"what are we going to do with the kids"
With this being the holiday week there’s lots of talk about "what are we going to do with the kids". In Edinburgh the GO4it and Paly4it activities are a great solution along with things like the Edinburgh Leisure activator camps and there are many other opportunities though probably not enough yet.
This got me thinking about what’s provided when its not the holidays. In my own ward I have managed to get to the stage where there is something for teenagers 6 nights a week. This inc
ludes the mobile youth club (the Youth Buzz - see picture right) of which I am very proud having personally made it happen right from asking for the bus to raising the cash to now chairing the trust. Yet two things happen. First, I still get the comment "there’s nothing to do" and secondly and connected to that, no one ever seems to ask what the parents are doing to make sure their kids have something to do.
Its quite right that we should spend money on serious and effective opportunities for young people to spend their spare time constructively but we cannot be a "24/7" (how I hate that phrase) babysitter.
I don’t wish to berate parents. I am a parent myself, but some-how we need to change the relationships between the Councils duty to provide services and parents duty to be a parent. There are times when some parents can’t cope and we need to be in there helping them. Being a parent it’s the hardest job anyone ever does and all parents need a bit of help and support.
I am concerned however, that our consumerist society is beginning to perceive the task of parenting as being something that can be achieved in large part by a form of "outsourcing" to Councils and voluntary services. At the same time society is demanding lower taxes and that staff and volunteers go through ever more rigorous checks which make providing those services even more difficult.
There are some serious contradictions here and all of us, parents, carers, young people, councils and voluntary groups need to collectively face up to them soon or we are going to have a real problem on our hands.
This got me thinking about what’s provided when its not the holidays. In my own ward I have managed to get to the stage where there is something for teenagers 6 nights a week. This inc
ludes the mobile youth club (the Youth Buzz - see picture right) of which I am very proud having personally made it happen right from asking for the bus to raising the cash to now chairing the trust. Yet two things happen. First, I still get the comment "there’s nothing to do" and secondly and connected to that, no one ever seems to ask what the parents are doing to make sure their kids have something to do.Its quite right that we should spend money on serious and effective opportunities for young people to spend their spare time constructively but we cannot be a "24/7" (how I hate that phrase) babysitter.
I don’t wish to berate parents. I am a parent myself, but some-how we need to change the relationships between the Councils duty to provide services and parents duty to be a parent. There are times when some parents can’t cope and we need to be in there helping them. Being a parent it’s the hardest job anyone ever does and all parents need a bit of help and support.
I am concerned however, that our consumerist society is beginning to perceive the task of parenting as being something that can be achieved in large part by a form of "outsourcing" to Councils and voluntary services. At the same time society is demanding lower taxes and that staff and volunteers go through ever more rigorous checks which make providing those services even more difficult.
There are some serious contradictions here and all of us, parents, carers, young people, councils and voluntary groups need to collectively face up to them soon or we are going to have a real problem on our hands.
posted by Councillor Ewan Aitken at
2:23 pm
