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The lady's not for turning

The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher (now Baroness Thatcher – yes the self-same mother of jailbird Sir Mark Thatcher) once said to her national party conference in relation to the exorbitantly high unemployment figures (around 3m) in the U.K. in the early eighties, "To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!" In March 2002 her office announced that she was withdrawing from public life because of a series of minor strokes.

The late founder of the First Husband’s Club, Sir Denis Thatcher, did the child minding while the good Baroness strode the world stage of political intrigue and regional dismemberment.

Some of the comments I received from my communiqué of last month were awesome from the employed and sour grapes from the employer. Keep them coming.

Just so you should know, a small EU nation has suggested over 1 billion Euro in next year’s budget allocated specifically to childcare. And, the main lobbying was done by an organization representing small businesses. In their submission they stated that they “believe that this is the year to lay the foundations for the delivery of a high quality, flexible and affordable childcare system.” Their expectations in the delivery room after the blood is spilled on the budget floor are unexpectedly high and with much support amongst the general population.

The average EU spending on early childhood care and education is 0.5% of GDP. Not an untidy sum.

You might not want to hear the next bit, but what the heck. I accidentally tuned into the ‘wrong’ radio station the other day whilst navigating Wickham Road traffic at rush hour just after a fraught meeting. The old nerves were a bit frayed and the humor wasn’t great.

“You just turn them over and spank them,” said the calm female voice on the radio. That caught my attention because at that moment some of the harried drivers were moving their assorted vehicles into positions whereby they could kneecap their fellow road users. I successfully fought off the urge to join the kneecappers and listened to the woman on the radio.

She continued, through the favor of ably quoted segments from the first half of the good book, to extrapolate on her child rearing practices. The yarn about her 4-month old child’s learning to roll over all but turned me into a mouthpiece in favor of capital punishment. She was referring to the audaciousness of her 4-month old child who persisted in rolling over when she was changing his diaper. “You just turn them over and spank them,” she persisted quoting some line or two from some obscure (to me) part of the Old Testament. She droned on. You get the picture.

Her male interviewer agreed with her as did several other people in the live audience.

If there’s one way to kneecap our economic growth and slight our technological innovative edge it’s to beat all thoughts and actions that displease us out of our children at a very young age. “Are we rearing a bunch of clones,” I ask? Should we allow our children to grow in a non-violent, safe and friendly environment where they can reach for their stars, or will they wither under a barrage of violent conformity?

This is where spending on childcare raises its ugly head.

The cost of safe and affordable childcare is, I believe, making us uncompetitive. First, parents awaken drowsy children at more and more ungodly hours to cart them off to a variety of expensive childminders. Secondly, particularly in more formal childminding institutions, my research leads me to believe that Martha’s situation (from last month’s communiqué) is not in the least unusual in that such facilities demand ‘well behaved’ children. What in God’s name is a ‘well behaved’ one year old? And, thirdly, I am more and more convinced that we are raising children who possess a sameness of sensibility and thinking that’s scary.

There is a great need, I believe, for a national debate on the issue of childcare. The importance of well rounded, thoughtful, innovative and moderate children who will possess worldly savvy to lead us into the future is fundamental to every aspect of our future development and economic success.

I am doubtful that the current hodge-podge of, usually frantic, childcare arrangements will lend themselves to losing our competitive edge in many areas, and particularly in the areas of technological advancement. We lead the world in innovation and entrepreneurial abilities. We lead the world in technological advances which are, at times, so far fetched and so awesome, that in our frenetic world of kneecapping we may likely be left behind at the turning lane.

Baroness Thatcher did not turn in her economic policies. She was shafted because of her inflexibility. Do we need to reconsider our policies, or lack of policies, towards the rearing of our children? We could be forced to withdraw from competitiveness through a series of minor rigid strokes.

Our future advancement will depend upon the litheness of our children to learn new and novel methods of creating and selling. I’m not a child psychologist, however, I do know that spanking a turning 4-month old is plain wrong – irrespective of what it may, or may not, say in any good book. Seeing a table or a chair from a new position is indeed breathtaking and should never be stifled. And, the diaper will still get changed. Someone should turn the lady on the radio before a series of long-awaited minor strokes withdraws her from public life. Thoroughly researched and advantageous U-turns should not be discounted. Don’t ask the late founder of the First Husband’s Club. Ask the associations of small businesses. They know.

Ailish M. Nic Phaidin, MPRII ©
President & CEO
Access Link International, Inc.
Public Relations & Marketing Counselors
Phone: 321-952-2978; Email: Ailish@AccessLinkInternational.com