After helping gatecrash Back Benches with a bus last night and hearing Madame UNICEF speak, as well as a spread in Bryce Edwards' Daily Political Digest today, I understand child poverty is back in the headlines. Talk of mandatory warning schemes and so forth. Might I add a cautionary warning.
Beware of witch hunts. Remember Peter Ellis and the Christchurch Creche thing. Remember borstals, when the state tried to parent better than the irresponsible parents and bred "the gangs" by accident. Be wary of helicopter parents and Soccer Mums, lest we screw the kids up with Thomas the Fascist Tank Engine philosophies and instil some kind of quadruple reverse psychological bluff on them which ends up throwing them into a new realm of life skills deficit.
