What three things would you like a political party to promise parents

[Carriemumsnet]

Another Radio 5 thingy - this time on Sunday morning. They want us to put forward parents' views on election issues (in about 2 minutes) so we thought we'd ask you to whittle it down to the big three issues that you'd like the politicans to focus on. Or putting it another way - if you were PM what 3 things would you do for parents?

Your votes please....

Definitely better financial helpfor those who want to stay at home with their children.

Increased vouchers for childcare, whether from age 2 or for longer sessions.

Education.

Was about to post and realised that Caligula had said it word for word. FWIW, I would not make childcare tax deductable - had exactlt this arguemnt with dh last night. By making childcare tax deductable you are incentivising parents (lets face it - mothers) to work rather than SAH. And therefore disouraging parents from SAH to raise their own children. Which is not a good thing. IMO both should be financially viable making it a true choice. A decent level of CB for the first 5 years could be used to either SAH, or subsidise childcare, depending on what the parent really wanted to do.

Oh - and can I have 4 please?
I would really like to see scrapping of the unnecessarily complicated tax credit system, and instead a system where families could complete joint tax returns - so a family with 2 kids would get an extra 2 personal allowances/10% bands etc. It would recognsie the extra costs taht a family has compared to single people.

1. Education. Get serious about discipline and bullying! Exclude bullies and violent pupils permanently. If the sort of violence that's allowed to occur in schools happened on the street, it'd be a matter for the criminal courts. Why should it be different if it occurs in school - public property - and w/children (or adult school employees) as victims?

2. Healthcare service - no more postcode lottery for treatment

3. Fix the bloody tax credit 'system'.

xpis - completely agree with you on point 1 - why aren't more of these things considered police matters?

1. Education. Scrap sats for primary level and raise standards at secondary level so dh and I don't have to live in a rabbit hutch to stay in a decent catchment area.

2. Stop treating SAHMs like we are parasites and acknowledge that we make just as much a contribution to society as working parents (and stop being so bloody sexist about us too.)

3. Address the issue of climate change - our dds have been ill all winter and our GP says it's due to the mild winter - if this is the trend then we are going to have a lot more winters like this one.

thanks all

Blink (or should that be sneeze or cough?)and you would have missed me, but hope we managed to get some of your views across.

Thanks again for your help