In Apia, Samoa, children are used to win sympathy by some street vendors. Parents are using their children as a bait to win people’s sympathy, says Security’s Officer, Aloi Perosi. “That’s why many of them are out here at a very late hour,” he says. “It’s not about selling goods. It’s about people feeling sorry for them and then giving them Read more
In nine years I have been graced with three children and here is what I have learned about them. They are engines of incalculable joy and agonising despair. They are comedy machines. Their language is their own and the order of their new halting words has never been heard before in the whole history of Read more
Nearly half of university educated women aged between 32 and 46 are career driven and are childless, a study has revealed. Research carried out by the Center for Work-Life Policy – a New York-based think-tank – has revealed that 43 per cent of university-educated women from Generation X were childless. This is despite about three-quarters Read more
On Wednesday a programme began to help Christchurch children and teenagers deal with the emotional impact of the ongoing earthquakes. The programme is being offered to schools and community groups in Christchurch and other cities to which Christchurch children have relocated, with funding support from Catholic social justice agency Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Caritas has contributed $12,500 Read more
“Divorce is a hard path, a long, circuitous journey that is not something you can control. You open the door and walk through it, thinking you will go to destination ‘x’ only to find out that it was just an illusion, that destination ‘x’ is only visible from inside the marriage and that once you Read more
UK Prime Minister David Cameron is backing a range of plans to shield British children from the spread of selling inappropriate clothes to pre-teen children, sexualised imagery in magazines, advertising and music videos. Recommendations in the Bailey Review, “Let Children be Children” include: The Advertising Standards Authority to discourage placement of billboards with sexualised imagery Read more
A new parliamentary bill that creates a new offense with a maximum of 10 years in jail for failing to protect a child or vulnerable adult from serious harm by a member of the same household as the victim has passed its first reading. Speaking to the Bill Simon Power said “We need legislation that gives a Read more
A Canadian couple are defending their decision to keep the sex of their child secret and in time let the child choose its gender. “If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs,” Storm’s father, David Stocker said. The couple, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, have decided to raise Read more
Is bullying the worst thing? Sure it’s unpleasant and can have terrible consequences but that’s not really what I want to focus on. I want to put forward a small counter argument in the midst of a complex issue. Of course bullying is bad – and yes Aotearoa has a problem with bullying – but Read more
In a report issued on 21 March The Commissioner for Children, John Angus, says that “in an ideal world care at home by parents or extended family is in the best interests of infants under one-year-old and has suggested that parents should be subsidized to stay off work and spend more time with their children during Read more