Children are just as well-adjusted as their counterparts of 20 years ago and, if anything, better behaved and less anxious - at least to their parents. But teachers appear to have a different view.

Research published today by the Australian Institute of Family Studies compares two studies of children two decades apart, and found that, in both the 1980s and the first decade of this century, the “great majority” of young children were happily adjusted.

Despite fears that modern life is producing a generation of badly behaved or anxious children, today’s parents are even more relaxed and less worried about their children’s progress than were parents in the past.

“Very few toddlers and children were reported as showing clear signs of behaviour problems,” say the study’s authors, Diana Smart and Ann Sanson. They say today’s parents may be more tolerant and understanding of, or less bothered by, challenging behaviour than parents in the 1980s.

The studies, in 1988 and in 2005, each involved thousands of six- and seven-year-old children. Researchers asked parents and teachers parallel questions about the children’s behaviour and temperament. Parents of children aged two to three were also asked similar questions in both studies.

Taken together, the studies provide a rare opportunity to test the common assumption that children in the 21st century are faring worse that yesteryear’s children, the authors say.

Today’s parents rated their toddlers as more sociable, persistent in completing tasks, and less prone to acting out frustrations than did parents of the 1980s. The toddlers were seen as less destructive, and less likely to hurt other children, and even as having less difficulty falling asleep.

Today’s parents of six- and seven-year-olds also rated their children as more sociable and less intense in their reactions than did parents of the 1980s. Although serious problems were uncommon in both eras, today’s parents were significantly less likely to report conduct problems, such as fighting or disobedience, or that their children were anxious, worried or fearful.

In 2005 2 per cent of the six- to seven-year-olds were considered disobedient by their parents, compared with almost 8 per cent in the 1980s; 3 per cent of today’s children were said to have “many worries”, compared with 12 per cent in the 1980s.

But today’s teachers were more likely than those of the 1980s - and more likely than today’s parents - to report six- to seven-year-old children had conduct problems or were hyperactive.

About 8 per cent of today’s children were hyperactive, teachers reported, compared with about 6 per cent in the 1980s; about 3 per cent were disobedient, compared with 1.6 per cent in the 1980s; and 3.5 per cent fought with other children, compared with 2.9 per cent in the 1980s.

The report, Do Australian Children Have More Problems Today Than Twenty Years Ago?, says teachers today may be more aware of these problems than teachers of the 1980s and more willing to report them. But the authors say changed behaviour, perhaps due to less regulated classrooms, may also be a factor.

The authors said it was unusual in this type of research for teachers to report more problems in children than did the parents. The report is published in the institute’s journal, Family Matters, and based on the Australian Temperament Project, which has followed people to age 25, and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
http://tinyurl.com/3t39rl

Work and family are organically linked by the people who split their days between home and workplace. Inevitably, there are conflicts between these two worlds, and the way we manage those conflicts determines the health of our society.

When faced with a conflict between work and family responsibilities, the majority of Canadian employees put work first, according to Linda Duxbury, business professor at Carleton University. They also strive to meet their family commitments, with the result that the employees themselves can become the victim of burnout and depression. The Globe and Mail series on mental health last week provided vivid personal histories of some of the victims.

Some of the most “toxic” working conditions affect professionals who serve the public – nurses, doctors, teachers, police, military and public service executives - according to Bill Wilkerson, chair of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health.

And Dr. Duxbury’s study of 6,400 employees working for large employers from business and the government shows that work-life conflict is affecting more people every year – rising from 47 per cent of the work force in 1991 to 58 per cent in 2001.

People are working longer hours, they are coping with email messages into the night and early in the morning, and some are off-shifting so one parent can be at home while the other works. What gets squeezed out is sleep.

The main indicators of distress are rising absenteeism and increasing costs of disability leave, with about 40 per cent of disability claims generated by depression. Other indicators relate to the health of the children and the number of adults who are limiting family size or deciding not to have children because of the pressures of work.

Doug Willms, Canada Research Chair at the University of New Brunswick and author of Vulnerable Children, says that 28.6 per cent of Canadian children exhibit cognitive or behavioural problems that mean they are not ready to learn at age 6. Children living in low-income households are more likely to be vulnerable, but, overall, 60 per cent of vulnerable children are not living in poor homes, and many live in well-to-do homes.

Why would children in well-to-do families experience these problems?

