Rescuing a lost generation
Article from: Sunday Herald Sun
Evonne Barry
September 28, 2008 12:00am
AUSTRALIA is failing its children as obesity and mental illness rise to crisis levels. Child-health expert Prof Fiona Stanley tells Evonne Barry parents must put their children first.
PROF Fiona Stanley is feeling nostalgic – for Australia’s polio epidemic.
The viral disease that killed and crippled thousands of people in the 1950s is beginning to look like small fry, fears the 2003 Australian of the Year.
Even scarier, she says, is the complex set of problems facing today’s children, including mental illness, obesity, diabetes, allergies and substance abuse.
“This is going to sound a bit flippant, but give me a polio any day,” said Prof Stanley, an internationally renowned child-health expert. “Get the vaccine, give the vaccine, polio gone.
"Suicide and mental health? Complex. Diabetes, obesity? Complex. Smoking and alcohol in kids? Complex. It’s not as if you can get the bug, get the vaccine and it’s the end of the story.
“These problems are complex and they are often caused by long-standing risks that have gone over a generation or two in families. We will not fix these quickly.”
While the extent of them is up for debate, nobody denies the problems worrying Prof Stanley.
She is hoping to spark a national debate about the issue.
Study after study has revealed Australians are getting fatter, with one in four children estimated to be overweight or obese.
Alcohol is compounding the concern, with a third of teenagers binge drinking regularly.
So, too, is mental illness, with one in five children suffering some form of depression before they reach adulthood.
Add increasing rates of type-two diabetes and asthma and the scale of what Prof Stanley calls “modernity’s paradox” becomes clear.
“In spite of this incredible wealth creation, and also our knowledge about children’s development – we know a lot about health and how to get it – why are we doing so badly?” Prof Stanley asked.
“There are a worrying number of threats to children’s health in today’s society and they are worrying from a lot of viewpoints.
“They are worrying because they are very burdensome and many of them are increasing . . . they are worrying because, on the whole, they are getting more complex and occurring at younger ages.
“But if you look at the overall trend in many problems, they are actually showing no improvement. Some of them are getting dramatically worse.
“It’s the paradox of modern society . . . and I want people to ask, ‘Why? Why is this happening?’”
Prof Stanley, named a “national living treasure” four years ago, doesn’t pretend to have answers.
But she says the questions apply across the board.
At one end of the spectrum, the founder of Australia’s Institute for Child Health Research sees poorer parents struggling to provide the basics for their children.
“There’s this increasing group of parents who are just not making ends meet,” she said.
“They don’t have the capacity to be a parent. That may be as high as 20 per cent of the population, when you add in Aboriginal (people) and the most disadvantaged.
“There’s a lot of people who are going to find it difficult to parent.”
Children at the other extreme are missing out, too.
She said the “frenetic” pace of 21st century living, and parents who make work and wealth their priorities, were damaging children.
“We live in an excessively consuming society and that’s really negative,” she said.
“But children don’t actually need a lot. What they need is their parents’ love. They need a roof over their head. They are as happy in the saucepan cupboard as they are with the most expensive educational toy, especially if there’s someone on the floor talking to them about it.”
Prof Stanley said long working hours were costing children.
“We know what’s good for child development and health and wellbeing and that is loving parents who are knowledgeable about children and their development and who have enough resources. And by that I mean time, as well as money,” she said.
“We can’t put the clock back to the 1950s when family was the centre of everything ... but we need to change.”
But the buck didn’t stop with parents, Prof Stanley said. Business and government were as much to blame for the flagging prospects of Aussie children.
“It’s hard to evaluate how much Australia values its children,” she said. “But I think when we’re one of the few OECD countries that doesn’t give universal paid parental leave, what’s that saying about parenting? We don’t care? We don’t care about parents? We’re not going to allow them to have leave so they can actually be a parent?
“The most important job they may ever do in their entire lives and we don’t even let them do that and support them?”
Prof Stanley regularly travels around Australia, from capital cities to the most remote Aboriginal communities, promoting her cause.
A prime ministerial adviser, she will appear in an ABC documentary called Risking Our Kids that will screen on October 7.
But later this year, Prof Stanley’s professional concerns will become personal – when she becomes a grandmother for the first time.
Her daughter Hallie, the oldest of two children with her husband, Prof Geoffrey Shellam, is due
to have a baby in December.
“If we don’t respond to these challenges and start to really seriously address them across the whole nation, in every state and territory – across the whole world really – then we will be looking at our generation, my generation, as the last generation that lives longer than its parents,” Prof
Stanley said.
TWIN AIMS
Bradley and Jackson Robb, 10
RAISING twins is all about family for single mother Toni Robb.
“Their dad passed away when the boys were three, so it’s been hard,” Toni says.
“The milestones, such as birthdays and first days at school, are emotional times.
“But I’m lucky to have a lot of family support. I have brothers and brothers-in-law who are very good male role models.”
Sport is another big influence in the lives of Bradley and Jackson, who won their first football grand final this season.
But even footy has presented its problems, admits Toni, a childcare worker.
“All that stuff with Ben Cousins last year was tough to explain.”
ACTING TALENT
Helet Kalay, 9
THE teens are the danger period for child-rearing, mother-of-two Tisge Abarha believes.
“That’s when it gets stressful because you don’t know what your kids will be exposed to,” she says. “My kids do a lot of different activities.”
Helet is doing the school holiday program at the Kensington Community Recreation Centre – and she is a budding actor.
The grade 4 student at Williamstown Primary has scored a role in the Nicolas Cage movie, Knowing, being filmed in Melbourne.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Rona Lim, 8
NENA Parinas makes good nutrition a priority for her children, Rona, 8, and Jarrod, 10. Despite her children’s good health and waistlines, Nena says the obesity crisis was no surprise.
“When we were kids we didn’t know meat pies and fried chips, but now that kind of food is everywhere,” she says.
“Even as a full-time working mum I make dinner every night. It’s important. But I don’t blame the parents who can’t.”
Nena, an accountant, says the years of innocence in childhood are fewer now.
“You have to start talking about sex and violence and things like that earlier.”
JUNK FOOD BAN
Victoria Waid, 10
SWIMMING, Girl Guides, music and karate are all in the mix for active grade 5 student Victoria Waid.
“We encourage all of our children to get involved in things outside of school,” Saville Waid says.
“It gives them the ability to make decisions later in life.”
As a GP and father of four, Dr Waid has additional insight into the current generation of children.
“Exposure to junk food is a problem, but we’re lucky that there is an emphasis on sport and activity in Australia,” he says.
TOP 10 PARENTING TIPS
1 Spend time with your children
(apart from watching TV).
2 Be consistent. Follow through
with your rules and punishment.
3 Set appropriate boundaries, such
as curfews and TV viewing times
– and stick to them.
4 Monitor internet use and TV
viewing, especially with younger
children.
5 Be a parent, not a best friend.
6 Remember knowledge does
not equal emotional intelligence.
Today’s children have access
to more information than past
generations, but do not assume
they are any wiser.
7 Hug and praise your children
often.
8 Pick your battles and do not
sweat on the small stuff.
9 Remember you are your
children’s most powerful and
influential role model.
10 Try your best, but don’t expect
to be a perfect parent.
Relationships Australia
counsellor Michael Muldoon.
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