Working mums have the unhealthiest children, research finds

Children brought up by mothers who work are less healthy and more likely to have poor dietary habits and a more sedentary lifestyle, research suggests.

Mothers in full-time work, including those who work flexible hours, were found to have children who eat too few portions of fruit and vegetables, watch more television and consume more fizzy drinks than the children of mothers who stay at home.

The research, published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, involved more than 12,000 British schoolchildren born between 2000 and 2002 who are part of the Millennium Cohort Study. Trends being explored include the rise in childhood obesity and policies that have encouraged women to return to work.

Researchers questioned mothers about the hours they worked and their children’s diet, exercise and activity levels when the youngsters were aged 5. They also asked how long their childdren spent in front of a TV or computer. About 30 per cent (4,030) of the mothers had not worked since giving birth but the rest (8,546) were employed. On average they worked 21 hours per week and for 45 months.

Catherine Law, of the Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, told The Times the analysis showed that mothers who worked full-time had the unhealthiest children, followed by those who worked part-time.

Making use of flexible working arrangements while in full-time employment did not appear to improve a child’s habits, she added. “We have seen the rising rates of childhood obesity and the rise in initiatives to get women back to work, and that is what this research explores,” Professor Law said.

The latest research backs findings from 2007 in the Millennium Cohort Study suggesting a possible link between parental working habits and child health — suggesting that children at the age of 3 were more likely to be overweight if their mothers worked. Both studies took into account factors that might influence the results, such as socioeconomic background, single-parent families and household income.

Researchers on the latest paper concluded that with approximately 60 per cent of British women with a child aged 5 or younger in employment, more support was needed. “For many families the only parent or both parents are working. This may limit parents’ capacity to provide their children with healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity,” they said. “Policies and programmes are needed to help support parents.” and create a health-promoting environment.”

Professor Law said that while the work did not prove a causative link between maternal work and child health, it showed a definitive association which needed to be considered by policymakers.

She said that factors requiring further investigation included the quality of childcare, such as agency standards and care provided by grandparents or other relatives.

Other areas for investigation included whether the link was associated with children’s habits while the mother was at work, or whether it might be a consequence of the time pressures on parents’ when back in the home, she added.

She said: “Many working mums will recognise the challenges [identified in the study]. Every mother wants to ensure the best for their children and going to work may help that.

“This is not a single factor, but it does appear to contribute. What policymakers need to understand is that what might be a solution to some issues may create others. There are upsides and downsides.” continues here

Stay-home mums' returning to work could resent migrants, warns equalities chief

Mothers who stay at home will be among those who resent immigrants the most as the recession bites, Trevor Phillips warned yesterday. 

The equality watchdog chief said that when such women return to the workplace to balance the family books they could find themselves 'rejected for job after job' in favour of migrants. 

He cited it as an example of when disadvantaged white people may require special help. 

Mr Phillips said: 'We need to look out for the wife or partner with a young child, whose husband may have lost his job, or who fears that he will; or who finds that the bills just don't add up unless she goes back to work. 

'When she applies for work and is rejected for job after job in a slack labour market, yet sees a clever young Latvian or Lithuanian with two degrees and three languages doing the job she'd like to do, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out how she'll feel.  

'And add to that the picture of her child's nursery class, with, as she will see it, an overworked teacher confronted with a class of 30 that speaks 15 languages at home, who will she resent for not having the life she thinks she deserves?' 

Mr Phillips yesterday told the Confederation of British Industry conference that such groups of disadvantaged whites should benefit from 'positive action' in the coming downturn.

But the chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission stopped short of saying the law should be changed to allow positive discrimination. 

It means any extra help would effectively be limited to assistance with training, or gaining a place in education. 

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Phillips also predicted migrants would begin to send home more cash in remittances as they sought to help relatives in other countries gripped by the global financial crisis. 

And he said that while it was no longer racist to debate immigration, the terms must be 'realistic and sober', not 'apocalyptic'. 

