Kids in the UK

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Last year Unicef published the findings of their research on the wellbeing of kids in developed countries. The full report is worth a read. You can find it by clicking on the link in this article:

http://www.unicef.org.uk/press/news_detail.asp?news_id=890

The UK comes out worst of all among the developed nations and the USA is second worst. Am I surprised? Not a bit. You can argue about the methodology and the subjectivity of the report but I doubt that any changes would alter the conclusions. My own observations on my travels are equally subjective but I'd back the report's findings. So let me generalise:

So many UK parents are just not interested in their kids preferring them to sit and watch TV or use the playstation or PC. And when the kids grow older, well, who cares, if they are out getting drunk or having sex in a bus shelter? Some other report I read recently suggested that the tribal loyalty of adolescents outweighed any loyalty to parents and family.
In the early days, Britain had the highest take up rate of the video player and the PC, faster growth than even gadget-mad Japan. Politicians enthused at what they saw as technological progress. Oh do bugger off! It was all about entertainment. Watch a video! Go play a game on your PC!
Food is another issue. OK so we tried to make school meals more nourishing and this ended up with moms passing burgers and chips through the school fence at lunchtime. We have a whole generation of moms who think that cooking consists of putting a ready-made meal in the microwave.

I could rant on and on but go read the report for yourself and draw you own conclusions.

And I have travelled to the USA a lot so I understand why they are at the bottom too.

So what's the answer? I don't know but first I'd stop kissing arse with the parents and point the finger at them. But we have a problem there too because the UK has the highest level of single moms in the survey and we need to go for the dads as well, especially those who are not keeping up with the maintenance. What maintenance? You may well ask. As an MD, I had to sign off people's legally enforced pay deductions each month - mostly for maintenance or non-payment of Council Tax. The maintenance sums were mostly pathetic; I suspect the blokes spent more on beer each month.

Kids only get one chance and they deserve the best. I was born in poverty too but in other ways, I got the very best that could be had.