Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- one Perceptions of childhood
- two Collecting the evidence
- three What’s it like being a child?
- four Growing up, becoming an ‘adult’
- five Influences, controls, and protection
- six Status and respect
- seven Getting along together
- eight A child-friendly society?
- nine Making things better for children and adults
- ten Findings and messages
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
eight - A child-friendly society?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- one Perceptions of childhood
- two Collecting the evidence
- three What’s it like being a child?
- four Growing up, becoming an ‘adult’
- five Influences, controls, and protection
- six Status and respect
- seven Getting along together
- eight A child-friendly society?
- nine Making things better for children and adults
- ten Findings and messages
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
There is vociferous debate about whether or not England is a childfriendly country. On the one hand there is the clear view that we do not really like children all that much. The Mental Health Foundation (1999) writes:
We claim to be a child-centred society, but in reality there is little evidence that we are. In many ways we are a ruthlessly adult-centred society where children are defined almost exclusively in terms of their impact on adult lives.… Our adult-centred society has tried to contain and limit the impact of children on adult life by either excluding them from much of it, blaming them for disturbing it or by admitting them only as designer accessories or treating them like pampered pets.
Hall (2003) discusses adolescence and quotes from Shakespeare's The winter's tale to make the point that things have changed little in this respect:
I would there were no age between ten and three [thirteen] and twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting.
In Beresford's (2002) view, there is a broad “dislike of and discomfort with children in our society” that reflects adult ambiguity about children and inconsistent attitudes towards them. He points to how they are presented simultaneously as ‘wayward’ and ‘innocent’ and how, more than ever before, they are at once urged to grow up quickly but remain dependent.
On the other hand, however, Giddens (1998) writes how:
We now live in the era of the ‘prized child’ ie the young person who gives fulfilment….
Many other very positive views on young people today attest to their achievements and the happiness they bring. In Lott's (2003) view, children's lives these days are rather better than the statistics suggest, and young people themselves have a lot going for them:
They have been liberated from prejudice, are at the centre of family life, listened to, speak their own mind, and protected from cruelty. They are also recognised as consumers and portrayed as ‘clever, powerful and knowing’ by the advertising industry.
He concludes that children these days seem cheerful, “full of beans, of optimism, of creativity and curiosity” and that:
… if this generation is living through hell, then I can only say that it is a hell that the last generation could have only dreamed of.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Children These Days , pp. 103 - 124Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2006