Is the Uk the worst place for a children to grow?

the UK was ranked bottom in a Unicef report on child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

lifestyle.aol.co.uk...

has anybody here brought up children who are unhappy? Do you live in the UK? Is it just a coincidence?

Perhaps if sex education became more gratuitous than the youth would be happier?


[edit on 14-2-2007 by surrender_dorothy]

not a whole lot to work with there, not realy sure what your trying to ask...


But I think the worst place to nurture and care and raise a child has to be in Michigan USA. I lived there for some time and it was a dreadful awefull place that would rob the happiest person of their will to live.

Ive visited the UK before twice and I would have to say that besideds the outward apearance of having to be prudish and proper its a great place to raise a child. The history alone would be invaluable to a childs growth potential.

The source quote is wrong and has obviously been posted by mistake from the OP.
Here's a link to the article from Yahoo:-

uk.news.yahoo.com...
The UK is the worst place in the entire developed world for a child to grow up. According to the UN, Britain has the unhappiest, poorest, unhealthiest and most neglected children of the world's 21 richest nations.

A report shows the UK languishing at the bottom of 40 different indicators for child welfare.

The news will come as a big blow to the Government, which has made halving child poverty by 2010 one of its key goals.

The Unicef report, which the children's charity releases

later today, says the UK lags behind in
terms of relative poverty and deprivation.

Britain also fares poorly when it comes to the quality of children's relationships with their parents and peers, child health and safety, behaviour and risk-taking and young people's own sense of wellbeing.

The country rated higher for educational wellbeing but languished in the bottom third for each of the other measures, giving it an overall placing at the bottom of all 21 countries, along with the US.

The assessment, titled Report Card 7, Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Wellbeing in Rich Countries, is the first study of childhood across industrialised countries, Unicef said.

North European countries dominated the top half of the table, with child wellbeing at its highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Unicef UK executive director David Bull said: "All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions.

"By comparing the performance of countries we see what is possible with a commitment to supporting every child to fulfil his or her full potential."

To me it is certainly noticeable that children/youths are generally unhappy, by the bad behavior of a large majority of them. It's certainly been getting worse in the last few years, just read a UK paper and you'll see the problem.
It still surprises me however that the UK comes out worse. I guess it just prooves the extent of the situation and that alot more needs to be done for young people.

[edit on 14-2-2007 by Xeros]

Well, if you want to brainwash your child in being a good slave for the NWO, UK is the perfect place, along with the USA. Personnally, I won't go to UK until they wipe out their police state, something that won't happen before a hell lot of a time unless a revolution.

Originally posted by Xeros
The source quote is wrong an has obviously been posted by mistake from the OP.

thank you for bringing that to my attention. I was in a rush and didn't bother to read my original post.

To me it is certainly noticeable hat children or youths are generally unhappy by the bad behavior of a large majority of them. It's certainly been getting wose in the last few years, just read a UK paper and you'll see the problem.

[edit on 14-2-2007 by Xeros]

I completely agree with this. Many children are being raised by parents who have no respect for their fellow humans. This in turn rubs of onto their children who take that behaviour to school with them.

And despite the countless anti-bullying campaigns that have been set up the schools have not effectively dealt with the problem. It's up to the school staff that need to realise that what some children might perceive as healthy banter and harmless name-calling can be perceived as much more by the sensitive child. It's this sort of ignorance that has to be eradicated.

However I think that staff are not solely to blame because they next to no power when it comes to discipline. The worst punishment a school can hand out is to expel a child, which in my experience is rare, and how is that going to help matters?

It would take alot of change to improve this situation.

Originally posted by surrender_dorothy

I completely agree with this. Many children are being raised by parents who have no respect for their fellow humans. This in turn rubs of onto their children who take that behaviour to school with them.

However I think that staff are not solely to blame because they next to no power when it comes to discipline. The worst punishment a school can hand out is to expel a child, which in my experience is rare, and how is that going to help matters?

It would take alot of change to improve this situation.

Firstly i think much of the problem is kids raising kids, the uk has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in europe if not the highest. so i agree parents have no respect and kids learn this.

I also agree on your second point where teacher have no power to do anyting except expel a youth, and this is a very reluctant measure to be taken for obvious reasons.
Because of these two reasons i have heard of at least four occassions where teenage boys have attempted to rape or have raped a teacher and added assualts on teachers and students are not that uncommon.

I think the bottom line is there is to much over protection for these youths, i mean you cant even smack them now without fear of "Hard Time" and this is wrong it should be up to the parents, a kid only needs to make an allegation against a teacher and they lose there job never mind trying to restrain a violent! youth.

