PUSHING THEM AWAY
I have been pursuing different avenues to draw attention to the disadvantages of forward-facing pushchairs.
There is great concern at the moment about poor communication between parents and their children. This style of pushchair completely separates the child and the parent. There is no eye contact, and certainly no rapport, and the child is oblivious to who is pushing them along.
I cannot understand how a new parent does not want to see as much as possible of their beautiful infant, and to talk, smile and just marvel at this wonderful new life in front of them. To face the child while travelling along is a heaven-sent opportunity to bond, and to familiarise the child with its parent.
Sadly, what one sees today is a young mother pushing the child they cannot see, talking on a mobile phone, often smoking and chatting to another young mother doing the same. This is a very selfish attitude. One wonders why they have brought this new life into the world.
I suggest that there should be an educational programme introduced in post-natal groups so that an informed decision can be made about the purchase of equipment. Also some pressure should be put on manufacturers so that they promote a different style of pushchair.
Betty Hollinrake, Romford, Essex
Letter of the Week wins £30 worth of books
NOTHING IS FREE
I absolutely agree with Kim Simpson and Anne-Marie True (Letters, 9 October). It doesn't take an economist to work out that no nursery provision, state or private, could offer quality childcare for the £3.20 per hour or so the nursery education grant pays. So it is misleading to call it 'free' education, as the additional costs are borne either by parents paying disproportionately high rates for any hours that fall outside of the 12.5 hours per week that the grant covers, or by additional Government funding for state provisions borne ultimately by the taxpayer.
As we all know, the losses subsidised by the private sector are to be further increased when this 'free' nursery entitlement is extended to two-year-olds, and in 2010, when the minimum entitlement for three-year-olds increases to 15 hours per week over 38 weeks of the year.
The real issue here is not whether the Government is misleading the public by calling it 'free' education, but what effect these interventions will have on childcare in this country. Further financial pressure on an already struggling private sector will simply force more closures and create an extra burden on state provision. With the majority of children's centres already running at a loss, I don't think anyone would feel confident about the state's ability to make up for the shortfall by providing good quality, sustainable childcare.
With the Government's attempts to rescue us from economic collapse by ploughing billions into the banking industry, as well as the millions in council money lost to Iceland, there surely can't be much spare change to go round.
All the more reason to make sure childcare, an acknowledged priority for any sensible government, does not suffer due to shortsighted financial planning. If the Government does not support its own initiatives with realistic funding directly to the private sector, it will find itself with a much bigger bill.
Tom Hackwood, director, Leaping Lizards Day Nursery, London
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Critics of EYFS are not against it in principle, only the 'auditing' form it has taken. Academics are worried about the future, given a Government apparently unable to recognise educational axioms such as developmental appropriacy and protection from stress.
Take potty training: in my days of parenthood, we did this early and the result was, for the parent, frustration, and for the child, anxiety and distress, sometimes trauma. Modern mums have moved on: if you do it when the child is physiologically ready, it happens fast and easily and the child has a real feeling of achievement. So it is with cognitive development. This is why the countries who delay cognitive work until age seven are top of the international league.
Grethe Hooper Hansen, grandmother and teacher, Bath The Editor, Nursery World,
174 Hammersmith Road, London W6 7JP
letter.nw@haymarket.com
020 8267 8402.