Love to know what mum's think of the Scottish Baby Box poem

[toomuchpink]

Love to know what mum's - especially those in Scotland - think of this poem. It is going into the Scottish Government's new baby box of freebies for parents of newborns.

Tempted to ask for alternative suggestions which truly capture the experience of having a baby. But perhaps for some people this is what it is like?

Jackie Kay
Welcome Wee One

O ma darlin wee one
At last you are here in the wurld
And wi’ aa your wisdom
Your een bricht as the stars,
You've filled this hoose with licht,
Yer trusty wee haun, your globe o' a heid,
My cherished yin, my hert's ain!

O my darlin wee one
The hale wurld welcomes ye:
The mune glowes; the hearth wairms.
Let your life hae luck, health, charm,
Ye are my bonny blessed bairn,
My small miraculous gift.
I never kent luve like this.

I think the Scottish election results show very clearly that the other parties have upped their game - certainly in the eyes of the voters. The SNP, on the other hand, seem to be lurching from one ill thought out policy to another - but being the best of a bad bunch when they're trying to persuade the majority of Scottish people to vote for them in any further referendums really isn't good enough. The wool is beginning to fall from collective eyes when it comes to seeing what a complete shambles the SNP are making of Scotland - thank god the vote didn't go the other way in 2014. We'd be living in chaos - with endless poyums written in Scots from the Makar telling us how braw a'thing wis.

As for "de rigour" (sic) - yep, that's what happens when you arse things up. You get held to account.

God knows where the money is to come from tho

Taxation - like other Govts do. Oh, and a reduction in wasteful gimmicks, reinstating prescription charges and spending the underspend could be a start.

Pay for proper school nurses / Health Visitors and fund it so that each child can be seen regularly and issues can be flagged up.

I disagree with this - in parts. Yes there should be more front line healthcare workers, like health visitors, support workers for new mothers, special social workers for mothers from vulnerable backgrounds. But it shouldn't be every child. The government should be directing the care towards the people who most need it. Your affluent 30-something mother with plenty of family support who is on her third baby with no problems doesn't need regular visits - she needs a point of contact on the end of the phone which she can call on if she needs to. A 16 year old care-leaver with no support, living in a hostel and with no child-care experience would hugely benefit from someone on hand every single day. There is no "one size fits all" which is what the SNP are pushing. My HV when I had my thirrd was a total waste of space and her visits were pointless - her time would have been far better spent on someone else.

It's like the free school meals - my kids go to school in a well-off area and the number of kids qualifying under the old rules for free school meals was in single figures. But when they introduced free school meals for P1-P3, most people took them up on it and why wouldn't they, as it saved money. But giving middle class children a free lunch - when all of them are going home to warm houses and cooked dinners - isn't doing anything to address poverty. Had the SNP been REALLY serious about this they could have not done the universal Infant school meals and instead put the money into breakfast clubs, school holiday lunch clubs, cooking lessons or any number of other initiatives. They have the statistics to show which schools/areas are in greatest need. It's not rocket science.

Agreed, that is why I said can, not must or should. The Named Person Scheme (which I totally oppose) is another expensive blanket approach to all kids, rather than targeting the most vulnerable. But, as a school, we struggle to have ways of allowing pupils to access support, if they need it (secondary).

Completely agree that Named Person is a shockingly bad piece of legislation.

They seem to have gone all quiet on Named Person since it emerged that Fife was part of hte pilot scheme and Liam Fee (who was on social services radar when murdered by his parents) had a Named Person.

You do realise that the SNP rely on PFI schemes too? In true SNP style they have just renamed them and say they are different, when in reality there is very little difference, and all their cult members just lap it up.

Not all who want independence are members of the SNP, there are other parties available.

However, vote for Labour and Tories if you think they'll bring any positive changes to the issues you've all raised. You've managed to politicise the baby box so well done.

God but this place has gone downhill, it used to be so fun, positive and encouraging with a large slice of sarcasm thrown in.

