Are We Tech Addicts?
I was surprised by that. You see, every time I go out, I see parents ignoring their children and focusing on their phones (or their iPad, or their Kindle, or whatever). Settling in at swimming lessons, I noted that nearly every parent engaged had some kind of device to occupy their attention while their kids swam.
Across the world, according to the World Health Organization, about 10% of pregnant women and 13% of women who had just given birth experienced a mental disorder, primarily depression. (In developing countries, those stats rise to 15.6% and 19.8%, respectively). The actual numbers might be much higher because of poor screening by health providers and stigma related to mental health disorders. Today, working mothers give more time and attention to their children than they did in the family-oriented 1960s. Sixty years ago, mothering advice might have come via a well-meaning grandmother or a sister or perhaps via a few books like those by the famous Dr Spock. Today, a new mother eager to do her best will find many parenting approaches, from the Ferberizing “crying it out” sleep training to gentle parenting — and everything in between.
Whatever its benefits—and there are many—growing up in a society that can only answer the big questions of adult life with “it’s all up to you” can be more troubling than freeing for a 12-year-old. Their choices are many and fluid, and insofar as any norms do exist, they are loose and fungible. What’s a girl to make of her life?
This title is a tautology. The term home already implies the concept of stability. Just as it is assumed that a home is a place where people develop healthily because they have a safe, strong and intimate family environment. Curiously, however, something is not right when more and more schools are setting up mental health services for children and adolescents; and according to the World Health Organisation, in 2021 one in seven young people aged 10 to 19 suffered from a mental disorder, with depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders being the main causes.
Changing the conversation on child care: from what’s good for GDP, to what’s good for mothers and infants. Too little attention is paid to why women leave the workforce or reduce their hours after having children
Although childcare costs are a major factor constraining women’s choices about work, many other factors are at play. Many UK families now find they need two full time incomes to cover housing costs. And women still struggle to find part time work which pays well, despite a continuing push for flexible working.
Sociologist Christopher Lasch once wrote, “Socialization makes the individual want to do what he has to do; the family is the agency to which society entrusts this complex and delicate task.”
Commentaires récents