Petition: Give legal right of contact between grandchildren and grandparents

You're right Iam that real world issues were there for previous generations, we certainly weren't unaware in the 60's and 70's when we were growing up.

You are 100% correct Iam. I know this from both my own experience as a teacher working in a ‘difficult’ area, and from the experience of another member of my family who works alongside these types of families.

VioletSky

In what ways do you think current parenting is making mental health worse in children?

Personally I would say it is the impact of real world issues, not how they are parented...

There is an increase in mh problems in adults and children. When I started work with families in the late seventies, substance misuse or dependence were rare, by 2012 they were in most families involved with support services. Drug/alcohol dependence leaves parents unable to consistently meet their children’s needs.
Real world issues were definitely there for previous generations. Poverty, wars, unemployment and other stresses. Parenting and family life plus school are key factors in children’s mental psychological and emotional health
- more influential than real world issues

Agree Smileless.

I suppose a lot will depend on what they're accessing on their 'phones maddy. When ours were younger, we were very mindful of the amount of time they spent playing computer games and watching tv. It must be even harder to manage with mobile 'phones.

I don’t know whether I agree or not, but my husband regularly says that children on phones all the time is what’s damaging their mental health. He’s an ex teacher of teenagers. I think that it’s more complex than that, but I think he’s got a valid point. Also the number of children who are victims of extremely unpleasant and traumatic divorce is a big factor in my opinion. Grandparents wanting to see their grandchildren would have little effect on their mental health, unless the grandparents were abusive. That’s not a very usual situation. As said earlier, parents and step parents are the more usual abusers according to the courts.

Being encouraged to talk about how they're feeling will highlight mental health issues therefore showing an increase, and there does seem to have been an increase following Covid and all that brought with it.

Isolation due to lock downs, getting behind with school work due to closures and worries when it was time to return to school.

Children can also be affected by worrying about the cost of living crisis, knowing that their parents are worried and there's the increase in cyber bullying. They all seem to have mobile 'phones and some are targeted and bullied via text messages.

Mental health issues in children are not just grounded in them being abused by parents and/or other family members.

I don’t think the actual incidence of mental health issues are on the rise in children, so much as parents are seeking help for their kids, not hiding them, tossing them into institutions or denying there’s a problem the way it was dealt with in previous generations. It wasn’t long ago that being deaf was considered to be a reason to institutionalize a child, or promiscuity could have a teen girl locked away. Or homosexuality.

Can’t diagnose what parents deny, hide or try to beat out of their kids.

An increase in diagnoses could be because of an increase in mental health issues. It could also mean more people are seeking help for their children now than in past generations. This makes sense because there is less stigma surrounding the idea of having a mental health condition.

There is more than just the surface layer of a statistic to consider.

Smileless2012

It comes as no surprise though as they're so readily available and the flavours and packaging are going to be attractive to children.

Many shops aim them at kids with the packaging and the flavours. Those disposable vapes are dumped all over the place🙄

It comes as no surprise though as they're so readily available and the flavours and packaging are going to be attractive to children.

Smileless2012

One of the reasons smoking may be decreasing in children is because of the use of vapes. The constant news items and reports I see on tv disagree with you VS that mental health issues in children aren't worse, with an increase being attributed to lock downs due to Covid.

If there is a generational parenting competition going on, it is just as likely to be because some of today's parents are of the belief that everything they do is right, and a lot if not all of how their parents parented was wrong.

From it's first existence in 1889, the Children Act has always been focused on protecting children from harm.

It seems that child aimed vapes are having an impact:

digital.nhs.uk/news/2022/decrease-in-smoking-and-drug-use-among-school-children-but-increase-in-vaping-new-report-shows

The Children's Society have worked for and with children for many years. I think they know what they’re talking about.

Sad that children and young people now have so many issues though.

No I don't think so GSM

I agree DL and the fact that there is an increase is concerning.

Whatever the causes, which can be various, mental health issues are increasing. In both adults and children.

Oh dear, is this descending into a re-run of yesterday?

I don't think there's a definitive answer. In all likelihood it's a combination of a variety of factors not just parenting but parenting in some cases is relevant.

I don't believe that my generation had a less negative impact on our children's mental health and I don't believe it had a greater one either.

Why do you believe that the generation before the one currently raising children had less negative impact on children's mental health?

In what ways do you think current parenting is making mental health worse in children?

Personally I would say it is the impact of real world issues, not how they are parented...

I think you mean your truth VS which thankfully has no bearing on mine.

Thanks for the information and the link DL which supports what I posted earlier.

And yet the real experts say different:

One in six children aged 5-16 are likely to have a mental health problem. This figure has gone up by 50% in the last three years. Between 2021 and 2022 alone, the proportion of older young people aged 17-19 in England with a probable mental health disorder jumped from one in six to one in four.

www.actionforchildren.org.uk/blog/is-youth-mental-health-getting-better-or-worse/#:~:text=One%20in%20six%20children%20aged,six%20to%20one%20in%20four.

Speak truth that makes people uncomfortable due to their own cognitive dissonance

You will what when you need too *VS?

I will when I need to

It is very off-putting and makes it hard to engage when people clearly just want an argument

I'll come back if anything relevant is added to the discussion

There's no need to be offensive VS if you don't want to respond then don't, but don't refer to my posts as immature and of being on a level of playground interaction.