By Press Release
The love of my life, my enchanting soon-to-be two years old granddaughter, came to stay last weekend. Unlike all the other women I’ve ever known, this one absolutely adores me.
While she was here with her amazing mum, whenever I managed to sit down for two minutes, she would run into the room grab my hand, pull on my arm and demand my immediate attention. Unable to resist, I spent a lot of time chasing her around the house, playing with toys or searching for apparently missing cats. When Monday came, the party was over. I rose early and went off to work, she caught the afternoon ferry back to London with her mum. Despite my unwavering devotion, frankly, I was exhausted; it took me several days to recover and going back to the office was a blessed relief!
Those of us fortunate enough to have grandchildren, or remember our own kids being that small, are well aware how demanding it is to look after them. So how come the government thinks that a professional childcare provider can have just one person looking after five? Do politicians really know so little about caring for children?
If you can find it, the cost of childcare is astronomical. Why didn’t the budget help parents by letting them keep more of their own money, instead of more handouts? Why not allow parents to share tax allowances instead? In my day, no one did childminding as a job; mothers looked after their own small children 24/7 and when they couldn’t, nearby family and neighbours stepped in. When my Mum was in hospital, having my younger siblings, we older ones were cared for by the neighbours, and I hated it!
The existence of feral children, often in gangs, seems to have become a local, national and international problem quite quickly. Kids attacking kids, sometimes even killing them – as we saw again in Germany last week. Could this ugly development be related to the lack of early years care by actual parents?
Looking after children and setting boundaries has always been tough, and we can no longer rely on schools to reinforce home discipline – assuming that still exists. I don’t blame teachers; they no longer enjoy the support or respect of many parents as they once did. On Monday, a young teacher told me that two 9-year-old girls in her class are horrid bullies.
My own kids were born around 20 months apart, and just hours later, I returned to work, as dads did in those days. In the modern world, young people’s earnings bear little relation to the astronomic cost of housing and living. In hindsight, we had it easy, but had my wife returned to work, I think our kids would have missed out. Sure, not every woman wants it, but the choice of being a full-time mum is now a luxury unaffordable to many, and it shouldn’t be.
Aside from childcare, this year’s well-leaked budget was sneaky and unimaginative. The chancellor failed to mention mortgages – up, income tax – up, fuel bills – up, council tax – up, and doesn’t 15 quid, for a packet of fags, seem extortionate? Did you notice his big stick too – alongside new mums, he wants to prod the long-term unemployed back to work. If you have a health issue, expect them to be in touch soon.
Of course, there are bound to be some malingerers. People used to have ‘bad backs’ to avoid work but are there really enough of them doing whatever the modern equivalent is to justify the huge investment in persuading them back to work?
The best budget news was reserved for the seriously well-off. If you have a spare £60,000 a year to put into your already £1 million pension pot, this was a very good budget indeed!