One in four Britons

Yes they did and still do.. However, schools are taking on responsibilities which they shouldn't..

Last year a school issued birth control pills to a 13 year old without her parents being informed or without their consent..

Thankyou for mentioning the PC brigade.. They are a bane on today's society..

One other thing is that many parents are "shifting" their responsibilities of child rearing to the teachers. This should not be the case. Schools are there to teach, not to act as surrogate parents..

Have to disagree with you Alexa. I think things were different. Parents were much more hands on than they are today. And children had to use their imagination to keep themselves busy. Parents can still put their foot down, many of them simply choose not to. Its just easier to stick the kids in front of the telly or whatever than spend a few minutes with them stirring their creative juices.

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Alexa I have to say that I really do think it's different. In the culture I was raised to be a just a housewife and mother was not honored but frowned on. A real woman was supposed to have a family and a career-she should do it all. (remember that commercial I can bring home the bacon? I think it was a perfume commercial)I've listened to other students say I'm 100% mother, wife, job profession and full time student and I'm thinking eh? Are there 4 of you? My father was raised by two parents (grandma was awesome) I was raised by him barely (not awesome)so when I had by daughter me and hubby decided one of us would always be home for her. I'm proud of that decision....

I remember mud pies but I never even thought of eating it! I remember truth or dare! Treehouses! I remember falling out of trees....how did I make it with no broken bones?

Children would argue that parents now do better by them - But in the good old days (70s), children had imagination to play with rather than electronic toys. You could make belief a stick was a gun. Now the same stick would be branded a health hazard and burned to add to our greenhouse problem.

Kids back then used to eat worms and dirt - this was all part of growing and learning, and probably helped us from getting some of the piss poor ailemnts that kids complain about these days.

We would jump from swings and slides. Now they have to put soft flooring in in case they should fall and hurt themselves, and if, god forbid, that soft floor ain't there, well sue the b*stards!

Goddamn Nanny State.

Phew, glad that's of my chest!

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Baldrick - Qatar's answer to Google ;o)

typical of the idiots and thickos in the UK....

Be a good lad and pass an old lady her cane....

I sometimes feel it has a lot to do with one parent trying to raise a family by themselves and not getting the help they should have from their society or two parents working. Society and government factors unsupportive towards the family (unlike Scandinavia who supports it)

Mills & Boon :o)

I shared a house witha lady who used to get them delivered in a brown unlabeled box...

I fully agree with you.. Reading is integral to the growth of a child.. It helps broadens his/hers horizons..

My little boy loves playing on my 360 or Psp, but he also loves to draw, colour and do jigsaws.He loves building Lego as well.

It is our resposiblity to ensure our kids grow up knowing right from wrong and whos who.

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NIL ILLEGITIMI CARBORUNDUM

It is these one in four thickos who'll complain about immigrants coming in and taking their jobs.

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." —Groucho Marx

70's, 80's....oh dear....is Qatar just one big retirement home? ;)

I think a lot of parents today leave parenting to everyone and everything but themselves. I was forced to read two books (I loved Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys as well haunted, HATED Mills & Boon, yuck) a week which grew on me. I HAD to write in my journal. I had to have have discussions with my Dad about the hunger in Ethiopia etc and my treat at the end of the day was not some TLC with my PS or whatever was there at the time but a bedtime story of the classics or traditional folklore from Daddykins. It all just became habitual.

Come to think of it, I wonder if it wouldn't be easier for me to just stick my future kid in front of Cartoon Network all day. Kudos to parents like Alexa who do find the time to make sure their kids lead enriched lives, in all aspects.

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I think you are a very good parent who realises the importance of balance in lifen and education for children..

Sadly, I believe you are becoming a minority now..In the West especially, parents are very busy trying to provide for their children, that many don't get the time to spend quality time with the kids and ensure these aspects. Kids are left to their own devices..

Agreed . 70's was a great decade.. Great music, tolerance, people were expressive of opinions, stood up for what they believed and I remember it vividly..

Good Times..

don't worry QT..they got PALIN to occupy their curiosity now :)

...It gets tedious after a while!

lol

why are these Brits in the limelight lately?! everything that has been going on in the media has involved some brit somewhere along the road!!

Bell bottoms, Bay city Rollers, no computers, running around all summer barefoot, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mysteries, fondue fridays, Three's company, Queen, blue jeans, stories around the camp fires that really did scare the hell out of you! If one could move back in time I'd be packing my things....

It was legendary, all of it, from the opening sequence, to the two guys in the royal box, to all of it... Brilliant! (I'm David Brenting again...)

Oh and the king, animal WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAA! He had that fuzzy eyebrow, twisted mind kind of innocense....

I'm an old Scooby fiend....

Kids need The Muppet Show, how brilliant was that!

hahahahahahahaa....kids of today need to have their TV's, PS's and all that JUNK turned off.

Shame!

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you don't put it all on Blair though right? That would be like blaming all American's troubles on Bush. (one man with the world on his shoulders?) Was The God Atlas real then?

The British school here has sparked my American born to love history. She gave a small talk on the train from Istanbul to Stara Zagora on the great empires to two college kids from the States. There is hope.

What bothers me is that it seems like imagination is dieing because the brain isn't allowed to explore. (over-riding screen entertainment: TV, computer, playstation...)

:(

Children need to be weaned oiff play staions, Xboxes and directed again to libraries..

This one I really REALLY need to reiterate to every people of the world!!!

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Agreed. Then he began to believe his own hype and his PR men and advisors led him astray..

Children need to be weaned oiff play staions, Xboxes and directed again to libraries..

...in his first 6 months in office!

LOL

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

This shows that teens are moving away from reading books and that school curriculi need to be modified..

Its a sad state of affairs where kids don't know the difference between fact and fiction..

In fifty years , they'll say that Maggie Thatcher was a fictional character and Tony Blair was a decent PM..

somehow, I can believe those stats! :(

That was an easy one, Abu. Now, what about George Washington?

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

I wonder what the Americans would say about John Wayne. Historical or a Hollywood by-product?

Winston Churchill?