“What matters most is the kind of family environment a child lives in: the benefits of good parenting skills, a cohesive family unit and parents with good mental health far outweigh the negative effects associated with poverty,” Dr. Willms says.

How then, as a society, do we support men and women to be the best they can be in the world of work and in the home? Barack Obama, in his instantly famous Father’s Day Speech, started from the proposition that family is the most important rock on which we build our lives.

We need families to raise our children, Mr. Obama said. Only families can set the standard of excellence, pass along the value of empathy, and give the gift of hope – hope that something better is waiting for us if we’re willing to work hard for it.

Much of his speech focused on the personal responsibility of fathers, but, he said, “if fathers (and mothers) are doing their part, then our government should meet them half way.”

So, too, should employers. In a recent Health Canada publication – Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn’t? –Dr. Duxbury gives two reasons why having family-friendly policies on the books is not enough: the policies are not being applied effectively; and many employees fear repercussions if they ask for help.

There are two concrete things for employers to do to meet employees half way: Give employees a greater sense of control over their hours of work and their work schedule. Clear criteria should be agreed and transparent, the process for changing work hours should be flexible, and there should be mutual accountability.

Increase the number of supportive managers within the organization – managers who make work expectations clear, plan the work to be done, and openly discuss decisions that affect the employee’s work.

As for Canadian governments, there are four priorities: Ensure that people who work full time can earn a living wage by consistently adjusting minimum wages to reflect inflation and by expanding the Working Income Tax Benefit introduced in the last budget.

Expand access to affordable early childhood education by offering day-long junior and senior kindergarten, expanding child care spaces for children who are 3 and under, and making access to maternity and parental leave universal. (Only 2 in 3 working women are eligible under current EI rules.) Expand after-school options for recreation, the arts and homework clubs.

Ensure that every neighbourhood has a resource centre to support parents and healthy child development.

In acknowledging the organic links between work and family, employers and governments give parents choices about when they work, about giving their children a good start in life, and even about how many children to have.

In any aging society, we want every adult to be able to work to their potential, and every one of their children to be ready, willing and able to be a great parent as well as a great worker.

Source: Globe and Mail, Canada
http://tinyurl.com/5jhhx2

Parents invest in summer tutors to give young children a leg up

Nazira Ason draws the line at 5.

His 5-year-old is too young to spend the summer in academic tutoring. His 6- and 9-year-olds, however, are not.

The Woodlands kindergartener and third-grader are among a growing number of very young children receiving one-on-one help this summer in reading and math. Some parents are hiring tutors, experts say, because they’re feeling the pressure of looming high-stakes tests, which begins in Texas with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for third-grade children. Others are thinking about college.

“I just wanted them to have a step ahead from the normal child,” said Ason, who moved his family here from Malaysia three years ago. “Given the competitive environment we have now, parents have to do something.”

Marianna Cleek, president of the Club Z tutoring franchise in the Spring area, said she was overwhelmed by the response her company received when it mailed out fliers advertising help for young children a few years ago.

“Initially I really didn’t realize there was such a market for this,” she said. “I am just shocked. It’s a pretty good chunk of our summer business.”

Houston-area tutors work with hundreds of young children on phonics, numbers, colors, study skills and fine motor skills. Some take children as young as 3 1/2 .

“Four, to me, is not too young,” Cleek said.

But some caution that putting pressure on young children might give them a distaste for school. Rather than spending upward of $45 an hour on private tutors, they say parents should use outings to stores, libraries and museums as teaching moments.

“A child needs summer,” said Kay Hall, director of the Early Learning Academy in the Spring school district. “There’s a lot of learning that can take place over the summer, but it doesn’t need to be in a classroom in a structured environment.”

Yet tutoring companies say that many clients are the children of teachers and school administrators, who realize the need to give children an edge but know how hard it is to work with their own children.

Tomball parent Tracy Chavis, a public school teacher, said she signed her 4-year-old, Noah, up for summer tutoring to ensure that he learns how to read before he starts kindergarten in 2009.

“I’m just really trying to make sure I give him as much advantage as I can,” said Chavis, who pays $42 an hour for her son’s tutoring. “There is a lot of pressure on them to learn certain things and to not be labeled.”

Industry officials said a few families have legitimate reasons to be concerned about school readiness. Five-year-olds are expected to be on the verge of reading, some educators said.

