[lettie]

Originally Posted by accymel

family itself have changed, grandparents dont always want the active part of grandparenting, or live far away etc, leaving the strain of parenting to either partnerships or single parenting, not everyone is lucky to have that support or have a that network around them. Its about time the gov woke upto the fact the neuclear type family has changed & now it involves all kinds of differnet family units that are reconised & supported, then maybe children will have a better future regardless, but is someway to go.

You have hit the nail on the head here... When we were kids, there were very few families who didn't live in the same community as their extended family. As times moved on and jobs got scarcer people had to separate in order to find work, sometimes in different towns, sometimes in different countries. The extended family were always a support system that struggling parents could turn to but it seems that there are far fewer families with that support network in place these days. Many of the women who I've looked after have no family here to help them. Their other half is out working all day and their parents, siblings, aunts etc may all live miles away. Where is the support??

The government may want to put some sort of support system in place but even by chucking billions at the problem with Surestart, free nursery places etc, this can in no way replace the family network, cannot cater for everyone and is limited by financial constraints.