"The Child is Father of the Man," wrote the English poet William Wordsworth. 111. Adults today are as aware as Wordsworth of the importance of childhood experiences that a cherished and well-behaved child has a better chance of growing into a balanced, loving and law-abiding adult than an unloved one. The Children Act of 1989, created to give children much-needed protection against abuse, in the process legalized the ideology: the child comes first.
112. But while the nurturing of self-esteem in children is now accepted as a requisite of their development, the social and economic demands on over-worked, harassed parents often prevent them from putting this theory into practice where it matters most in the home. Indeed, much of the time it seems that parents themselves are suffering a crisis of self-esteem.
Reports show that teenagers are increasingly obese and slothful. They watch on average between four and six hours of television a day. 113. No longer subject to the discipline of the evening family meal-the cradle of manners and civil behavior-one in three people eats his or her dinner in front of the television. The fashion industry is increasingly targeting guilty parents and their demanding children; it is not uncommon to see children wearing designer jeans and the latest trainers that they will soon grow out of.
114. Pre-Christmas toy advertising is designed to strike terror into the hearts of parents and make their children even more demanding and greedy. Every office in the land harbors parents who are exasperated especially by boys who are arrogant, rude, boastful and undisciplined. 115. Many parents are too guilt-ridden or too bewildered by conflicting child rearing advice to do anything other than wring their hands with worry. The language of civil rights has entered childhood. Children as young as six are now so keenly aware of their "rights" that they freely complain of "unfair" treatment by their elders.
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