'This place' is still all those things Two - just not on threads about the madness of the SNP. 'Twas ever thus.

The baby box was always-already political, since it was a clearly SNP-branded policy. It would be ridiculous to insist that any government policy was anything other than political.

When people throw about the term "cybernat" freely then I'm afraid there isn't much sensible debate to be had.

You are all very anti-SNP, I take it the Greens will get a similar bashing for being pro-indy or do we get a free pass? Not sure what the Labour stance is on us, what members have been told to think.

You do realise that not everything is about bloody independence, don't you?

TwoIfBySea I don't think most of the criticism is about anti independence. It's about the SNPs poor management and how it's blinkered independence above everything attitude is leading to policies and miss management that is harming Scotland.

Your right MiladyThesaurus it's not all about independence (unless your the SNP)

That poem is embarrassingly mawkish and inappropriate, regardless of your views on independence or your 'Scottishness' (whatever the hell that is supposed to be).

A hilarious mix of cringing, SNP-bad and 'the honeymoon is over' on this thread. A word on the last: you do realise that the SNP's percentage share of the vote went up in the last Hoyrood election? Love the boxes, like the poem, and don't even mind that it's not in Gaelic :p

Well said Yellow.

you do realise that the SNP's percentage share of the vote went up in the last Hoyrood election?

Yep, by 1.1% (although not enough to return a majority - seems like they're not impressing the much needed voters who can swing that no to a yes). The Tories share, on the other hand, went up by 8 times that. Imagine that!

Why do you "love" the boxes, exactly?

I love their simplicity, I love their safety, and I actually love their universality. Universality is not a waste of money in my opinion, it is an equaliser, and in a world where options like the universal basic income are starting to seem like they are worth trialling, a scheme like this wouldn't normally be this controversial. I would have loved to receive one when I had my child.

Their simplicity and safety - what does that actually mean?

And how does a baby box contribute in reality to a more equal society at a macro level?

....but going back to the poem, can anyone honestly tell me that this thread would exist if it had been written in English? That really bothers me tbh.

Because it provides a small number of baby necessities on a universal basis. It obviously isn't going to save the world, but it is a positive thing in my opinion. The safety thing is obvious: it's a safe place to sleep. This is uncontroversial.

Yes, let's leave these pesky questions about this monumental waste of money to one side. Personally, I prefer the idea of proportionate universalism - far more effective.

No, it wouldn't have existed if the poem had been written in English, the language of the majority in Scotland. Why does this bother you?

And how are a small number of freebies for small babies going to reduce inequalites long term. Could the money be better spent on delivering proportionate universalism, do you think?

As for sleeping in the box - sleeping in their own beds in a room with their non-smoking, non-drinking parents is certainly safer. Do you think that they could have directed resources at increasing, rather than decreasing, the number of parenting interventions? How will they ensure that babies who would normally co-sleep will sleep in the box without this level of intervention and education?

I'll tell you why it bothers me:

because nobody, but nobody, in the British isles is lacking for cultural representation and content in the medium of English, and therefore the hue and cry when other languages are used is unseemly at best;

because, despite the protestations on this thread, anyone who can read english can get the gist of the poem;

because by protesting about the use of Scots, you are 'othering' that language;

and, most obviously, because in living memory children have been beaten at school for using Scots, and the negativity towards it is both a product of that and a thoughtless and heartless further abuse.

Oh and also because it is just so crass to moan at other people speaking, or writing, or producing art through languages which you don't speak. Its like 'Brit abroad' syndrome only applied at home.

Do you think that they could have directed resources at increasing, rather than decreasing, the number of parenting interventions?

OK, firstly, you cannot argue that a policy is wrong simply on the basis that more is required: more is always required. I would welcome more resources being put into parenting interventions, just like I welcome the boxes.

Secondly, do you think this level of outcry is occurring in the English NHS in areas where baby boxes are coming in? People may be of different opinions regarding baby noxes, but is that really what is going on in this thread?

Secondly, co-sleeping is not the big bad wolf you know. Probably best for another thread though.