| Many years ago, long before the advent of the | | | | the report's particular focus on the effects on children's |
| computer age, the upbringing of our young children | | | | mental health. Based on interviews with more than |
| during school holidays and weekends followed a similar | | | | 30,000 children, adults and professionals, the report |
| pattern. Children would be sent out to play and told to | | | | claims that the mental health of young people is also at |
| return at tea-time. Those of us who remember such a | | | | risk from bullying, exam stress, junk food and alcohol. It |
| time recall long, long days of imaginative play with | | | | is clear that children are growing up more confused, |
| other children who lived in the same street. Rarely did | | | | pressurized and lacking in real values than in previous |
| a child have something constructive to play with; rather, | | | | generations. A child displaying mental health symptoms |
| children constructed their own games using local | | | | is likely to grow up into a confused adult. |
| amenities such as playgrounds, parks and alleys | | | | Along with the analysis, the report offers some |
| between houses as simple backdrops. Yes, there | | | | guidelines on how your child's health in general can be |
| probably were dangers out there in those times, but | | | | improved. It includes: |
| because they weren't constantly trumpeted from | | | | - ways children can grow up supported and influenced |
| every media outlet available, parents used their | | | | by family and friends (rather than from advertising and |
| common-sense and relied on their instincts a lot more. | | | | reality TV); |
| Back then, particularly in the immediate post-war years, | | | | - a complete ban on advertising for under-12s; |
| children were simply happy to be free of restrictive | | | | - a call for better support services to cater for children |
| parental controls, relishing the freedom to run, jump and | | | | who develop mental health problems or eating |
| enact elaborate role-playing games. Playtime was a | | | | disorders; |
| time to live in that vast, creative, imaginative world | | | | - reasons why you should not treat children as "little |
| where anything was possible. But, unfortunately, that | | | | adults"; |
| world seems to have disappeared. | | | | - the need to raise the age of criminal responsibility |
| It was therefore interesting to see a recent | | | | from 10 to 14; |
| independent report on the state of childhood today. It | | | | - guidelines for companies to allow working mothers to |
| was commissioned by The Children's Society and | | | | balance their jobs with their family responsibilities, amid |
| carried out by Lord Layard, the Labour peer, and | | | | fears that 'macho' employers only judge staff on the |
| Professor Judy Dunn, a child psychologist at the | | | | number of hours they put in. One of the huge problems |
| Institute of Psychiatry. | | | | for mothers is that in order to be successful in a |
| The report confirms all our lurking fears about the | | | | career, they too often have to work long hours; |
| behavior of today's children. It warns that because of | | | | - actual proof that children have lost their freedom to |
| largely media-provoked paranoia about the dangers | | | | play outside because of paranoia about the dangers |
| children face and irrational hostility from the general | | | | they face. |
| public, children have lost their freedom to play outside. | | | | At long last this research has proven what we all |
| But, thankfully, the wheel has now turned full-circle. | | | | feared. Something wonderful has been lost. The active, |
| Parents are, once again, urged to avoid today's | | | | imaginative and role-playing world that children at play |
| insidious 'cotton wool culture' and actively return to the | | | | freely exercised fifty years ago was a life-enhancing |
| actions of our forebears. Yes: let your children play | | | | and positive way to exercise their mental health. There |
| outdoors and make new friends rather than keeping | | | | is no need for expensive toys that actually do more |
| them cooped up indoors. Not only will their mental | | | | harm than good by restricting imaginative play. |
| health improve, but also their general health. Research | | | | Let us hope that this report is but a forerunner of |
| has recently proved that introducing your toddlers to 'a | | | | change for the better for the children of today. It is the |
| bit of dirt' strengthens their immune systems to | | | | best legacy we can give them. A healthy mind is a |
| withstand such modern hazards as asthma. That 'bit | | | | wondrous gift that will give positive results: not only for |
| of dirt' acts like a vaccination, effecting that vital surge | | | | the child and the adult he/she will eventually become, |
| of white blood-cells to not only combat infections but | | | | but for all the individuals encountered throughout that |
| also bolster our defenses against future attacks. | | | | life. |
| It is what we all knew really, but an extra dimension is | | | | |