Aiding retention

Young children also are in danger of losing fledgling skills they learned, but may not have mastered, during the school year. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University say that students, especially from low-income families, can regress during summer break.

But in other cases, parents of already high-performing children are just caving to the pressure fueled by Texas’ high-stakes testing, they said.

“They’re buying into what they hear. They buy that social pressure that someone out there is putting on them that their child needs to be a genius by the time they’re 4,” said Michelle Branch, co-owner of Houston-based Academic Resource Tutoring.

Ason said tutoring is a good investment. “I started with my son (in first grade), and he showed dramatic improvement. He’s been on the honor roll since. The money I’m paying for tutorials is worthwhile.” He said he’ll sign his youngest up for tutoring next year.

Source: Houston Chronicle, United States
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5863345.html

At last, from the frontiers of science comes an explanation for that long-recognized phenomenon of “monkey see-monkey do.”

Researchers in Parma, Italy, were studying the brain activity of monkeys. They recorded neuron activity when the monkeys reached for a peanut. The scientists were attempting to learn which areas of the brain would be stimulated by this simple activity.

Quite by accident, they discovered something else. A scientist reached for a peanut himself as one of the monkeys looked on. The technician watching the PET scan was astonished to record the same brain activity. Watching the researcher reach for the peanut elicited exactly the same movements in the same areas of the brain as when the monkey reached for the peanut himself.

This discovery launched a more significant study of these areas on both sides of our brain, which not only are stimulated when we do something but also stimulated in exactly the same way when we observe someone else do that thing. And what they have found is that the same phenomenon happens to far greater extent in humans than it does in our furry distant relatives.

“Mirror neurons” record the images we see. They provide the brain architecture that supports, on a cellular level, the actual recording in our brains of those things we observe others doing, as if we are doing them ourselves.

So if I watch you tie your shoes, I store that experience in my brain in the same way as if I had done it. If I look into your sad face, I record that same feeling of sadness as if it were my tragedy instead of yours. If I watch you striving to carry a heavy load, I experience that same struggle myself and may set my mouth just right to “help” you with the exertion.

Mirror neurons explain the mechanism for empathy, compassion, social learning and more. And for those of us interested in the experiences of children, they remind us once again of the importance of the environment on brain development.

As a child watches an adult perform an act of compassion, he experiences compassion, even if he had no responsibility for the act itself. He feels what it’s like to help a neighbor or speak a kind word.

Unfortunately, it also means that when a child observes an act of violence, he stores that action inside himself, also as if he had committed the act. Biologically, he has built a history in his brain of what it is to behave violently.

Researchers studying the mirror system say it is further evidence that we are intensely social creatures, looking for ways to connect. We are designed to learn from each other. It’s the way we find out how to comb our hair or hold a spoon or pat a dog.

More importantly, mirror neurons are what teach us how to respect others and demonstrate that respect through our behavior.

What we tell our kids is certainly important. Talking to them about our values and expectations helps them to build their own moral code.

But one day, we’ll see what they really learned from us. We will observe the behavior that was being recorded all the time by their mirror neurons, when we didn’t know we were teaching them anything at all.

Source Herald & Review, IL
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2008/06/28/columnists/quigg/1033710.txt

When it comes to issues of childhood health and raising kids, mothers tend to dominate the discussion. But as the Web site PsychCentral points out today, fathers play an essential but often undervalued role in the health and development of children.
In the essay Fathering in America: What’s a Dad Supposed to Do, Massachusetts family therapist Marie Hartwell-Walker talks about the role of fathers.

“Many TV sitcoms and animated shows continue to portray dads as dolts or, at best, well-meaning but misguided large children whose wives have to mother them as well as their offspring. If an alien in another universe happens to tune in to ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Everyone Loves Raymond,’ ‘Family Guy,’ etc., he (it?) will come away with a rather skewed idea of how men function in American families.”

Dr. Hartwell-Walker notes there is little agreement about what makes an ideal father, but there are some universal qualities that seem to matter most, including:

Be there. In study after study, kids consistently say they would like to have more time with their dads. Regardless of whether a dad shares a home with the children and their mother, the kids need dad time. Working together on a chore or simply hanging out can be as meaningful as attending events or having adventures. Kids want to know their fathers. Just as important, they want their fathers to know them.

