THE FIGHT FOR THE FAMILY

The Adults Behind Children's Rights

By Lynette Burrows

The campaign for children's rights represents one of the most powerful lobbies now working in the field of family welfare. Its advocates have succeeded in almost every task they have set themselves. They have out-lawed smacking in schools and given children sufficient 'rights' to make parents and teachers think twice before attempting to curb or discourage unruly behaviour.

Yet, as Lynette Burrows shows in this booklet, the children's rights lobby is a paper tiger. It consists of a small number of individuals who form front-organisations, ask each other to sit on committees, take 'evidence' from each other and publish 'reports. The movement has no popular base. Without the financial support of two grant-making trusts, and the unwitting compliance of public bodies and the media, it would collapse.

The 'rights' which interest the lobby boil down to only two: the 'right' of children to behave badly without any chastisement and the 'right' to enter into sexual relationships at any age, without the knowledge and consent of their parents. The agenda thus fits neatly with the stated aims of paedophile organisations which realised long ago that the only way to obtain access to children was to persuade professionals and campaigning organisations to demands freedom for children from any form of restraint - a policy which leaves them exposed to the predatory behaviour of those who would harm them.

FAMILY EDUCATION TRUST

322 WOODSTOCK ROAD - OXFORD OX2 7NS

Tel. 01865 556848 Fax: 01865 552774

ISBN 0 906229 14 6 Price: £4.00

To Press Release March 1999

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  CONFIDENT PARENTING

  A Hands-on Approach to Children

  by Anne Davis

   

   

  Foreword
  
  This clear, practical book cuts through the welter of theory on child-rearing to offer a common-sense approach based firmly on instinct backed up by the experience of family and friends. At a time when many parents feel uncertain in their roles confused by the advice of childcare gurus and the arguments about children's rights, it offers guidelines that will be welcomed.
  
  The problem of undisciplined children, both at school and in the community, has become a focus of increasing concern. Anne Davis, who made national headlines when, as a child-minder, she refused to promise that she would never smack children in her care, tackles this problem head-on and argues her case convincingly. Smacking, she believes, has a place in childcare as a final sanction, so long as it is administered in the right manner and at the right time and for an appropriate misdemeanour.
  
  The great message of this book is that children should be taught from their earliest years, by a 'gentle conditioning' process, to behave well, to respect others and to realise that they cannot always come first. With clear guidelines for the pre-school years that will instil a lifetime's habit of socially acceptable behaviour, the author aims to help parents rear children to become well-adjusted adults with an in-built sense of right and wrong.
  
  If children do not master the basic rules in their pre-school years, they will grow up with a 'me-first' attitude whose consequences are now a daily blight on school and family life. This clear-sighted book will help parents adopt the best approach to child-rearing, and above all it will give them back the confidence that a generation of woolly thinking has eroded.
  
  'You say "don't do this", "you mustn't do that", and you gently slap them if they do transgress, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as it is done with love and with firm discipline within the family set-up.
  
  Dr. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury

   

  About the author

  ANNE DAVIS

  trained as a teacher and taught until the first of her three daughters was born, when she decided that she would prefer to be at home with her. To supplement the family income she qualified as a registered child-minder, and she was at the centre of a storm of controversy when she refused to promise never to smack a child in her care. She was struck off her Local Authority's register, but took them to court and won her case. She is now the spokesperson for Families for Discipline, an organisation which seeks to preserve the freedom of parents to use reasonable physical discipline.
  
  This book can be ordered from Webmaster Price 290 SEK incl. postage (Sweden)

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