Family Values

The temptation to relive our lives through our children is rarely far from our minds when considering their future. How easy is it to remember the fleeting thoughts that went through our young minds, and to wish that someone had taken the trouble to guide us in that direction? Maybe then our lives would have been different. Maybe then our boat would have found its way home.

In truth, our children are not us. Many of us see the birth of a child as a stab at immortality, yet how can this be? If we indeed live on in our children, we would all be the same, have the same thoughts, views, morals. Yet we are as diverse as we are unique. Products of the unions formed around us. Products of the individual parents and generations before them. As parents ourselves it is our duty to help our young to become the best they can, and to form the judgements and opportunities that will shape them to be exactly what they should be, what they are destined to be.

It is a sad fact of life that we are slowly losing touch with one of the most valuable resources in the world for raising a family. The family unit itself. In the hustle and bustle of today’s society we are less likely to stay in touch with parents and grandparent. The very people who shaped and inspired us through our early lives are now cast aside, their ideas and views rendered meaningless in our quest to build a better life. The people who taught us that it is possible to make a better life for yourself, that there is no longer a need for you to starve or watch your family suffer, that you can not only reach for the stars but touch them, are no longer relevant to us. Their views are old and decrepit, their values, family values, long since laid to waste.

Perhaps the downturn in global economy will turn our family values around? Who knows? Perhaps we might now begin to see that the quest for more money; bigger houses; better cars, came at the greatest cost of all, the cost of our families. Perhaps now we will have the opportunity, born from the futility of gathering unnecessary trophies, to give our children what they really need, our attention.

As a child the world is full of mystery. Everything around you is new and waiting to be explored. As an adult we can clearly see the differences between right and wrong and we can clearly make our choices based on assumptions, lessons and experience. As an adult, we have a duty to pass this information, un biased, on to our children. When given the facts a child will normally make the right decision, a far more moral decision than most adults. If you offer a child an opportunity and give them the full details of the consequences of their decision, the decision will be the one that the child is most able to live with.

For instance, should our child decide that, after playing a certain play station game, he would like to become an assassin, many of us will recoil at the idea and try to talk him out of it. Is this the best decision? Is it not wise to furnish him with the details of exactly what an assassin does? The implications of taking a life. The devastation reaped on an entire family when the target is reached? Perhaps the child is displaying an interest in weaponry and the only outlet he has found thus far is through the assassin game. We could discuss other opportunities with him, like joining the army, who only ever take a life for justice, whilst focusing on keeping a peaceful world as a priority.

There is a need to pick up on the myriad of diverse interests in the childs life in order to help him to make his own decisions through life. A child rarely focuses on jus one thing and most will show an interest in sports and arts as well as building, mechanics etc. Perhaps now that we are to be faced with less opportunity to work we can now use our time more fruitfully to guide our children through the most critical time of their lives, helping them to sift through their interests and to see where their aptitudes and talents lie, affording them a better future.

Expensive Claims

Appalled as we all are about the latest scandal to hit the UK Government regarding expenses claims, the media has followed close on its tradition of blowing the story out of proportion.

Perhaps Barbara Follett has claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her London home, however, what the media do not headline is the fact that this claim was over the course of four years.

This does not make it any more acceptable, and I do not applaud the actions of Members of Parliament for their excessive claims, indeed, the same minister is accused of claiming £528.75 for the repair of a Chinese needlepoint rug. The amount claimed was seen to be excessive and the payment she received was a little more than half the amount.

In this day and age, where those who pay the salaries, and face it, the tax payer does pay the salary of each and every member of the House of Commons, how arrogant must these people be to lavishly spend our tax, while increasing the amounts we are required to pay, not only through income but in hidden taxes such as motor tax; petrol etc? How arrogant must they be to announce billions of pounds of borrowing they expect to be necessary to keep the country afloat in the near future while continuing to waste money lining their own pockets or lavishly trailing the entire cabinet around the country in a last ditched effort to win the vote of waning constituents?

While I agree it is the role of the media to alert the country to, what in the private sector would be deemed fraudulent claims, I would like to see a more honest approach to their articles, such scandals need no dressing up, they already come with bells and baubles.

Our Government aught to be ashamed, perhaps it is time for a change, but who do we change to? Have we not yet learned that all, no exceptions, parties are prepared to lie through their back teeth to be elected and that once they reach No. 10, we, the voting public, are forgotten for the next four years?