Are our Sprogs unhappy? Seriously?

This morning in the news, an article stating that half a million children are unhappy. This follows on perfectly from my rant the other day about an eight year old having a mobile phone. Children of Britain aren’t unhappy, they are spoilt and greedy. When I was growing up I didn’t have a computer in my room, I didn’t have a mobile phone and I only received my £1 pocket money if I did the chores. One parent confirmed that their offspring is in possession of a PSP, PS3, XBOX, Computer and a Blackberry and still moans that he has nothing to do.

I used to hate it when ‘hims’ would pull the ‘3^rd world’ guilt trip on me, but when it comes to sprogs, I totally believe this trip is essential. Kids in Africa have to go to work at the age of five, they are not always lucky enough to go to school and they certainly do not have the luxuries that British children have, and yet they find a way to be contented – so I’m sorry, but my heartstrings remain completely untugged by the thought of British kids with the wrong trainers, too much time on their hands or too little pocket money.

* places soapbox on the floor and steps up on to it *.

I have to confess, I have as much maternal instinct as a telephone pole - ‘my name is Nu and I probably do hate your children’. I unfortunately do believe that parents can no longer be ‘parents’ without fear of being reprimanded. This crazy PC world we live in, is all about parents and children being friends, that children should not be told off for drawing on the wall paper because they are expressing their creativity, oh and my personal favourite, not telling school kids that they have failed a test, but telling them that they were pass-resistant. When I was growing up, I knew that if I misbehaved in a supermarket, I would be told off. If I pulled a hissy fit saying that I wanted two toys instead of one, I would end up with nothing. I always knew that my parents loved me, that they would do anything for me, but at the end of the day they where the boss; this does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that I wasn’t a petit-bugger, because I was, but as time went on, I finally started to connect the dots and realised what the ‘rents said was pretty much the end of that conversation (…well, this was until I hit my teens anyway – but then all bets are off as a widely acknowledged rule).

My friends three year old rules her house – he decides that he does not wish to attend the school she has enrolled him in and declares that he is off to his childminder; he instructs her, that she will not be taking the birthday cakes, that she’s brought, into work, as he wants to give them to his school friends and in addition to these little gems, he likes to announce that she should lose weight because ‘mummy has a fat bum’ (this last one is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard, as my friend has a figure to die for…and even if she didn’t, why would a three year old know this?).  Not having children, not wanting children and generally being sprogaphobic I can’t really get my head around this. He is three! What does he know at that age?

On the news today they were saying about making the decisions with your child and yes, for some things I can see the logic in this, but seriously there is one brutal fact that the world is missing – the parent is the adult!!!