a greater role in caring for their children during their early years."

Mark Shepherd, 36, from south London, who gave up a career as a wedding photographer to become a stay-at-home dad for Esme, now eight, and Eley, now five, loved it so much that he trained in childcare and started his own childminding business.

"My former partner and I decided whoever earned the most money would carry on working, so I gave up work the day they were born. I realised I loved it and everyone said I was really good at it. I did a child studies diploma because I wanted to discover how my children ticked," he said.

Duncan Fisher, the chief executive of Fathers Direct, welcomed the recommendations for greater involvement from fathers in child rearing, which he said were "vital for long-term child welfare".

The EOC will deliver a Father's Day card to Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown, setting out its recommendations.

Martin Nicholls, 43: 'A lot of men would like this opportunity'

Martin Nicholls knew he wanted to be a hands-on dad so he cut his working week down by nearly half when his daughter, Holly, aged 15 months, was born last year.

Mr Nicholls, 43, from High Wycombe, had been working a five-day week as a customer support representative for Raytheon Aircraft Company, but decided to work three days a week after her birth. He will continue to look after Holly and work part-time until she has reached school age.

"Luckily both my employer and my wife's company had family-friendly policies so I was able to go part-time. These are precious times and you don't get chances like this very often. It was very important to both me and my wife to share in the care of our daughter. " he said. "An awful lot of men would like this opportunity and men often say to me if they had had the opportunity, they would like to have done it. There are the joyous moments I have with Holly, which you could not guarantee would occur only at the weekends."

He does not feel he has sacrificed his long-term career prospects and is confident of his abilities both as a professional and a father.