Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Nice article

47 replies

tortoiseshell · 02/12/2005 13:06

here

OP posts:
WeWhizzzYouAMerryXmas · 02/12/2005 13:07

excellent

ENIDeepMidwinter · 02/12/2005 13:07

yes good

but surely just what Frank Furedi has gbeen saying for years

beansprout · 02/12/2005 13:08

I wish John O'Farrell was as funny as he thinks he is though.

Caligyulea · 02/12/2005 13:28

Totally lifted from Frank Furedi I think.

But I guess O'Farrell has more friends in the media than Frank, so he gets to present the programme!

monkeytrousers · 02/12/2005 13:42

But it has no real reference point, does it? Who is this amorphous mass he's talking about? How can writers get away with this??

Am I missing the point? What is it?

I've never heard of Frank whasisname, either by the way.

monkeytrousers · 04/12/2005 21:10

Yes, I read it a bit quick the first time and miss the point. I think it was the thing about kids being satellites around their parents and not vice versa that go my back up in an 'Ayelet' kind of way.

..Saying that, it's all still a bit middle class.

TherewasnoMOOMattheINn · 04/12/2005 21:30

are there any hard and fast statistics anywhere to show that child abduction by strangers HAS really increased in the last 50/60/100 years? i reckon it just get reported more nowadays, and reported in a sensational way. that's not to say these crimes are not dreadful, as clearly they are, but i do agree with comments under this article link, that the media has helped to put the fear of god into parents.

was sad to read on another thread the other week just how few parents are prepared to let their kids walk home from even a secondary school for fear of the being abducted. (the worst threat to your child while walking is traffic but this has been overtaken in most people's consciousness)

Janh · 04/12/2005 21:32

IIRC, moo, the figure has been pretty much stable for the last umpteen years at an average of about 10 a year. Not sure if it has increased in the last 2 or 3.

Intriguing that the O'Farrell sceptics at the bottom of the BBC page assume he has no kids.

Janh · 04/12/2005 21:33

moomin, I beg your pardon

(Can't understand these Christmas names even with capitals, grumble mutter humbug!)

Janh · 04/12/2005 21:40

Available stats seem to only go up to 2003 -

missing persons helpline website says

"Home Office (2002) figures show that the number of homicides by children involving children under 16 has remained constant over the last 20 years, with about 7 occurring each year".

However it also shows police recorded offences of child abduction (by anybody, so parental ones included) were:

2000/2001 546
2001/2002 583
2002/2003 846

"Abduction by a stranger or non-family member is rare. Whilst the police record several hundred offences of child abduction every year...(including parent abduction) there are very few offences which involve the abduction and murder of a child by a stranger."

TherewasnoMOOMattheINn · 04/12/2005 21:40

pardon granted, janh! sorry for being obstructive on the name front.

yeah, i thought that too about the childless thing.. i've got 2 but still agree with the general gist (altho not his bombastic tone). my brother & i walked about a mile back and forth when we were at primary school and, as long as routes are well-populated i think i would allow the same for my kids when they were old enough. traffic and general road safety worries me far more.

TherewasnoMOOMattheINn · 04/12/2005 21:41

v.interesting stats by the way

Janh · 04/12/2005 21:46

Oh, "by children" was a typo btw, had to copytype that bit - should read "by strangers", assume you realised that!

Also found this - second part is surprising:

(from here )

thecattleareALOHing · 04/12/2005 22:15

Think it's cheap lazy journalism actually (as a journalist!).
I was also left outside the pub, which was totally normal in the 70s, and think that it is a HUGE improvement that we no longer do this. If that makes me a paranoid parent, then bring it on.

moondog · 04/12/2005 22:23

Second that beansprout and spot on MT about the amorphous mass. Yeah,where are they exactly???

I read Frank Furedi's 'Paranoid Parenting' (was it called that-came out about 4 years ago?)
Enjoyed it and thought he talked sense (he is an academic so quite reasoned) but was pissed off by his theory that encouraging women to breastfeed was making them feel bad and placing too much pressure on them (I paraphrase obviously.)

The worst was that imbecilic article by Lowri Turner in the DM a few days ago that someone posted. She was ranting about alpha sahms.

She is one of those thick people who think they're clever-cliches strung together like strings of pearls.

milward · 04/12/2005 23:00

How does he know that I'm hiding in the kitchen doing suduku puzzeles whilst the kids watch pingu! don't smoke though - drink espresso

PantomimEDAMe · 04/12/2005 23:27

Furedi thinks any attempt by the state to share information is actually all about mind control. Shared a panel with him once and can attest to the fact that he thinks promotion of breastfeeding is a state conspiracy. Suspect he's a rabid free marketeer.

Not that there's no issue about state involvement in people's personal lives, but Furedi would object if the government did no more than release figures on the number of births, marriages and deaths every year, tbh.

Apixelmascarol · 05/12/2005 01:18

Smoking and sudoko? what are they? I let the kids watch tv so I can look at mumsnet in peace!

Some of what he says is true admittedly, but it's a bit rich blaming the parents for all of it. Even if you try to let your children be as independent as possible you are thwarted at every turn. The schools are banning more activities every day (conkers/picking daisies FGS)and a lot of playgrounds have become too boring even for my disabled 5 year old. Plus, I think social services might have something to say about it if we left our kids in the car while we went to the pub!

moondog · 05/12/2005 12:05

That's interesting Edam. What was he like?
(Suspect all the media interest has gone to his head a bit. Have you ever read a pop psychology article in a womens' magazine that doesn't include aquote from him or Linda Blair.

That whole 'ramming b/feeding down people's throat' argument makes me incandescent with rage. Since when was encouraging people to do what is undisputably the best think for a baby pushy??

Noone comes back from a health check up saying

'That GP is such a pushy bitch! She's trying to make me feel bad about the fact that I smoke sixty fags a day and am 20 kgs overweight.
Bloody nanny state!'

feastofsteven · 05/12/2005 12:10

bet they do Moondog!!

moondog · 05/12/2005 12:12

Yes fos,but then we'd say they were barking.
In case of b/feeding there are many who would recoil at (Heaven forbid!) the thought of being made to feel 'bad' and 'guilty'.

RacersTheRedNosedReindeer · 05/12/2005 14:57

I've heard people say they feel there is an 'over-promotion' of breatfeeding and that the government only does it to try to save on future healthcare spending!!! If you think this, you must surely accept that there are huge health benefits?!

RacersTheRedNosedReindeer · 05/12/2005 15:00

sorry breastfeeding obviously.

handlemecarefully · 05/12/2005 15:02

I don't like the article and boredom is over-rated. I was bored s**&less as a child and was definitely a satellite orbiting around my parents (as he put its), who obviously didn't feel any particular motivation to take me anywhere fun or stimulating /spend much recreational time with me. I don't have fond memories of childhood, but I watched a lot of tv...

handlemecarefully · 05/12/2005 15:04

"I was also left outside the pub, which was totally normal in the 70s, and think that it is a HUGE improvement that we no longer do this".

  • absolutely Aloha!