It is most certainly positive and a sign of progress that we have so many services in this Country to support parents in the nurturing and raising of our children.  It is brilliant that we have free schools, practically free childcare and as it were free after-school services and this not to mention the Breakfast club and a myriad of other opportunities that parent’s and guardians can attest to. 

Up until a couple of years back we could only bank on our family members.  Those who had limited support were unable or found it difficult to cope with a job or career.  But communities change.  The demographics are what they are and the writing was on the wall.  Less and less nanniet are ready to take on the burden of fostering their nephews and nieces even because they still work and have career aspirations of their own.  Policy makers, rightly so, read the signs of the times and addressed the issue expediently.  We now have an encompassing system which is complimenting or at least starting to address this matter of child care in lieu of parent care. 

This is heartening. 

By and large we have moved in the right direction but like everything else in life, there is always another facet to the story.

Nevertheless, what I sense has happened in these last years is that we are taking the generosity of free welfare and our educational system for granted.  Let’s face it, we do tend in this Country to rake in all that looks free of charge when such an opportunity beckons, ‘la b’ xejn hux’.

In fact, I am starting to detect a surge of parents and guardians who seem to be taking a short-cut when it comes to caring for their offspring.  When you talk with heads of schools and other professionals you tend to get similar reactions like mine. Many tell you that they are noticing many parents who opt out of their responsibilities and offload the care of their children onto the system.  It has become a comfortable commodity to shirk off obligations and place the onus on the establishment. 

This is where it starts getting byzantine. 

The structures should be there to provide for and support and not to replace what is the duty of the parents. Child care should first and foremost be the responsibility of parent’s, yes possibly complimented by services.  But what is happening is that there is a growing number of children who are starting to be left at the mercy of the State - for hours on end.  Child care and related services, if used viciously, can become dangerous. 

It really doesn’t make sense to me that we are witnessing a situation where there are children who are being ‘abandoned’ (yes I am using this term conscientiously) at the free Breakfast Club services, stay for school or at child care and might also be left at the Klabb 3-16.  This entails close to 10 hours of enforced institutionalization for a growing number of children.  This is atrocious, especially when it becomes a habit or a pattern rather than a situation served by a need.  This in my opinion is reprehensible, unless it is required because life circumstances are dictating such a need. It is unacceptable, way too costly for the State and not good for the children to be placed unofficially ‘in care’.  That is why we need to have a debate around more family friendly measures and work-life balance. Neo-liberal societies risk turning us into servants of dosh and coinage.  We have raised our expectations in terms of prosperity but at the same time we have removed the children from the formula.    

Needless to say that an important question that we need to ask but refusing to do so is; ‘how are these services impacting on children, their wellbeing and their development?’ 

‘In these centers do we have the right type of staff that can sense how relationships are developing between these children and their carers?’

‘Do we have professionals with enough knowledge to sense whether the impact of these services is creating a ‘distancing’ between parents and children and potential separation anxiety?’

‘Do we have trained specialists to help parents reconcile their work and career charges with those of their caring?’ 

All research points towards the fact that a positive family environment is irreplaceable and will always have a major role in the child’s development.  Not only that but whilst every effort is being made for our child care centers, both private and state run, to achieve high standards, yet we need to face the fact that there are complex issues to contend with.  Whilst our practitioners in the field are more proficient we might be missing the fundamentals in terms of relationships and bonding. 

To give just one example:  Needless to say that parents and children need to have quality and quantity time together.  Is this the case or are we just being fed the myth that it is fine to have only limited time with children we refer to as ‘quality’ time? Wrong, we need both quality and quantity time to allow for conflicts, for resolution of disagreements and for dialogue.  This doesn’t just happen in a jiffy.  Just spending time watching Jurassic Park and then sending children to sleep does nothing to the connection.  Now, in this case shouldn’t the State feel duty bound to create situations to allow for positive parenting.

But there is still a long way to go. 

I would say that how things stand, even though the Social Care Standards Authority is doing good work and monitoring the myriad services we have, I believe the service we are giving is still ‘fair’, that is somewhere between ‘poor’ and ‘good’.  This can be said for the type of equipment there is, the training of staff, the support services and the link with parents, to name just a few issues. 

But what we are short of above all is the rationalizing of the services and their impact on children.  In my opinion progress is not about aborting the past by simply bringing in new customs but about transitioning and linking old with new.   In other words, keeping what is good without having to dismiss what worked. 

But the moral of the story is that children remain, or rather should continue to be first and foremost the responsibility of their parents and their guardians.