Showing posts with label family life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family life. Show all posts

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Clegg Clobbers the Traditional Family

MAIL ONLINE: New rights for flexible parental leave / Grandparents to get more rights when couples split / Crackdown on ads and marketing aimed at children / Labour's child tax credit scheme scaled back / Move to protect playgrounds and playing fields

Nick Clegg today vowed to end the tradition that sees mothers do the lion's share of looking after children by giving fathers the right to far more flexible leave.

The Deputy Prime Minister attacked the 'measly' two weeks he was given when his third son was born as he gave a major speech on the family.

And he insisted the whole premise that mothers will be the main carers should be destroyed in what amounts to a revolution of parents' rights.

A new Childhood and Families Ministerial Task Force will look at the best way to re-balance the family set-up.

In a speech to the Barnado's charity in central London, Mr Clegg said: 'Many couples find it enormously difficult to strike the right balance between work and home.

'Traditional arrangements that see mothers take the lion's share of leave simply don't suit everyone's needs.

'I know from my own experience - my own measly two weeks off following the birth of my third son - how frustrating it is for fathers who want to spend more time with their young children.

'Breaking down the old, outdated attitude to who-should-give-up-work-when is hugely important for men, hugely important for women but most importantly, children benefit enormously from having both parents actively involved from day one.' Clegg vows to end tradition of women doing bulk of parenting by offering flexible leave for dads >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, June 17, 2010

Friday, September 19, 2008

Vatican Message to Islam: Work Together to Strengthen Family Life

CATHOLIC CULTURE: Each year the Vatican releases a message to Muslims at the beginning of Ramadan. This year's message -- signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, the president and secretary, respectively, of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue -- notes that "Christians and Muslims can and must work together to safeguard the dignity of the family."

"Given the high esteem in which both Muslims and Christians hold the family, we have already had many occasions, from the local to the international level, to work together in this field," the statement notes. The Holy See has frequently joined with Islamic countries to promote pro-family policies in international organizations. [Source: Catholic Culture] | September 19, 2008

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

More evidence that the West is losing its way: Now we don’t know what the perfect wife is. Little wonder that Western civilisation is in trouble

Being a perfect parent is now deemed more important than being a good spouse. Our correspondent tries to define what makes the ideal partner

The millionaire founder of Kwik-Fit, Sir Tom Farmer, was recently asked to give his best piece of advice for becoming a business success. His answer was simple: find a good wife. “I know it sounds romanticised but it’s true,” he said. “The most important person in my life has been my wife.”

Undoubtedly, many people will find this sentiment romantic. A good many more might be confused. What exactly does a good wife mean these days? Is it someone who stays at home to raise the children, or who shares the financial burden by going out to work? A high-earning glass-ceiling breaker or a yummy mummy who keeps a well-stocked fridge? In February the Office for National Statistics told us that the number of couples choosing to marry has dropped to its lowest for 111 years, and divorce rates remain high. “Good” wives and husbands are apparently thin on the ground. The Good Wife’s Guide, published by Housekeeping Monthly in the 1950s, advised women to put a ribbon in their hair as they served their husbands’ evening meal — a suggestion that most modern women would deem to be insulting — while a 1958 edition of Housewife magazine invited them to take part in a “How good a wife are you?” quiz. Yet the guide at least set out exactly what was expected of wives. As the author Marilyn Yalom says in her book A History of the Wife: “To be a wife today, when there are few prescriptions or proscriptions, is a truly creative endeavour.”

Some experts believe that as modern life becomes more demanding, what defines a good partner has not only become obscured but has been pushed down the pecking order. So much emphasis is now placed on being a Good Parent that being a Good Spouse comes a poor third after a) the children and b) the job. Marital conversation is reduced to “Have you got the juice?” “Yes, have you got the wipes?” The advice given by her mother to Jerry Hall that to keep a man a woman must be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom seems ever more quaint now that housework is increasingly outsourced, food is fast and marriages become increasingly sexless (witness the emergence of books for the sexless marriage with titles such as Okay, So I Don’t Have a Headache, I’m Not in the Mood and For Women Only, which lists techniques that wives use to avoid sex). Has the race to raise the brightest child, get him/ her into the best school, ferry him/her around to the highest number of improving activities actually put marriage under strain?

Val Sampson, an author and a couples counsellor, has launched relightmyfire.org, a website dedicated to helping couples to find their passion again and make each other a priority. She says: “I see a lot of people who have lost sight of fact they are a couple and see each other only as Mum and Dad. Women in particular get a lot of affection energy from a child. They turn to the child for cuddling, touch and sensual needs. They become almost absorbed by the child. It is like a grenade exploding in a marriage.” In search of the good wife by Carol Midgley

Mark Alexander