Mr Phillips also insisted the UK was not 'full', but needed migration to be better spread around. At present, it is concentrated in London and the South East. 

At the same conference, gaffe-prone immigration minister Phil Woolas finally declared Labour has no plans to place an 'upper limit' on migrant numbers. 

After more than a week of confusion in which he suggested the population would be limited to 70million, Mr Woolas told delegates: 'Let me make it very clear, the Government is not proposing to cap migration. 

'Neither is it looking to set an upper limit on migration, but we need to recognise that the labour market might change.'  continues here

So it’s “no longer racist to debate immigration”, do you know why dear readers, why its no longer racist, because the job is done non-whites predominate many of our cities and the migration they now oppose is largely white. So it is okay, okay now to resist immigration, more especially because, many of these new immigrants hold conservative values, values not dissimilar to those held by the Britain of old.

So we are to hate the “Latvian or Lithuanian” for stealing our jobs, taking ours houses and seizing our assets, yet god forbid we oppose non-white immigration, why then they will release hell itself against you. It would seem to me there is an agenda, a cleverly disguised plan, for we simply cannot have more white people flooding in can we, white people that in many cases hold knowledge of the truth.

Many new arrivals have knowledge of the left when it is undisguised, when it reveals its real face, such an evil ideology soaked in the blood of many, of course for now they rule us, these one time Marxists (sic) for now. Let me make it clear, all immigration be it white or otherwise must cease, we are simply full up however, managed immigration perhaps in the future, is a possibility and certainly immigration of those of similar stock, is imminently preferable to that of peoples inassimilable. 14

Pushover parents to blame for generation of children who 'lack discipline and moral boundaries', says teachers' leader

A decline in parenting skills has created a generation of children without moral boundaries, a teachers' leader has said.

Philip Parkin warned that teachers are increasingly forced to discipline bad behaviour and take on the role of bringing up children because parents too often pander to their demands. 

He blamed the increasing commercialisation of childhood, long working hours, the decline of traditional family structures and the 'shortening of the length of many relationships'.

Mr Parkin, general secretary of the teachers' union Voice, said child-rearing skills may need to become part of the secondary school curriculum to break the cycle of poor parenting. 

In a keynote speech to members, he said: 'Schools are being required to take on more and more of the responsibilities that rightly belong to parents; and to provide more of the stability in children's lives which should be provided by families. 

'There is also a perception that, in general, the skills of parents are declining as one generation succeeds another.'

He added that the 'character of childhood' had changed significantly in 30 years due to new family structures, 'the emphasis on parents going out to work and the consequent perception of the reduced value and worth of the role of full-time parent'. 

The effects in school could be seen in the form of 'low-level disruption', 'cheek' and 'inattention'. 

'In my last ten or 15 years in school I saw a significant decline in parenting standards,' said Mr Parkin, who was deputy head at Old Clee Junior School in Grimsby until two years ago. 'Somehow we have got to break this downward spiral of parenting skills.' 

He said he has sympathy for today's parents who have to cope with more pressures than in the past. 'It was much easier being a parent when I was a parent back in the 1970s and 80s than it is now,' he said. 

But he added that the blame for rising bad behaviour must lie with parents as well as a media that promotes inappropriate values and advertisers who use children as marketing opportunities. 'Care for each other, the sense of community we had, the community which cares for its children, I think that has been significantly eroded,' he said. 

'More and more people are self-centred individuals rather than community-minded.' 

Surveys had shown that one third of adults believe children's moral values to be just as strong as their own generation's - which he said is 'worrying'. 

Mr Parkin accused ministers of making the problem worse by emphasising parents' rights rather than their responsibilities. 

Schools are increasingly being asked to take on duties related to obesity, gang membership and underage drinking. 

'Why aren't parents being asked to take on these responsibilities?' he asked. The presentation at his 38,000-strong union's annual conference in Daventry follows an attack by the Government's discipline tsar, Sir Alan Steer, on a 'greedy culture' contributing to youth violence. continues here