But saying all this, on the whole things are not that bad but they are getting worst as kids grow with no respect and learn they have enough protection from the law to not have to listen to anyone as there are no real penalties.

Right, well after posting in the second thread about this I realized this thread was the first one to report on it..


I have some thing to say.

The UN should keep its nose out of things it was never intended for.

Well, actually I have more stuff to say.

The following things mentioned, are not things I consider bad.
And I'm sure I'm not alone on this.

..time spent talking, or eating with a parent or parents..
..drunkenness, early sexual intercourse, cannabis-taking..

It seems to me that kids in th UK are a whole hell of alot better off than
kids in other nations, especially the United States.

The nation's high number of single parents and step-families has contributed to the ranking.

So basically, you can't be a good parent unless you live in a
traditional abrahamic household, right..

I think this report was written by a Daily Mail reader. Honestly, the worst place out of 21 of the worlds developed nations? Hmmm....

Granted, there is an anti-social problem, but it isn't actually as bad as the tabloids make out. I live in a City Centre, there is some crime, but noticeably less violent and prevalent than many other places I can think of.

France is obviously worse..After all, don;t they have riots with dissaffected youngster's burning cars?

The US has a serious gun/gang problem.

What do we have?

Hoodies getting pissed in the local park and having a shag... Oh, the shame!

As for anti-social behaviour, well, blame the bloody Government. They take away the Parent's and Schools right's to discipline their children properly and then complain about them not having any discipline!! No wonder the kids have no respect for authority, we're not allowed to be authorative! Bloody Human right's.....

Give 'em a whack, that'll sort them.

Or better yet, ship every kid not in education into the Army. Learn some discipline and a trade whilst their at it, so they are useful, productive member's of society when they come out, rather then the ever breeding population of resource leeches that populate our Council Estates....

I would take any report from the UN with a healthy grain of salt.

Just looking at this article, it's clear that the left-wing UN found that the most left-wing countries in the world are best for kids. What a surprise!

I love the Netherlands, but I can't imagine anyone seriously saying that's the best place on Earth to raise children. It's a land of legal drugs, legal prostitution, etc. A nice place for adults, but hardly ideal in my opinion to raise children.

Originally posted by stumason
The US has a serious gun/gang problem.

Eh, the gun/gang problem isn't as bad in the US as the media makes it out to be.

I mean sure, if you lived in Los Angeles or New York or major cities like that, it might be a concern but in most places its not a really big problem.

Originally posted by XphilesPhan

Originally posted by stumason
The US has a serious gun/gang problem.

Eh, the gun/gang problem isn't as bad in the US as the media makes it out to be.

I mean sure, if you lived in Los Angeles or New York or major cities like that, it might be a concern but in most places its not a really big problem.

There you go, you have proven my point, Thanks

Point being that perception is often very different from reality.

And also, geographical location as well as economic considerations vary wildly, even in a little country like the UK.

We have some bad area's and we have some good. Same with you chap's over the pond.

we're hardly the nation of teenage Gangsta's, or drunken Yob's that some sections of society want to portray us. As it stands, we have excellent education, good opportunities for young people and are generally not that bad.

Placing us at the bottom out of a selection of countries which all have their up's and down's just smacks of an agenda.

I mean, why even bother with these "league table's" anyway, especially when they use unquantifiable data taken from a tiny cross section of society on a narrow range of test criteria.

There are also cultural considerations to take into affect.

How is the question "do you eat with your parent's" have any bearing on how a child is feeling? Maybe they don't like to eat with their parent's.

Maybe the parent's don't get in from work until after the kid's own dinner time? It's not fair to make them wait for food, surely? My own daughter, who is 3, nearly always eat's dinner before me. that is because I do not usually eat until after she has gone to bed. She seem's quite happy to me. I'm always there for her in any case and sit and talk to her.

How is a single parent family any worse than one with two parent's? From my own personal expierience, kid's can be right arsehole's wether they have 1 parent or two. I am a single parent, my daughter seems fine with it. when she's with me, she does miss her mum, but vice versa. Never the less, the is still well cared for, has everything she want's. is well behaved and a happy little monkey.

I don't take much stand in polls at the best of time's, no matter how scientific they are. for one, they assume that a certain demographic group will all think the same. That is wrong. Transposing those finding's onto an entire population and then using it to slam a nation is just a bag of #e.

