11 July 2010
 I have written to Frank Field in response to his speech about fathers and child poverty. I have copied it to Iain Duncan-Smith and Nick Clegg.
In summary:
- Child poverty is a family function, not just an issue between a child and a “primary carer”. The ability of adults in the family to earn and to care and to cooperate with each other all have a critical influence on the child.
- In the UK, all supports to family assume that a child in poverty has only one parent even in the case where two parents are sharing things 50/50. In Australia a child can have two single parents, both supported in their contribution to the child’s life.
- There are strong aspirations in families to build on – for fathers to be close to their children, for mothers to continue a role outside the home, for parents to live cooperatively.
Dear Frank Field, Continue reading Letter to Frank Field – a family approach to child poverty?
21 June 2010
So Nick Clegg has confirmed that the Government intends to “encourage shared parenting from the earliest stage of pregnancy”.
A great policy – two thirds of mothers and fathers think parents should share the responsibilities of caring, but only one third of parents report that this actually happens. In other countries where real . . . → Read More: Government declares policy to promote “shared parenting from pregnancy”: for things for their ‘to do’ list
14 May 2010
“Dads who don a pinny and muck in with the housework are less likely to get divorced than those who leave it to the missus.” That’s the story in the Mirror today, also in Times, Telegraph, Independent.
This research at the London School of Economics confirms the same findings in USA and Scandinavia.
. . . → Read More: Divorce less likely if fathers do the children and housework
8 May 2010
Imagine you both continue your careers and your child is close to both of you? How to start out down this road?
Here are my top tips for new parents, based on my book, Baby’s Here! Who D0es What?
1. Don’t end up with one parent doing all the caring and the . . . → Read More: Nine top tips on how to have children and not fall apart
1 May 2010
The other day The Independent published an article on marriage, A taxing problem for single-issue campaigners. Sarah Cassidy set up a “mums’ panel” from Mumsnet to consider the issues and interviewed a number of women (and only women). The only men she referred to were the political leaders (all men, obviously). Babies are . . . → Read More: Marriage is a women’s issue (according to the UK media)
3 August 2009
Is the key challenge of sharing the care of children in fact stepping out of one’s culturally determined earning or caring role rather than the challenges of the new role?
The Daily Mail is still at it, with yet more excellent articles about motherhood, fatherhood and family life (see my earlier blog on . . . → Read More: Why does sharing of the care of infants create feelings of guilt and inadequacy for mums and dads?
23 February 2009
I have just come across a fantastic website, reviewed in the Guardian, Equally Shared Parenting. A mother and father, Amy and Carl, have decided to share parenting absolutely equally and to blog their way through the entire project. They have achieved quite a following in the US. By going all the way, they . . . → Read More: Equally shared parenting
5 February 2009
I am going to write three blogs in quick succession on the Good Childhood Report – one on supporting c0-parenting instead of individual parenting, one on parents and work and one on pregnancy and birth.
Supporting co-parenting instead of individual parenting
Parenting in Britain is seen as an individual activity. When a . . . → Read More: The Good Childhood Report: a call to halt individualism
|
|