Be there throughout their childhoods. There is no time in a child’s life that doesn’t count. Research has shown that even infants know and respond to their fathers differently than they do to their mothers. The bond you make with a baby sets the foundation for a lifetime. As the kids get older, they’ll need you in different ways but they will always need you. Insistent toddler, curious preschooler, growing child, prickly adolescent: Each age and stage will have its challenges and rewards. Kids whose parents let them know that they are worth their parents’ time and attention are kids who grow up healthy and strong. Boys and girls who grow up with attention and approval from their dads as well as their moms tend to be more successful in life.

Balance discipline with fun. Some dads make the mistake of being only the disciplinarian. The kids grow up afraid of their dads and unable to see the man behind the rules. An equal and opposite mistake is being so focused on fun that you become one of the kids, leaving their mother always to be the heavy. Kids need to have fathers who know both how to set reasonable, firm limits and how to relax and have a good time. Give yourself and the kids the stability that comes with clear limits and the good memories that come with play.

Be a role model of adult manhood. Both boys and girls need you as a role model for what it means to be adult and male. Make no mistake: The kids are observing you every minute. They are taking in how you treat others, how you manage stress and frustrations, how you fulfill your obligations, and whether you carry yourself with dignity. Consciously or not, the boys will become like you. The girls will look for a man very much like you. Give them an idea of manhood (and relationships) you can be proud of.

Source: New York Times, United States
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/the-basics-of-fatherhood/

New group working to increase access to early education

We are born wired to learn.

By age 3, our brains have one trillion synapses — more than we’ll have in adulthood. By age 6, our brains are 95 percent the size of mom’s and dad’s.

“The first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out,” said William H. Gates Sr., co-chairman of Thrive by Five and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates was the guest speaker at the San Juan County Early Learning Leadership Luncheon, Friday in Mullis Community Senior Center. In attendance were educators, health and social workers, and business people from throughout the county.

The message: Investments in early learning pay huge dividends for children, families and society. By increasing the likelihood that children will be literate, employed and college-bound, we decrease school dropout rates, dependency on public assistance and trouble with the law.

The luncheon was sponsored by the San Juan County Early Learning Consortium, Thrive by Five and five county health and human services agencies. San Juan County is part of a regional partnership that has been awarded a grant to develop a business plan to make early childhood education available to all children.

Gates, whose Thrive by Five foundation has raised $10 million in two years to promote and support early childhood education, led the call for islanders to get involved locally in raising funds and building policy to ensure all children enter school ready to succeed.

Gates said Thrive by Five and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believe all lives have equal value. The challenge is to ensure all children have access to what they need so they can lead productive lives.

Some 600,000 Washingtonians live in poverty, he said. A year of child care costs 50 percent more than tuition at Skagit Valley College. More than 50 percent of Washington children walk into a kindergarten classroom unprepared.

“It’s a moral failure and a policy disaster,” he said.

Gates pointed out how easily a child can fall behind. A child who did not have access to early childhood education and shares a kindergarten classroom with children who can read or write their ABCs can lose self-confidence early. If the child’s behavioral and social skills are not as developed as the other children’s, then the problem is compounded. The result is disinterest in school.

“Dysfunctional children grow up to be dysfunctional adults, and that leads to a dysfunctional society,” Gates said.

Studies bear out the success of early childhood education.

Some 123 children from low-income families in Ypsilanti, Mich., were followed from pre-school age through age 40; the number included children who had been randomly selected to attend Perry Preschool, a recognized program with well-trained teachers, daily classroom sessions and weekly home visits.

At age 40, almost 10 percent more of the group that had attended Perry owned their own home, compared to those that did not attend Perry. Twenty percent more earned more than $20,000 a year. Almost 25 percent more had a savings account. Twenty percent more graduated from high school on time and did not require special education.

In a similar study of children at a full-day, year-round program near Chapel Hill, N.C., almost 30 percent more of those that had attended the program didn’t repeat a grade, 20 percent more were non-smokers, and about 25 percent more attended a four-year college.

Gates said quality early learning programs offer up to a 16 percent return in the form of the child’s contributions to economic development and prosperity in adulthood. The Perry study showed a return of $17 for every $1 spent — an annual rate of return of 18 percent and a public rate of return of 16 percent.

Bill Watson, executive director of the San Juan County Economic Development Council, called investments in early education “good business.”

Denise King, director of Skagit Valley College San Juan Center, said early childhood education helps give children the learning skills they need “so they can function as employees and as productive members of society, and break the cycles of abuse and poverty.”

