Tuesday, May 29, 2007

More on the Nanny State

From this article in the Independent:

"Professor Furedi, who will also be speaking at the Kent conference, says he has identified a worrying shift over the past five years in how parents are treated by the state. "I thought things were bad enough in terms of pressures but these trends have really intensified," said the sociologist and author of Paranoid Parenting. "Even your most intimate gestures become subject to someone else's expertise. This leads to anxiety and disorientation. You need a PhD in developmental psychology to be a parent these days."

Author and Sociologist, Ellie Lee, who organised the conference said elsewhere:

"By all accounts, it seems as though mothering has become seen as too important to be left to mothers."

All you need do is think about the inter-agency duty to co-operate to improve the well-being of children to know just how much more true the above is likely to be.

3 comments:

Pete Darby said...

I remember Frank from my time at UKC (many, many years ago): he is, by and large, "good people", on the side of the angels (as in parents, not "childcare experts").

Also very good on tackling the general levels of fear and paranoia in society.

dawniy. said...

how very true x

Carlotta said...

Just been to check out his essay on fear as a societal construct and kept thinking as I was reading it, that this kind of problem is irrationally informing LA approaches to HEors.