Children are sponges. They soak up influences around them and copy what they see.
“I’m probably more protective than I’ve ever been now that I have children.
My wife’s nickname for me is Red Alert.
I sometimes just check to see if the kids are breathing.”
(Matt Damon)
If you have any advice to pass on to your children, do it while they’re still young enough to think you know what you’re talking about.
Too many youngsters are being brought up by selfish, uncaring parents, and left to vegetate in front of the TV.
Good parents focus on their child’s good points and are great at motivating with praise.
It’s not that they don’t care if their child misbehaves, they stay positive because they know it gets results and that bad behaviour tends to shrivel up from lack of attention.
Often saying something kind is all it takes.
Good parents stay calm and quiet and don’t over-react in a crisis.
If their child is arguing, whinging or shouting, they realize it doesn’t help to get wound up and sucked into the drama.
The hearts of young children are delicate organs.
A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.
‘When I got pregnant, I thought: I’ll never be lonely again.’
(Acress Anna Friel, on becoming a mother)
I hate the question, ‘So, are you going to have children?’
But amazingly I have never had it from my Mum and Dad.
They never put pressure on any of us.
The only answer I have is, ‘If it happens for me – beautiful.’
I’ll have to wait and see.
I love children and I love the thought of having a family.
(Kylie Minogue)
My shoulder always smells of baby sick.
(Myleen Klass)
Somewhere in the world, a child goes blind every minute.
And in Africa, 60 per cent of those who go blind will die within a year, because they can’t look after themselves.
(Sir Randulph Fiennes)
Selfish mothers, obsessed with their hair, make-up and social life are responsible for so many sad, lonely, and angry children.
Home used to be where the heart is, but for some children there is no heart for home because their parents don’t care.
David Cameron says there are children growing up who don’t know the difference between right and wrong.
There are politicians – people we should look up to – with their fingers in the public till who clearly don’t either.
The key, I believe with all my heart, is social mobility.
Children of every background need to believe that hard work will be rewarded.
That if you study at school it will result in higher education and a job.
That – no matter where you come from – it is possible to get up and out if you want it bad enough, and if you work hard enough.
But social mobility is dead in this country now.
Too many have no hope of self-improvement.
There is an Old Etonian in 10 Downing Street who despises the idea of grammar schools.
Because they are unfair. Just like life, you mean?
I spent the first five years of my life living in a flat above a greengrocer’s shop.
Yet I never doubted I could be anything I wanted to be.
Why did the riots happen?
Because we live with a lot of scum in our midst.
Mark Twain said, it is cheaper to build schools than jails.
But we did not build the schools, and we let the schools we do have rot.
Now we must build the jails.
(Tony Parsons)
There’s a greedy mentality based on self-gratification at any cost.
It’s a disappointing trend that has been growing in Britain for a long time and it bothers me.
My children are little at the moment, but in a few years they’ll want to go out with their friends.
I look at the town nearest to our village and I wonder if I want them going out there, or if there’s somewhere else that would be better.
If it gives my children the chance of growing up somewhere they’ll be happier and safer, it is something I will do.
(Gary Numan)
I have felt bone-chilling fear twice in my life.
The first occasion was while filming a television report about little British-born girls from London’s Somali community being sent abroad to have their genitals mutilated.
They call it female circumcision – an inadequate description of the radical and primitive surgery they’re forced to undergo.
Teachers in their schools had wept as they described bright young pupils of five or six coming back at the end of the holidays in agony and in deep shock, no longer able to manage the lavatory without crying out.
The local Imam, when I challenged him about such a barbaric practice, which he justified as a religious and cultural necessity to ensure their purity at marriage, had steely eyes which bored through me.
‘In the not too distant future’, he intoned, ‘all British girls will be circumcised when Islam rules this country’.
(Jenny Murray)
Half a million overweight children are at risk of deadly fatty liver disease, medical chiefs have warned.
Children aged between four and 14 face the same chronic condition as middle-aged alcoholics.
The illness can lead to an earlier death than cancer or heart disease.
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is caused by a build-up of fat within liver cells, and stops the liver from performing properly.
This can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke and will raise a child’s chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes.
Britain’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said children must exercise and eat healthily.
She said: “It is vital that youngsters and parents are aware of the hidden health risks of being overweight or obese.
Fat is not only stored on our body surface but in and around our internal organs too”.
At last the monstrous myth of ‘ADHD’ and the unspeakable drugging of healthy children is being questioned.
It’s a small start, but the Association of Educational Psychologists is calling for a review into the use of Ritalin on children, many as young as five.
Not a moment too soon.
There are now nearly 700,000 prescriptions being handed out each year in the UK.
Which minister will risk the wrath of the mighty and spiteful Ritalin lobby by launching such an inquiry?
(Peter Hitchens)
Love your children with your heart, not with money and things.
My parents didn’t see their role as indulging us then getting on with their easy lives.
They didn’t have easy lives.
Instead, through their relative hardship, they taught us values.
We didn’t whinge in restaurants because we weren’t taken there.
We didn’t demand a player’s name on the back of the latest football shirt because we didn’t have the latest football shirt.
We didn’t negotiate how many hours we could spend in front of a screen, we were simply sent to bed.
Parents today let their kids believe it is possible to have it all.
And when they try to get it, they are too blind and selfish to take the blame.
The real horror story is that parents today are so wrapped up in their own pleasures they have stopped communicating with their kids.
Is it any wonder they turn to chatrooms for their human connections?
Children need your love, patience and time, not material things.
