Heather Roy's Diary: Wrap our kids in Cotton Wool
act-new-zealand
Fri Apr 20 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Heather Roy's Diary: Wrap our kids in Cotton Wool
Friday, 20 April 2007, 12:04 am
Press Release: ACT New Zealand
Heather Roy's Diary
Wrap our kids in Cotton Wool
Remember the days of your childhood? Getting together with the neighbourhood kids after school, not going home till you were called for dinner, biking with a group of friends. Most children nowadays have significantly less freedom than their parents did.
An interesting piece of research by Claire Freeman from Otago University's Geography department confirms what many parents' already strongly suspected - today's children live much more structured and supervised lives than was the case a generation ago. Most of the children in the study were allowed to go only short distances on their own and tended to be driven to school or to other activities. Dr Freeman, who has written extensively on how spatial concepts are learned, has many misgivings about the trend. Ironically it is one area where poor kids tend to do better. Most of us remember meeting up with local children and going to explore creeks, waste ground and any point of interest in the locality. As I was brought up in a semi-rural district there were many points of interest, including the creek that froze over in the winter providing a great skating rink for our gumboot skates.
These days, children move by arrangement between parents' with little spontaneity. It is as if their interactions are "by appointment only". Parents' tight supervision of their children is, of course, well intentioned. Parents have fears of car accidents and of sexually motivated attacks on their children. The statistics suggest that the fear of death by motor vehicle accident is a reasoned explanation, although parents frequently choose to drive rather than walking their children for their own convenience. 'Stranger Danger' however is something of an exaggeration with most children who are victims of sexual abuse knowing the perpetrator.
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Governments that impose legislation and regulation must accept some responsibility. Pre-school playgrounds for example must now put a railing around any piece of equipment that is one metre high in case children fall off or jump. Other playgrounds for older children face similar regulations. About the only thing not banned are waxed milkshake containers which we as children used to rub on the local playground slide so that we slid down twice as fast - no doubt someone will read this and they will be next on the hit list. Risk has been almost totally eliminated from children's lives and with it the experimentation that allows them to learn, make mistakes and correct them. Our children are being wrapped in metaphorical cotton wool and it takes a brave parent to buck this trend - in the middle classes especially.
I was horrified when my children's local wooden playground became the focus of a scare story a few years ago. A sadly misinformed Green MP put up a sign telling the community that the playground was poisoned because the wood had been treated with cyanide to prevent it from rotting in the weather. Appalled at the knee-jerk reaction by the local parents who refused to let their children play in the "Poison Playground" I rang a scientist at Lincoln University who had developed his reputation by studying such issues. Amongst other things I asked him what danger the local children were in by playing on the equipment. His reply was simple - tiny amounts of cyanide leech into the surrounding soil with no danger to children, the playground was much safer than one where wood could rot causing structures to collapse and harm children, and the greatest danger was catching salmonella from the bird droppings on the wood. Kids, he advised, should wash their hands after playing there and definitely before meals. For months my children seemed to be the only ones allowed to play in this playground. Scare mongering like this does our children no favours in their development.
Town planners too must take some of the wrap. Traditionally they have tended to impose a crushing uniformity on city design but sometimes unusual ideas are useful. One idea that appeals to me comes from the United States where some developments are built with the garages on the edge of the area. The sections are laid in a circular manner around a piece of communal land so children can roam some distance without fear of being run over.
Regulators attempts to eliminate all risk in the interests of safety are frequently counter-productive and interfere with children's ability to learn by exploration. If the regulators are seeking to make a real difference they would ban cars - but then how would they get to work? Healthline/Plunketline
Readers may recall that Plunketline lost its taxpayer funding last year because its abandonment rate (unanswered calls) was too high according to the Prime Minister and Health Minister. McKesson was awarded the contract to provide Well Child calls alongside its Healthline operation. The Well Child Telephone Advice Service contract states that 80 percent of calls must be answered within 20 seconds.
Here's a couple of interesting facts that I learned this week after asking Health Minister Pete Hodgson some parliamentary questions. Calls to Healthline and the Well Child Telephone Advice service are received on the same 0800 number and the abandonment rate and number of calls taken in 20 seconds is reported on the combined volume of calls to both services. No penalties are incurred if the targets are not met, which begs the question why have them in the first place? It should come as great relief to the reader however that the software can report call duration, call type breakdown, call disposition and other data for each service separately.
So, in summary - the governments favoured provider doesn't have to meet its targets, can't tell if it is meeting its targets, isn't penalised when it doesn't and despite not meeting its targets Healthline has just been reawarded its funding. Whatever happened to accountability? My advice - call Plunketline (0800 933 922) who run their own Telephone Advice Service with their own money and do a fine job.
Lest We Forget
The first New Zealand Poppy Day Appeal was held in 1922 and for 85 years Poppy Day has normally been held on the Friday before Anzac Day. Today thousands of RSA volunteers took to New Zealand streets to offer red poppy's in exchange for a donation to the RSA Welfare fund. I am a service member of the RSA and I joined the other volunteers in Wellington to do my bit this morning. Most passers-by who were not already wearing poppies made a donation and proudly pinned their poppy on their chest. I heard too, many stories of loss, suffering and some of joy at the return of family members from the war - the memories of older kiwis and from younger New Zealanders, stories passed down through family members.
The Poppy Day Appeal embodies the values of the RSA, those of remembrance and welfare. In the lead up to Anzac Day the poppy seems to unleash the memories and the generosity of Kiwi's. Poppy donations are the RSA's major fundraising effort with proceeds assisting returned servicemen, servicewomen and their families - entirely fitting for their contribution in ensuring our freedom. Today I felt proud to be a New Zealander.
ENDS
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