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Kids under pressure!
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Categories: Growing up, Health, Media Influence
Are our children in crisis? Julie Etchingham on last week’s Tonight programme looks earnestly into camera and sombrely announces that in a recent Mumsnet survey commissioned by the programme, “One in four parents thinks that their children are less happy than they were at the same age….”
Am I alone in having the reaction that, if one in four parents believes this, then three out of four parents don’t? A very healthy 75% of the parents surveyed considered that their children were as happy if nor happier than they were at the same age? And this is also in the light of the fact that many of us may look back at our own childhoods through rose-tinted spectacles, remembering the positive experiences and glossing over the times when we were mind-numbingly bored, frustrated at our powerlessness, or anxious?
Is there something in us that makes us WANT to believe that the wellbeing of our young people is under threat? I appreciate that the Tonight programme prides itself on being ‘hard-hitting’, but spreading angst and gloom can’t be healthy, or in the best interests of our children and the relationships between parents and their offspring.
Yes, we live in a time of pressure, and we are far more aware of the issue of mental health, both of adults and of young people. We are preoccupied with happiness in a way that previous generations didn’t appear to be. But I would suggest that seeking to find evidence for ‘crisis’ and overplaying the idea that young people today are dealing with unprecedented levels of stress and misery isn’t helpful and could be damaging. Can’t we, rather, see that the glass is three quarters full?
Your comments
What a great point. Thank you for making it. I didn’t actually see the programme, but I am very conscious of what a negative slant we the British often seem to take on things. When was the last time any newspaper had a positive headline? It seems we are being actively discouraged from looking on the bright side of anything, and that can’t help but have an effect on how we and our children see the world. Despite this, from everything their parents tell me, most of the children I know are at least as happy as we were at their age – if not more so.
Childhood as misery makes for a wonderful tabloid/Disney story. The fleeting moments of unhappiness can make for powerful anecdotes, and to be sure there are lots of pressures out there. But stress is something very different and can be managed and alleviated. That the media is inhabited by people going through mid-life crises does not help…