If Parents were in charge of children’s welfare post pandemic

[WonderingFree]

I can’t sleep so thinking about how Post pandemic it would be fantastic for parents to be in charge of children and young people’s well-being and recovery. We know how it’s impacting our children. Of course we would have access to the magic money tree that we thought didn’t exist but actually does.

My decrees would be:

A radical overhaul of the school dinners system. All meals would be high nutrition, free to all kids throughout their education (ie up to 18) all processed food, vending machines in schools/colleges would be banned. Food would be mega high quality with fresh fruit Smoothies for morning snack, delicious and nutritious lunches and access to vitamin supplements in winter.

Fantastic after school activity focussed on PE for physical well-being and recognising our kids have been cooped up for soooooooo long; arts and creativity for emotional and mental well-being and loads of team activities.

Free weekend access to local amenities like cinema, youth theatres and swimming; plus free annual passes to nearest family attraction.

High streets rejuvenated by converting use of empty shops as children and young peoples spaces, offering alternatives to shopping like gaming, coding, music production and other such fab events that kids would like.

Overhaul of parks to increase provision for play areas for children, outdoor gyms and nighttime teenage safe zones in parks.

Over to you...

Surely parents can do a lot of that now if they have the money? Decent food and exercise - no better time for it! I’d avoid fruit smoothies though. Full of sugar and none of the benefits of eating actual fruit.

Ummm parent are in charge of their children's well being. You may not be able to control aspects of it like school dinners / school sports so you need to do what you can for your children outside those environments.

Lots of these things do already exist but the funding for them will be hugely squeezed.

Parents are in charge of their children's lives until they are 18 I believe.

It would be great though if instead of us buying the cauliflower and paying for the swimming pool the govt could do it.

Hmm so a system that teaches young people everything is handed to them on a plate by the state?

Parents, especially when the children are young, are in control of their child’s diet and activities.

I'd overhaul the education system to put less pressure on getting good grades in exams, be fairer to children who learn in different ways, and have a far greater emphasis on being a good citizen and on essential life skills such as budgeting, meal planning, and living sustainably. I'd incorporate a lot more outdoor time, and have more of a forest school ethos throughout the whole education system.

To back that up I'd increase access to outdoor facilities such as adventure playground, wild spaces, and all-weather clothing libraries for families because for some reason kids just won't stop bloody growing!

It's what parents did in the old days pre pandemic! If they chose to. There are free open spaces and activities for children if you look for them and as for good food...It's there on a budget if you look for it and learn to cook it.

Have you costed this shopping list?

Food would be mega high quality with fresh fruit Smoothies for morning snack,

Coat their teeth thoroughly in liquid fructose before they’ve even got to lunch? Are you working for the dentist lobby?

@FromTheAshes

I'd overhaul the education system to put less pressure on getting good grades in exams, be fairer to children who learn in different ways, and have a far greater emphasis on being a good citizen and on essential life skills such as budgeting, meal planning, and living sustainably. I'd incorporate a lot more outdoor time, and have more of a forest school ethos throughout the whole education system.

To back that up I'd increase access to outdoor facilities such as adventure playground, wild spaces, and all-weather clothing libraries for families because for some reason kids just won't stop bloody growing!

This I like!

I would also like more focus on supporting individuals to meet their own potential, more support for children with additional needs.

Focus on developing rounded individuals not just people trained to pass an exam in a subject they will never use again.

Parents are in charge of their children’s well-being so they can do all those things like exercise, good food, activities etc.

Certainly don’t think they should be free. So many already expect their children to cost them nothing without adding further burdens on tax payers.

I would love to overhaul our education system to reduce class sizes - it would take time but would be hugely beneficial on an individual and national level. That would free up teacher energy and massively boost learning.

Nothing good will happen for young people with a conservative government, they are the pensioner's party when it comes to policy choices.

I'm hoping the Gym have some good deals on so that my son can go again.

Where will the money to ay for this come from? Not the education budget, I hope, that's already stretched beyond capacity.

If you make it free to the parents, who is going to pay?

Or are providers of the weekend activities expected to work for nothing?

Assuming that the government won't have much money to spend to increase schools budget so they can provide the meals, which bits of the school budget would you deprioritise to pay for food?

Ditto for providing OOH activities in the evenings?

Or if you propose cutting something other than schools, what would it be?

Though to be fair, what you have described is what happens in private schools (especially those with Saturday school which is nearly all sport or drama or music) . So it can be done.

I'm surprised by lots of the responses on here! It's clear the OP means if parents were in change of the decision making at a national level. Of course on an individual level we are responsible for our own children, but why can't these things happen on a wider scale too.
We have a weird attitude to children in this country. We don't see investing in children's services as good investments for society generally. They are literally our future doctors and politicians or they should be/ could be with the right start in life.
All these changes actually wouldn't cost that much to the taxpayer either, compared to some of the things that money IS made available for. I'm all for it!