I don't think there's any significant gang problem in New York City. There does seem to be one in L.A., but they still mainly fight with themselves rather than cause a danger to the general public.

Speaking of NY, it's like the safest large city in the world for like the past 10 years. We rank about the level of some no-name midwestern small farming towns as far as per capita violent crimes.

I think L.A. is much worse, but that place is crazy anyway

All places are great to bring up children if you teach them morals and show them lots of love. Teach them right from wrong. When they are out in public settings they will know what to chose and what to pick and not to pick for a choice.

Then pray it all works out alright.

Originally posted by stumason


There you go, you have proven my point, Thanks

Point being that perception is often very different from reality.

And also, geographical location as well as economic considerations vary wildly, even in a little country like the UK.

yeah, but I never said the UK was a bad place to live. I dont like england, I have ran into too many jerks who would like to fight you over your "american accent." I personally would rather live in scotland or some place like that. The scots are generally well mannered people and I enjoy their culture.

No I personally don't think taking cannabis and having early sexual encounters is a great thing for kids to do.

I was pleasantly surprised seeing some interviews on TV about this where a lot of youngsters said they wished there were more discipline at home and at school, it would make them feel safer. Kids need boundaries.

Children are not adults, teenagers. as much as they might want to be, are not adults either. There's a fine balance between independence and restriction, rights and responsibilities. In the UK we have not been careful enough to maintian that balance and now not only have children who act grown up in all the wrong ways but also a generation of adults that can't grow up.

I'd like to see the de-demonising of words like enforcement and discipline, so we can acknowledge that a smack appropiately administered under the right circumstances is not tantamount to child murder, that 'yoof' despite the way some politicians faun and simper to hear their veiws, don't usually know very much at all plus the realisation that kids are not sacred cows and conversely many of the laws and legislation brought in to protect children and their rights have actually made their world a less protected, more dangerous place for them.

I heard on BBC R4 and BBC R5, the Government defending this survey and claiming that the data was at least 6 years old.

I grew up in the UK, have respect for people and things. I have various god children and the like. The oldest being 10.

All of them, have learnt respect for for their parents, elders and other people. To respect other people's property.

From my experience, the children I know do not fit this survey. What does this say about the data??

Up bringing is something that comes from our parents. If the UK is the worst place for children to grow up, we need to look at ourselves.


I do agree with some of the posts that there is little respect for authority, people and property. The threat of another clip around the ear from my parents was just one aspect of respecting people and things. I gew up in an environment were I was respected and expected to respect other people.

Should we have a license to breed? (another thread I know and I will create it)

Originally posted by stumason
What do we have?

What about those roving gangs of children that rob and assault people at all hours of the night? When I lived there I remember news stories about this, there was even a little nick name for the behaviour, but I can't remember now.

That being said, I would still prefer to raise my kids in London over the L.B.C. anyday.

Originally posted by surrender_dorothy

the UK was ranked bottom in a Unicef report on child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.
[edit on 14-2-2007 by surrender_dorothy]

USA was 2nd last on the list. I don't think it is a coincidence that the 2 countries in the world that are most under NWO control finished bottom on this list. I have lived in UK, and for the most part it is a kip, the people are frighteningly uneducated, I was amazed how many people there can't even spell, the food the average person eats is the worst most god-awful garbage, the beers they sell are horrible, the tv and newspapers are appalingly dumbed-down. And the scare-mongering by the state is everywhere. The people there don't realise how controlled they are, or how corrupt their government is. Some of the larger cities in Uk are horrible places, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester etc

Originally posted by phoenixhasrisin

Originally posted by stumason
What do we have?

What about those roving gangs of children that rob and assault people at all hours of the night? When I lived there I remember news stories about this, there was even a little nick name for the behaviour, but I can't remember now.

What roving gangs of children? You make it sound like there are packs of them lurking in the bushes... Your buying into the media hype that cherry pick one example and present it as the norm.

The only time I have ever been mugged was buy a black male in his 20's. Same as anyone else I know who has been mugged. No Chav has ever dared to say boo to me, let alone actually try and mug me.

Originally posted by phoenixhasrisin
That being said, I would still prefer to raise my kids in London over the L.B.C. anyday.

LBC?

I have been mugged twice. First time by a large group of white trash youth. Second time by two large white men. My friend was recently mugged by a large group of black youngsters. Another friend was mugged and bottled by a large group of young asians. These were all fairly recent as we are all quite young. The point is that all sorts are the problem.

Incidently not one of these incidences resulted in a prosecution. The police are useless.