Parents should be forced to stay at home when their children are suspended from school

[Caligula]

Blair's latest big idea

He he he. This made me laugh.

When they say "parents", do they mean "mothers"?

[monkeytrousers]

Out of work, on benefits and then straight onto new deal for...parents. I'm confused.

What happened to encouraging women back into the workplace? Only ones with good kids? This is really going to help in the fight against poverty!

[edam]

Another tabloid-headline chasing initiative. Don't think a man who feels poor on joint income of £100,000s a year has a clue what life is like for real people.

[alux]

another laugh: parents will immediately invoke their 'rights' and threaten with the European Court of Human Rights

[MascaraOHara]

hmmmmm what a fantastic idea! I've never heard anything better, misbehaving children have enough compassion to behave for the sake of their parents. I reckon he's on to a winner there you know.

[monkeytrousers]

They can sit on the naughty step all day

[monkeytrousers]

That'll learn 'em!

[Caligula]

Can't Nanny put them on the naughty step as effectively as Mummy or Daddy?

[LHP]

Put them all under house arrest, it's the only thing they'll understand

[monkeytrousers]

Nanny..granny..or Uncle Joe who calls the bingo numbers out?

[hatstand]

ok I agree the whole thing sounds half-baked and utterly unworkable, but I kind of agree that there's no point in being excluded to hang around in shopping centres. And I also have a lot of time for the underlying principle - that children are the parents' responsibility.

[monkeytrousers]

There's an idea, LHP. JUst ship them all into secure accomodation or even prison - problem solved. Mother on day release to work in the co-op.

[fqueenzebra]

am i the only one who doesn't think it's such a bad idea?

[monkeytrousers]

It's just a headline grabber like Edam said though Hatstand. There's no substance to it at all. If governments really want to tackle youth crime, etc they need to the long haul and concentrate on social equality and the so called 'fight against poverty'.

[Caligula]

But hatstand, in every other area, the Blair govt are telling us that our main responsibility as parents is to go to work. Only when it comes to the children behaving badly, are they our responsibility. When they behave well, they're the responsibility of childminders, nannies, nurseries or after school clubs. We're not supposed to be looking after them, unless they've been suspended. Huh?

What next? Force parents to stay at home so that their children don't get suspended in the first place? Because that's the implication of this suggestion, imo.

[hatstand]

I agree mt - I said it was half-baked. But I do think that there is a problem they have rightly identified (what exactly do exluded kids get up to?) and a principle that needs wide acknowledgment (kids are ultimately the responsibility of parents)

[ScummyMummy]

Really ill thought through. Honestly. I despair at some of these social control ideas, I really do. How on earth could it help for parents to lose their jobs because they had to take time off to look after their badly behaved bananaheaded babies?

[merglemergle]

So how would you go about getting time off for this? You have to give notice for parental leave, don't you? Would it come under compassionate leave (normally unpaid)?

How many men actually take time off when the kids are sick, if the mother works? Some, I'm sure, but most-no.

So yes, it will hit women harder IMO. Unless they plan to introduce "school exclusion leave".

Oooh, SUCH a good idea. Not.

[Caligula]

"shoplifting leave"

"drugtaking leave"

"splitting up with boyfriend leave"

[monkeytrousers]

If that were the case then government should enable parents to do the job better.

You're right Caligula, no doubt someone will be calling for a return to the 'natural' laws of parenting, ie, mothers at home

[monkeytrousers]

Then there'll be 'painters in' leave.

[monkeytrousers]

This is what the world in reverse motion looks like

[ScummyMummy]

That is true, hatstand, and personally if/when one of my bananaheads is excluded I will take a day off to make his life hell! But the reality is that in many schools it's the same kids being excluded over and over for longer periods of time... IME kids who are truly trapped in a bad behaviour/exclusion cycle sometimes have no working parent anyway. But if there are working parents it makes no sense to me to increase the stress on the family by getting their parents sacked for seeming to take the p* with time off.

[ScummyMummy]

lol Caligula!

[fqueenzebra]

weren't they talking about fining parents at one point.. .would that be just as bad in youze all opinions?

[MascaraOHara]

And I suppose the government will pay my mortgage when my destined-to-become-out-of-control-teenager-from-1-parent-family dd finally gets expelled? or would that be asking too much d'ya think?