Who is in charge of children’s well-being if not parents?
The whole thing about super-healthy food and activities all just sounds like a clueless middle-class fantasy to me. Families living through genuine hardship both before the pandemic and now (and will continue to do so after it has ended) would probably snort and tell you to take a running jump with your idealism.

I'm surprised by lots of the responses on here! It's clear the OP means if parents were in change of the decision making at a national level.

I believe that many/most of the politicians in charge are indeed parents, so you have your wish. Or did you mean other parents?

@Clarabellawilliamson

I'm surprised by lots of the responses on here! It's clear the OP means if parents were in change of the decision making at a national level. Of course on an individual level we are responsible for our own children, but why can't these things happen on a wider scale too. We have a weird attitude to children in this country. We don't see investing in children's services as good investments for society generally. They are literally our future doctors and politicians or they should be/ could be with the right start in life. All these changes actually wouldn't cost that much to the taxpayer either, compared to some of the things that money IS made available for. I'm all for it!

Is giving all children everything for free a good investment in children’s services though? Or does that actually work to increase the gap.

Support needs to be focused on where it is needed not as a one size fit all approach as is being proposed by the OP

If we want a happy, healthy, hard working workforce in 3/5/10/20 years time then why not invest in it? Invest in playgrounds and outside play provision, youth clubs and youth hubs, things to do for teens. For those saying who will pay for it, but even during the hardest years of austerity, there was money to pay for these things, the government just chose not to.

Not everything that would benefit children has to cost money. I agree with PP about taking some of the pressure off Teens around exams. Before the pandemic, happiness levels among UK kids were already among the lowest in Europe. A lot could be done by overhauling the narrow curriculum and giving young people different options about academic pathways.

The middle class smoothie-drinking kids who would be making use of these wonderful after school activities and free passes to tourist attractions are not the ones the government should be prioritising for post-pandemic recovery. I have a feeling they will be just fine.
There already were a large number of kids pre-pandemic growing up in horrendous conditions and very little was done to help them and I suspect that very little will be done once the pandemic is gone. Their parents don’t feed them super-healthy food (for various reasons) and probably don’t/can’t take them to tourist attractions either. Nor, I suspect, do they take part in sport or drama clubs or any of the other things that ‘(middle class) kids love’. So all in all, they’d probably be a bit out of place in this utopian vision clearly aimed that children who are already very fortunate.

If like to see an overhaul of the education sector. This one size fits all method of learning is very unfair.

For every child who struggles because they're not in school there is another who is thriving because they're away from school.

There's an awful lot of hand wringing about the poor children being locked away for sooo long, but a complete disregard for children who much prefer being at home and don't enjoy school.

So if there was a magic money tree I'd make sure class sizes never went above 15, that exams were scrapped and all qualifications were awarded based on teacher assessment.

All humiliating activities would be banned in schools; no child would be made to take part in sports day if they didn't want to. No child would be forced to shower naked in front of their peers.

Children who gain any medals, recognition and skills outside of school would not be allowed to receive (yet more) praise and recognition inside school for the same achievements.

Basically - I'd provide a fairer more nurturing environment for all.

I think the forest school approach is a good one. This pandemic has shown how many people are living to go to the pub and gym.

Connecting and appreciating nature leads to being interested in environmentally friendly living and sustainability.

I don't agree with the free family attraction tickets. We should get away from shopping and theme parks being the only weekend activities.

When my children were children, the council swims were free and thete was more sports, trampolining etc about.

The diet one is tricky, as said smoithies aren't great. Children should be able to enjoy the food on offer. The ones who you want to target will often only eat the less unhealthy stuff and will end up going without.

Children's centres need to open up everywhere again. It was one of Tony Blair's better achievements, as part of the every child matters strategy.

Not to make this political but when the Labour Party costed their manifesto, which contained strategies for young people incuding mental health provision. The press claimed it would bankrupt us. The Conservative Party actually spent more in the first year, but the British people saw very little of it and our services were run down so much that we can't deal with the current crisis.

We can do more than we do. We've all been brainwashed into thinking we can't afford a better society.

I understood what you meant OP.

Situating societal problems within an individual and calling a trauma response "MH issues" disguises the reality that the school system and indeed our society as a whole does not have human elevation, joy or compassion at its heart.

Alternative education models e.g. Steiner schools, homeschooling families, exist for a reason.

But here on MN the POV is usually "suck it up buttercup" when it comes to education or societal reform.

@Ponoka7

Not to make this political but when the Labour Party costed their manifesto, which contained strategies for young people incuding mental health provision. The press claimed it would bankrupt us. The Conservative Party actually spent more in the first year, but the British people saw very little of it and our services were run down so much that we can't deal with the current crisis.

We can do more than we do. We've all been brainwashed into thinking we can't afford a better society.

100% this.

Investment in future growth does not bankrupt countries.

People in the UK put up with very very poor services and treatment.