Jamie Stephens, a substitute teacher and president of the Lopez Island Chamber of Commerce, pointed to the need to ensure today’s children can compete in the workplace; he cited a study that predicts 45 million American workers will have at least an undergraduate degree in 2020.

The next step: Participants were invited to join the new San Juan County Business Partnership for Early Learning, which will take the leadership in developing a plan to increase access to early education. They were invited to distribute written materials and other information on early learning, and to host early learning specialists as speakers before community groups.

They were also asked to sponsor the placement of signs on proposed “learning trails” on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan. The signs, to be placed on existing trails on those islands, suggest activities that encourage a child’s exploration and imagination, as well as relationship-building in families.

Source: Journal of the San Jaun Islands, WA
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/sanjuans/jsj/news/20745824.html

Long-term, exclusive breastfeeding appears to improve children’s cognitive development, according to a recent report (Archives of General Psychiatry, May 2008).

Previous studies have reported that children and adults who were breastfed as infants have higher scores on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) development than those who were fed formula.

However, the evidence has been based on observational studies, in which children whose mothers chose to breastfeed were compared with those whose mothers chose not to breastfeed. The results of these studies may be complicated by subtle differences in the way breastfeeding mothers interact with their infants, the authors noted.

Michael S. Kramer, MD, of McGill University and the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial of a breastfeeding promotion program involving patients at 31 maternity hospitals and affiliated clinics in Belarus.

Between June 1996 and December 1997, clinics were randomly assigned either to adopt a program supporting and promoting breastfeeding or to continue their current practices and policies. A total of 7,108 infants and mothers who visited facilities promoting breastfeeding and 6,781 infants and mothers who visited control facilities received follow-up interviews and examinations between 2002 and 2005, when the children were an average of 6.5 years old.

Mothers who visited a facility promoting breastfeeding were more likely to feed their infants only breast milk at age 3 months (43.3 percent vs. 6.4 percent in the control group) and at all ages through 1 year. At age 6.5, the children in the breastfeeding group scored an average of 7.5 points higher on tests measuring verbal intelligence, 2.9 points higher on tests measuring non-verbal intelligence and 5.9 points higher on tests measuring overall intelligence. Teachers also rated these children significantly higher academically than control children in both reading and writing.

“Even though the treatment difference appears causal, it remains unclear whether the observed cognitive benefits of breastfeeding are due to some constituent of breast milk or are related to the physical and social interactions inherent in breastfeeding,” the authors wrote.

They noted that essential long-chain fatty acids and a compound known as insulinlike growth factor I, both found in breastmilk, could be responsible for the cognitive differences. On the other hand, the physical or emotional component of breastfeeding may lead to permanent changes affecting brain development. Breastfeeding also may increase verbal interaction between mother and child, which could improve children’s cognitive development.

“Although breastfeeding initiation rates have increased substantially during the last 30 years, much less progress has been achieved in increasing the exclusivity and duration of breastfeeding,” the authors concluded. “The consistency of our findings based on a randomized trial with those reported in previous observational studies should prove helpful in encouraging further public health efforts to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.”

The research was funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Kramer is the recipient of a Senior Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Co-author Dr. Platt is a Monat-McPherson Career Investigator of McGill Unviersity and a career investigator of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec. Co-author Dr. Fombonne holds a Canada Research Chair in Child Psychiatry.

Source: Advance for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists, PA
http://tinyurl.com/49lobn

Fathers increasingly hands-on, StatsCan reports

More Canadian fathers are embracing parenthood and taking time off to care for their young children, according to a Statistics Canada study released yesterday.

The number of dads taking parental leave jumped in 2006, led by fathers in Quebec, who are entitled to five weeks’ paternity leave and better paid benefits. The study found that more than half of eligible Quebec dads took time off in 2006 after the province introduced its own parental leave program, compared to 32 per cent in 2005.

Elsewhere in Canada, one in 10 dads took parental leave. That’s up sharply from only 3 per cent eight years ago, though it has barely increased since 2001, when federal parental leave was boosted to 35 weeks that could be shared between parents. However, the study found other evidence of more hands-on fathering, including longer leaves, which averaged 17 weeks in 2006 versus 11 weeks in 2005. As well, 55 per cent of dads reported taking unpaid leave or vacation after the birth of a child.

