It's not just failing parents who need training. Now it's grandparents. A bunch of academics at the Institute for Education, London, have been following 4800 children whose mothers had gone back to work by the time their children were just nine months old.
According to today's Daily Telegraph, they concluded "those who had been cared for by grandparents were found to have more difficult relationships with other toddlers, with boys the worst behaved ..... This is thought to be because grandparents are unable to provide the social and educational stimulation that children need".
And their remedy? More government intervention, of course:
"The report concludes that grandparents should be given training and tax breaks
so they can become formal carers for their grandchildren, and so improve
their social and educational development."
I repeat what I said in a recent posting:
"....there is a powerful orthodoxy behind the increasing professionalisation and institutionalisation of childhood and the upbringing of children, and a memetic
acceptance that this micro-managing of childhood and parenting is a proper function of the State."
acceptance that this micro-managing of childhood and parenting is a proper function of the State."