1 in 5 unfit to be parents
ONE in five Australian mums and dads is unfit to be a parent, according to child-health expert and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Stanley. She says they either lack the means or the life skills to raise children or cannot devote enough time to their kids because of excessive work commitments.
She said a national effort - on the scale of the climate-change movement - was needed to protect the futures of Australian children. She said:
"There are a worrying number of threats to children’s health in society today.
"If we don’t respond to these challenges … we will be looking at our generation, my generation, as being the last generation that lives longer than its parents.
"If you look at the overall trend in many problems, they are actually showing no improvement - and some of them are getting dramatically worse."
and also:
"There’s this increasing group of parents who are just not making ends meet. They don’t have the capacity to be parents.”
"There are a lot of people who are going to find it difficult to parent."
I actually suspect she’s understating the problem ….there are more than 20% of people who are not suitable to be parents. You only have to look at some of the kids you see around the place, and read the stories of neglect and abuse.
One thing that really concerns me for the future is that more often than not its those who are unsuitable who are having the most children, the welfare dependent, those with drug, alcohol, gambling problems, those who are incapable of maintaining stable family relationships. Over time, we see children who are 2nd/3rd/4th generation welfare dependents, who have never known a stable home environment, who are exposed to domestic violence, ever changing parents and step-parents, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of attention to their education, healthcare and proper nutrition, and the absence of good role models. You see feral parents having feral kids, who screw things up for other people – for example by disrupting the schooling of those kids who want to learn.
Its sad that the only qualification needed to be a parent is that your boy/girl bits work as intended. We need training and skills testing, and licenses, to do things like drive a car, or work in most types of job. But parenting children, which is undoubtedly far more complex and carries greater responsibilities, is open to just about anyone.
Not only that, but here in Australia, our government actively encourages people to have babies – by paying them a baby bonus of $5,000 for each child. This is something I’ve never agreed with. I think it encourage irresponsible people to breed when they shouldn’t be …. everyone hears anecdotes about plasma TVs and the like being bought with the money. How widespread this is is debatable but undoubtedly it does happen. The bonus is paid as a lump sum (except if you’re under 18, in which case it is paid over 6 months in instalments). I think paying it in instalments, for example as a top up of family allowance for the first 2 years of the child’s life, would be a good move. I think placing conditions on it would be good, for example successful completion of parenting education prior to the birth of the child, and the meeting of certain milestones after birth, eg attending with the child for baby health clinic checkups at specified intervals. I don’t think its unreasonable for governments to specify conditions for getting paid taxpayers’ money, particularly conditions which are sensible, reasonable and aimed at ensuring the money is used properly.
I’d go further and take positive steps to stop people who are clearly unsuitable from breeding. For example, people who are known or suspected to be substance abusers, or who have prior history of child abuse. Where these people are (as is the case often) on welfare, make it conditional on them taking suitable contraceptive measures (why not have Centrelink - or at least doctors on their behalf - instal contraceptive implants and replace them however often that is required?).
September 29th, 2008 at 2:47 am
Hi, I don’t know the numbers here in the U.S. but I used to live in a small southern town where drug dealing was rampant and yes, the more babies a girl had, the more money she got from the government. What struck me as sad was the number of high school kids who had no ambition to go to college or get a job because they planned on having kids and dealing drugs because it’s so much easier than a ‘real’ job.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
The baby bonus needs to go, and I know of one woman in particular, in housing, 5 kids under 8 and a 6th on the way, living on a pension and her man lives there as well on the dole. Unbelievable, filth and squalor…i seen the kids outside in winter crying, with snotty noses, the baby had no nappy on and the mother said she would have to wait until her money came through as she was low on disposables. The child was clearly upset and in need of a bath and sleep. When they have been visited by the authorities, they get out of it by saying the child safety people are being racist as they are of aboriginal descent. This house is full of drug users, they smoke pot in front of the kids constantly, there is an abundance of people in and out of the house at all hours. The kids have mouths full of rotting teeth, it is disgusting to see these get away with it. Then again, The Child Safety People here in Queensland are a law unto themselves.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
There is that recent case in Victoria where a woman, who was found guilty of the manslaughter of her daughter, got out of prison in Qld, moved back to Vic and got pregnant as soon as she could, to a drug dealer/user.
Instead of removing the baby Human Services supported her claim to keep it, in court, asking that she be admitted to a mother/baby unit for a few weeks/months.
Big bloody deal!
Her other child is in the custody of his grandmother, who has taken out an intervention order to keep the mother away from the whole family.
September 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
First paragraph of the article also states that Prof Stanley criticised parents who were unable to devote time to their children due to work committments.It is easy ,and perhaps stating the bleeding obvious to bang on about the bogan/druggie element. And I heartily agree with the baby bonus being subject to health checks, courses etc. But does anyone else out there find the trend of dumping a baby into child care at 6 weeks, for 60-80 hrs a week offensive???? Ioften wonder how such kids will develop on the emotional level.
September 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
kezz - yes, I do. If you’re going to be that divorced from raising your child, why have it?
September 30th, 2008 at 10:38 am
For the prestige, Ian. So you can say that you’ve passed on your genes… and because there’s a number of people out there who question whether they should have children, and then look at the other kids out there and believed that their genes are more worthy to be passed on…
September 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
What I don’t like about the welfare system is, every time they have another baby, they in effect get a pay raise. Obviously, that doesn’t happen in “real life.” (I can just see my husband demanding a raise from his boss not because he’s working harder or has been promoted but just because I’ve had another baby!)
It’s such a strange, artificial system, where every time a welfare mum pops out another baby she is given more and more of our family’s wages, whereas we have to save, budget and plan! Definitely the wrong kind of incentivisation.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
This is the first time I heard that Australian govt is encouraging to have more babies, and if it’s true then it must be bad news.
While here in the Philippines, our government is fighting with some Catholic bishops about birth control.
Anyway, being a parent today is a very tough job not only because life is hard these days but basically it is really hard to be one.
Thanks!
October 6th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I think this is a bit of an overkill… who would not want to care for their kids anyway…
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