Way to respond Dennis on the issue of "poor parenting", when they send
monies to parenting programs they are usually for the single parent(mom) who
is seen to be lacking in all areas.  What has always been interesting to me
as a single parent, is that when I was with my partner (who was an abusive
man) I had all the skills I required.  Now that I am lacking a mate I am
also seen lacking in other areas, such as parenting, budgeting, cooking and
nutrition skills.  What is really lacking is the money and a firm believe in
all children to not only basically survive but to thrive.  I don't need to
know 5 ways to cook a chicken, I just need the goddamn money to buy the
chicken!!

Thanks for listening.
Monica
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Raphael <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 9:02 AM
Subject: Response to Toronto Globe story on "poor parenting."


>[Please send your own letters as well.]
>
>October 29, 1998
>
>Toronto Globe and Mail
>
>Dear Editor:
>
>     No one who has ever taken an introductory child development course
>would be surprised by findings that parental behaviours are a better
>statistical predictor of children's problems than family income.  It is
>methodological axiom that measures closer (parental behaviours) to the area
>of interest (children's problems) than more distant ones (family income)
>show stronger levels of association. What should be surprising is the
>uncritical analyses of these findings by the authorities quoted in your
>story.  First, it is a remarkable leap to suggest that money geared to
>income supplementation should be transferred to parenting programs.  Did
>the authors examine other
>childhood issues that have been shown to be related to income rather than
>parental upbringing, such as chronic illness, accidents, and cultural
>impoverishment?  Did the authors consider the effects of low income on
>parents as well as children?  It is astounding that authors of a study on
>children and families would suggest policies that diminish the importance
>of low income and
>family poverty on family functioning and child well-being. Second, the
>authorities quoted show little appreciation of the social implications of
>identifying parents as the problem rather than the conditions that support
>parents.  Why did the authors not go closer to the source and examine
>children's coping mechanisms?  Clearly, measures of children's coping would
>have high greater relationship to their problems than parental behaviours.
>With such findings the researchers could have recommended shifting money
>from income supplements AND parental training programs towards  mounting
>large-scale counseling initiatives for children. Poor parental behaviours
>represent a range of factors, most of which are related to family income
>and few of which were probably included in this study (e.g. poor housing,
>poor schools, deteriorated neighbourhoods). Third, the authors take no
>notice of findings that indicate that increasing economic inequality within
>a society has adverse effects on all families within a society.  As
>inequality increases a society begins to show a range of effects that
>epidemiologists have described as involving general greater malaise,
>increasing alienation, and decay of civil institutions. Is it not puzzling
>that societies with greater equality of resources seem to have families
>with fewer problems? Are all adults in Scandinavia such wonderful parents
>or is it that they live in societies that prefer to tackle problems at
>their source, that is the basic organization and allocation of resources
>within a society, rather than looking for convenient scapegoats on which to
>allocate blame. The problems families in Canada are experiencing involve
>much more than poor parenting!
>
>Dennis Raphael
>Associate Professor Public Health Sciences
>University of Toronto
>
>978-7567
>Visit our Web Site for Free Copies of Our Community Quality of Life
Reports!
>
>http://www.utoronto.ca/qol
>
>  ****************************************************
>   Canalising a river
>   Grafting a fruit tree
>   Educating a person
>   Transforming a state
>   These are instances of fruitful criticism
>   And at the same time instances of art.
>       -Bertolt Brecht
>  ****************************************************
>
>Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
>Associate Professor and Associate Director,
>Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
>Department of Public Health Sciences
>Graduate Department of Community Health
>University of Toronto
>McMurrich Building, Room 101
>Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
>voice:    (416) 978-7567
>fax: (416) 978-2087
>e-mail:   [log in to unmask]
>