An earlier StatsCan study found the number of days fathers of preschoolers miss work for personal or family reasons jumped to 6.3 days in 2007 from 1.8 days a decade earlier.

While the trend is largely a result of social policies, it also reflects “a cultural shift that embraces fatherhood and men’s involvement with their children,” according to author Katherine Marshall.

Donna Lero of the University of Guelph notes that fathers take leave at much higher rates when it is designated as paternity leave that cannot be shared with partners, which is the case in Quebec and European countries. And dads took it more often when mothers either chose not to or weren’t eligible, says Lero, the Jarislowsky chair in families and work at the university’s Centre for Families, Work and Well-being.

She says that while social policies can help increase fathers’ involvement, that will continue only with support – both financial and in attitude – from employers.

“If the option is to take a leave at the cost of a big financial hit and lack of support in the workplace, then we shouldn’t be surprised” if fathers reject the plan, she says.

Eric Paananen of Etobicoke, who recently ended a 3 1/2-month parental leave caring for son Ethan, says it helped that his wife was willing to return to work and share parental leave and his employer, the Canadian Cancer Society, was supportive.

Paananen, 31, says caring for Ethan, who just turned 1, was both exhausting and rewarding. They went to playgrounds, drop-ins and swimming, and Paananen experienced a lot of “those little moments” that come from quality time.

“To be able to know I can do this is great. I do feel that by being involved now I want to be more involved. It was a good base to build on.”

It’s what parent educator Brian Russell calls the start of “a powerful cycle.” Parental leave gives dads the opportunity to gain skill and confidence looking after an infant, he says, “and the earlier you practise that, the more competent you feel and the more involved you continue to get.”

Russell, parent educator at LAMP Early Years Centre in Etobicoke, stayed home with his eldest daughter 11 years ago. He runs dads groups on Saturdays and Tuesday evenings that draw up to 30 fathers. There were rarely dads in his daytime groups five years ago; these days there are always two or three.

Father involvement has also prompted one online mothering network to expand into daddy terrain. WeeWelcome.ca is relaunching its website so fathers will be able to link to other dads and fathers groups, says founder Maureen Dennis of Toronto.

Source: Toronto Star, Canada
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/447743

We must acquire a license to become a driver, a lawyer or a doctor, but should we pass certain exams to become parents? The result of a parents’ test conducted by a kindergarten in Zhejiang Province shows that the answer is ‘yes.’

“Parenting is probably the hardest job in the world. You never know which of your minor deeds will affect your children in their future lives,” Cheng Yanqing, head of the kindergarten, says.

In early June, parents of the kindergartners sat the parenting exam. Twenty percent failed the trial, according to the Zhejiang-based Qianjiang Evening News.

No one is born with the techniques to be a successful parent, so you have to learn, Cheng says. “This is the message we want to send to parents through the exam.”

The exam tests parents’ knowledge on raising and educating children. It includes questions like “How many hours of sleep do children need at different ages?” “Which foods contain nutrients that children need for their growth?” and “How does one deal with a child’s rebellious behavior?”

“The test rang the alarm for me, so I have to study more scientific ways of educating my child,” Zhu Songjun, the mother of a senior student in the kindergarten, says.

The kindergarten presented parents who passed the exam with a framed license, and plans to hold the exam regularly to refresh the parents’ skills.

Parenting licenses are nothing new in China, or even worldwide. Reports say that Austria is planning to give qualified couples government-issued parenting licenses. Licensed parents will enjoy preferential policies. For instance, the licensed parent can get custody of the child if the couple files for a divorce.

Many Chinese cities, such as Xiamen, Chengdu, and Nanning have also tried to give out certificates in recognition of successful parents.

Source: China Daily, China
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-06/23/content_6786851.htm

At present, the Government is preparing a new law: to protect women’s rights to breastfeed legally in public. This follows a high-profile case in which the National Gallery in London stopped a mother breastfeeding in one of its galleries and subsequently had to issue an apology. With inspiringly apt irony, the mother and child in question were in the same room as Tintoretto’s The Origin of the Milky Way, in which Juno breastfeeds Hercules.

