Parental Responsibilities

After having just read the case of the two Doncaster brothers who terrorised two other boys I felt prompted to write the following article.


It is some fifteen years ago since I took early retirement from teaching. At that time it was a known fact that during the summer holidays there would be an increase in problems caused by children who had time on their hands and very little, if any, parental supervision. The main problems were what could be construed as mischief making, or, on a higher scale, anti social behaviour. The anti social behaviour was at the lower end of what we now rate anti social behaviour – noise and nuisance rather than out and out vandalism, arson, grievous bodily harm etc. etc.

Most teachers in some of the rougher areas of the city would tell you that they were in effect “policemen” during term time, and they kept the lid on a lot of the potential anti social behaviour. Once their steadying influence during term time was removed (i.e. during the holidays) anti social behaviour problems would escalate.

During my time as a teacher of primary/first school age children, teachers still commanded respect from their pupils. It was still possible, to some extent, to influence the out of school behaviour of pupils. I have even known parents come in to my school and ask me to chastise their offspring because, “I can’t do a thing with him.”

In the intervening years since I took early retirement the world has changed rapidly and more often than not the change has not been for the better. We now seem to have dozens of “agencies” e.g. child support, psychological services, child protection, etc etc. who are there to point the child in the right direction. There is a wonderful conglomeration known in the “trade” as MASS – Multi Agency Support System whereby the police, probation officers, the child protection team, social workers, members of the courts and “Uncle Tom Cobley and all” [to quote the words of the song] are tasked with “protecting the child” – whatever that might mean.

Far too often this multi agency team are sunk under a mass of rules and regulations. Whilst they may well be working with the highest ideals at the forefront of their tasks, they are doomed from the start by the legislation they have to work within. There also seems to be a problems of too few people spread too widely, not enough time to thoroughly become involved with families “at risk”, and a lack of information access between different agencies.

As I have stated on many occasions – It is no good making laws if you do not have the manpower (oops! person power - in this politically correct age) to make sure they are being adhered to.

If a Child Protection Officer, Probation Officer or a Health Visitor wishes to see a child they should be able to drop in unannounced and demand to see the child there and then. No “Ifs and Buts” We bend over backwards to defend the rights of the parents, but what rights are they entitled to if they cannot properly support and bring up their children in a safe and caring environment? What has happened to the rights of the child?

If a Child Protection Officer, Social Worker or Health Visitor is involved with a child (and the child is usually on the Child Protection Register) alarm bells should be ringing at full volume. The mere fact that members of these agencies are involved tells us that there are major problems facing the child, and these are usually within the home environment.

Let’s get back to the root of these problems. If we had parents (and here I mean two – one male and one female – preferably married to each other) who took their parental responsibilities seriously then the vast majority of these at risk children would no longer be at risk.

It seems to me that we are breeding a nation of feckless, sex mad, young adults, who breed like rabbits and shun their responsibilities, and we are supporting their feckless and irresponsible behaviour by our attitudes to supporting them and protecting their rights.