The verbal noun 'parenting' repels instantly. The small HGs were not 'parented' but brought up. As were their parents. And their grandparents before them. They were involved in kinship constellations engaged in myriad exchanges, large and small, that provided the background against which their formal instruction in school was set - and judged, and adjusted or refuted, as well as accepted.
The notion 'parenting' deliberately confounds the meeting of immediate physical needs with the provision of an upbringing. A hundred pounds the state is offering to reduce (or traduce) a child's birthright into advice on how to change a nappy.
Even Hilary Clinton knows that to bring up a child it takes a village.
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Even I, with no formal previous training, managed to change my lad's nappies without sticking the pin into his tummy, so it can't really be that difficult.
As a "concerned parent", I think Cameron and Osborne should be given a sharp clip round the ear by their nannies/governesses and told to stop being so bl***y stupid.
"Even Hilary Clinton knows that to bring up a child it takes a village." Maybes, but I'll bet she hired a nanny.
This tax-funded scheme could be redirected so much more valuably to the Health Visitor service so that the health visitors have more time to spend with every new mother, or to the drop-in child-care centres like the wholly admirable Thomas Coram's Centre in central London where just such advice and far more extensive support in terms of friendly advice and a place to recover in child and infant-oriented surroundings are on offer to any who need them. Would that such provision were available more widely.
But no, yet another 'course' in how to do things from non-job holding government clientele.
Wot Labour Did since 1997 has a terrible price attached and so much to answer for. The waste, Nomad, the waste.
With respect Dearieme, nannies for all would be wonderful, but as we can't all have one we don't want to be patronised by cheap courses run by jobsworths on how to bathe and feed the baby. We want a responsive health service back, as it used to provide jut this kind of advice and care, and then we want somewhere to introduce our infants to the world and ourselves to one another in mutual support.
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