I'm speechless

[juuule]

The Nursery Rhyme Police

this is a joke - right?

and they say it isn't a nanny state

The staff at our local Nursery were so amazed to read this article that they put it up in the entrance for parents to read!

The idea is loony in the extreme and if Labour is not careful Cameron will breeze in on the next election with the 'caring society but with individual freedoms' message.

It is important that all kids are enthusiastic about reading but Labour is going the wrong way about it with this initiative.

you all balrdy moan abtu crap kids wiht crap paretns wo there you are

asm so sick of reading "nanny state" int eh press

it's in the Daily Mail so it's got to be a lie, anyway.

Sounds like the initiative is about helping parents from disadvantaged backgrounds - what's so dreadful about that? Am with Cod on all this.

they are all shite htiscrap
everyone moanas then the governemnt does soemthign nad its misreported
daily mail is a crock of shit

There's a story in today's news about the Government recruiting supernannies to deal with problem families. So I'm afraid it's official - it really is a nanny state.

yes- I agree with GG and cod - it seems like quite a good intiative about working with parents to develop parenting skills vital to childrens happiness, well-being and development. I bet there is a tiny sentence about talkin to the parents about the importance of nursery rhymes etc (for phonological awareness development) and the daily mail has picked up on this tiny part and made an 'oh isn't the world nuts' story about it.

do they not already do this?

Agree with Dimpledthighs - the Mail, as usual, has put a spin on this which deflects from the actual initiative which is about helping disadvantaged parents.

is it being a nanny state to help children who are at risk of failing and hopefully prevent this from happening or is it being helpful and preventing future problems that just carry on through each subsequent generation?

the nursery rhyme story is typical of the daily mail as they always pick out the smallest most ridiculous part of a story and blow it up out of all proportion to make a senstationalist story.

I really hate all this twisting of news about good parenting initiatives - the government comes up with something practical that will help disadvantaged children, and still the DM (or Torygraph) manages to turn it into something that has people foaming at the mouth.
Would you prefer they just sat back and did nothing?

Agree totally with cod and geekgrrl. This is the Daily Mail FFS. With a fine tradition of empathy reporting on the reasons why so many families are struggling with parenting issues these days.

Has anybody got a link to Beverley Hughes speech or a better source for where it's reported? I would be interested to hear/see what she really said.

Twinkle twinkle Nursery Tsar
Wonder how bright you really are?
Like a diamond in the night
New Labour - you're so full o'shite.

why are they full of shite for wanting to help parents from crap backgrounds help their children?

joke? sigh.

yes we have to bear in mind this is from the daily mail.......and I think it is difficult for some people to imagine that there really are parents out there who don't read to or sing to their kids.

There are! I've worked with parents who are so brutalised through their own history of neglect and abuse that they do not have the tiniest clue that they should stimulate, hold, sing to, read to or even TALK to their babies. One young woman was genuinely confused when a senior social worker told her that baby's speech would come on faster if she spoke to her child "I ain't speaking to a baby, it can't TALK!" was the response.

We're talking here about a section of people whose own family background has left them utterly unprepared to be any kind of anywhere near good enough parent and I've seen the consequences for the children - it's wasted potential and it's heartbreaking to see. Good on the government for at least trying to do something rather than ignoring the 'underclass' in the name of 'personal freedoms'.

People worry about adverts targetting children and demand action from the government.

People worry about the rising the numbers of underage drinkers and demand that the government do something.

People worry about passive smoking and the effects of smoking on health and demand action from government

People worry about climate change and demand action from government

People moan about TV personaliities like Gordon Ramsey and Alan Sugar for bullying others on TV and demand that something is done about it.

People worry about the growing obesity problem and demand action from the government.

People worry about the juvenile delinquents causing havoc in local communities and demand action from government.

People worry about the high numbers of underage pregnancies and demand that the government do something about it.

When government decides to do something about anything, many of these same people moan about the Nanny State impinging on their rights to do what they like e.g. drive without restrictions, eat what they like, drink as much as they like, smoke where they like, raise their children as they like etc. As for the Daily Rage - they just moan regardless!

Before anyone accuses me of being a Tory, reading the Daily Mail or anything else of that nature, I do recognise that there are parents with problems and that those people should be helped.

But... I do have a problem with the Government coming up with more buzzwords, old ideas repackaged and initiatives based on reality TV. There are already people in the NHS and Social Services working with parents with problems - I imagine they must feel very undermined by all this "bring in Supernanny". What exactly is Supernanny going to do differently? Have we been told?

are 77 child psychologists really going to be able to make much of a difference? it's not that many

Don't see what's wrong with this. People are 'supposed' to know how to do the parenting thing but some apparently don't. And it gets passed down the generations like a dodgy heirloom.

I'm sorry, I make it a policy decision not to read anything in the Daily Mail

paaaarp

speedymama I totally agree.

Expecting an all-encompassing welfare & health service without actually contributing to it (if you can) or taking some responsibility for your own health issues is such an abdication of personal responsibility that the only solution is a nanny.

The Daily Mail treat their readers as if they were morons. Sad to say a lot of Daily Mail readers (not saying all, but at least a significant number eg. the nursery who displayed it) will swallow that article whole. I am not a huge fan of Mr Blair, but I can't stand this level of news misrepresentation. Arghhhhhhhh.