This legislation is to roll out by the end of the year, following the lead of the Scottish Parliament, which introduced similar laws four years ago, so soon we’ll be able to lactate in the Tate, whip out our boobs in White Cube, utilise our mammaries in the Royal Academies. This is a huge coup for those of us who like to claim the moral high ground by breastfeeding, when the truth of the matter is that we’re just too slatternly to sterilise umpteen bottles a day, and find that the smell of Milton’s Fluid makes us pukey. But it also highlights the extraordinary fact that, until this law kicks in, it is actually illegal to breastfeed publicly in this country. Illegal. Indeed, it’s so illegal that there are two, separate, acts under which a breastfeeder can be prosecuted: public order laws, or laws of public decency. Conceivably, if a woman got busted* after a very long feed, one involving both breasts, the left one could be charged under the public order laws and get away with a light fine, while the right one, having offended public decency, could be looking at a seven-to-ten stretch in the pen.

And ladies, let’s face it: after breastfeeding, your bosom-area looks like it’s done time in the slammer anyway. Whenever I take my bra off now and check myself in the mirror, my breasts look knackered. But be this as it may, I can assure you of one thing: there’s barely a mother in this country who knows that it’s illegal to breastfeed in public. I did a quick text-round of all my 24-hour post-partum people and they were amazed that the third most physically crucial aspect of motherhood - after hoiking the baby out into the world, and then not leaving it on a cliff edge while having a fag - is prosecutable. For many, it’s been like finding out that it’s illegal to put your child on a swing, feed it carrot sticks and hoummos or beat it with a spiky oaken paddle named “Mr Whackbum”.

“The logical conclusion of this legislation is that the British believe a woman should not leave her house - not even once - until her baby is weaned,” said one friend, on her mobile phone from Beachy Head, between drags on a Rothmans.

Of course, in many ways, it’s quite heartening to find out that it’s still illegal to breastfeed in public. It’s almost comforting. Women tend to blame themselves for everything. British mothers had, therefore, presumed that the reason why England has the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world - only 25 per cent breastfeed up to six months (frankly, worms do better, and they don’t lactate) was simply All Our Fault. We didn’t have the commitment, the selflessness or the nerve to get the big boys out and feed the little boys (or girls) in public. Because it takes nerve to breastfeed in public. There is a lexicon of Acceptable Public Breasts, and those who have a baby on the end don’t make the list. You can have statue breasts (classy tits), native tribeswoman breasts (educational tits) and 18-year-old girls looking down at their Nuts tits with a combination of pride and surprise (tits somehow fundamental to the continuation of the smooth running of this country). But a hurriedly bared wet nipple at a bus station in January being waved, semi-despairingly, at a wailing child just doesn’t make it into this pantheon. These breasts - the useful breasts - must be kept hidden.

I’m apt to blame this baffling aesthetic and moral schism on a gigantic as-yet untackled seam of rampant misogyny. It bears all the hallmarks of The Patriarchy, ie, a world tilted in favour of perky tits, normal women made to feel bad. Damn you, The Patriarchy! I shake my fist at you, again! Indeed, I keep meaning to replace the F11 key on my Mac with a “Patriarchy Alert” button so that when I press it all my open windows fly off the screen, leaving me to stare at an inspiring and soothing screensaver picture of Mary Wollstonecraft.

So what will it take to increase breastfeeding rates in this country, other than stopping it being illegal in the 99.99999 per cent of the British Isles that isn’t the lactating mothers’ front rooms, of course? For myself, I was a constant, militant, public breastfeeder - but I can’t now, three years later, remember quite why. Briefly analysing it, I would say it was probably a combination of: 7 per cent having a mother who contentedly breastfed eight children, in turn, for the first two years of their lives; 12 per cent being a rock-hard, ice-cool feminist warrior queen, like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, but wearing a purple, white and green hat; and 81 per cent wanting the crying, screaming baby to just shuuuuuut uuuuuup before we set off all the fire alarms in Boots.

To be honest, I brought a geeky aesthetic to the process, in that I often pretended my breast milk was a killer laser beam. Once I’d built up a sufficienthead of pressure, I’d jet my milk lasers across the room, “taking out” objects/people while making the “zzsswhoompf” light-sabre sound from Star Wars. Perhaps we could get more women into breastfeeding from that angle, encouraging them to use lactation for the purposes of pugilism. That way, until public breastfeeding is made legal, at least they could pick off disapproving art gallery security staff, one by one, with their mummy-guns.

*Hahaha. I’ve just noticed that; that’s quite clever.

Source: Times Online, UK
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/article4182468.ece