Interesting Facts

According to a study by Pew Research Center, more young Americans are living in their parents home than for the past 130 years. (The most common living arrangement for young adults in America aged 18 to 34 is to live with their parents: 32.1% live with their parents, 31.6% live with a partner, and 14% live alone. So now we have the bank of mum and dad, and the hotel of mum and dad.  I guess it's fine, as long as everyone is happy with the arrangement.)

18th March Forgive your parents day "Forgive, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace." Author Unknown

Here's a scary statistic: According to crime figures, there has been a 60% rise in the number of children in the UK being investigated by police for violent crimes against their parents. (The number of suspects aged 17 or under in the Metropolitan Police area rose to 1,437 in 2014 from 895 in 2012. The youngest was just seven. I'm not sure what you can do if your own child attacks you. There's even a helpline, Parentline Plus, for parents who face this kind of abuse. Scary!)

We will be talking about maternity and paternity leave in the LEN Drama session on Monday, so here's a little interesting fact:- Almost half of women in the UK (43%) are likely to return to work sooner than they would like after having their baby. (The main reason was money worries, but according to the NCT (the largest UK parents charity), 47% said it was due to concerns over job security. Overall 4% of those surveyed said they took less than two weeks maternity leave, even though they are entitled to much longer.)

Several shops selling toys in the UK have agreed to remove sexist labelling of girls' and boys' toys. (Following a campaign by a group called Let Toys Be Toys, a group of British parents who have been campaigning for a change in the way toys are marketed to boys and girls, Toys R Us, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots, The Entertainer and TK Maxx have all signed up. Toy manufacturer Lego, has also promised to review the way its toys are represented. As a child I was a bit of a tomboy; labelling and marketing never stopped me from playing with so called "boys" toys.)

According to a joint report published by Shelter and KPMG, within a generation, 50% of young Brits will be living with their parents beyond the age of 30. (The main reason is Britain's acute housing shortage, and the spiraling  price of property. 100,000 fewer homes are currently built each year than are needed.  Of course, there's always the tiny house movement, but as British houses are already the smallest in Europe, they couldn't get much smaller. The report also stated that if current trends continue,  the average house price in England could double to £446,000 in 10 years.  Now that really scares me.   I'll never be able to afford to go back to the UK at this rate!)

According to a survey run by Travelodge, on average British parents splash out £478.25 to take a short break and / or four day trips with their children this Easter, (The top 10 UK Easter destinations were:- 1. Blackpool 2. London 3. Birmingham 4. Cornwall 5. Brighton 6. Cardiff 7. Devon 8. Bath 9. Edinburgh 10. The Lake District However, in a study conducted by Sainsbury's, when asked to name their top five wishes for the perfect Easter, kids would most enjoy a family picnic, followed by an Easter egg hunt at home. I'm sorry if you are reading this after having spent all that money, but maybe you should have asked your little ones.)

According to a poll conducted by the organisers of the Bett trade-show; two thirds of parents in the UK say they help their children with their homework and a staggering one in six admits to regularly doing all of it! (Two thirds of parents admitted there are times when they are unable to help because it is too taxing.  Unsurprisingly, 70% said their children were happy to let them do it.) Source

Research carried out at Swansea University suggests that babies who are spoon-fed by parents are more likely to become overweight. (The researchers believe the results of the study show that babies allowed to feed themselves during weaning are less likely to overeat and be overweight as toddlers as they can regulate their intake and stop eating when they are full. Their study also revealed that spoon-fed children were more likely to grow up to be "fussy-eaters" than those left to their own devices. This might explain why the phrase to be spoon-fed something is negative.  It means to be treated in a way that discourages independent thought or action. So don't be spoon-fed your English. Feed yourself.) Source - Journal of Pediatric Obesity

Davina Wakelin, headmistress at Meeching Valley Primary School in Newhaven, East Sussex, has sent a letter to all parents about swearing. (She wasn't so much complaining about the children swearing, she was asking the parents to stop swearing around their children, especially on and around school premises, after pupils had been caught repeating swear words that they had heard their and other parents using. She wrote: I have received complaints regarding parents swearing when bringing children to and from school. Swearing is not permitted on school grounds and I ask all parents to think about the language you use when on school grounds. Thank you for your consideration with this matter. Tell them to wash their mouths out with soap, and stick them on the naughty step.

New research shows that early language development isn’t so much about the number of words as the style of speech and social context in which speech occurs. ( Patricia Kuhl, co-author and co-director of UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences said,  “It’s not just talk, talk, talk at the child.  It’s more important to work toward interaction and engagement around language. You want to engage the infant and get the baby to babble back. The more you get that serve and volley going, the more language advances.” I kind of do this with my students, without the goo goo ga ga, although I did offer that service to a recent visitor who said he wanted to learn like a baby. LOL)

According to the parenting website Netmums, by the age of 32 we are turning into our parents. (The pressures of career, buying a house and having children mean one day we suddenly realise we are echoing phrases or mannerisms that used to end in a good door slamming.  Six out of seven people who took part in the poll admitted that they had reason to fear they were already “turning into” their mother or father. If you are in your twenties and think it can't happen to you - think again.)

According to a survey carried out by Littlewoods.com, only 33% of parents in the UK read their child a bedtime story. (Some parents said that their children would much rather watch TV, play with toys or computer games, but 13 per cent blamed lack of time for not reading to them and 9 per cent said they were 'too stressed'. I was read to regularly, and it was part of my bedtime routine, in fact three quarters of the parents surveyed said they were read to every night of the week as children.)

According to a survey conducted by OnePoll, 50% of British parents admit to spying on their children via social networking. (Even worse, 11% of those polled admit they created a Facebook profile just to track their children online. That said, 70% of kids admitted to hiding their online activites from their parents. So it kind of balances out. Kids! If you wouldn't tell your granny about it, don't do it.)

According to research from the Department of Economics at Sheffield University, the secret to turning your children into savers is to not give them pocket money. (The researchers looked at the British Household Panel Survey, an annual study carried out by Essex University’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and found that those who were given a weekly sum of pocket money by their parents were less likely to put money aside than those with a part-time job. Sorry to let the cat out of the bag kids.)

According to research carried out by Ultralase, over half of British dads would rather see their children find fame and fortune by winning a reality TV show, than see them pursue academia and traditional sought-after careers. (I guess that with all the worries about pensions, British dads have their eye on the future.)

Parents in the UK now spend around a quarter of their annual income on childcare for under-fives. (This makes the UK amongst the most expensive in the world', only parents in Switzerland fork out more. Let's face it, having children is expensive.)

Parents in the UK pay around £200 a week for child-care, (£260 in London).

According to a study commissioned by chocolate biscuit brand Rocky, in 2011, one in seven youngsters in the UK spent just 26 hours playing outdoors over the whole year. (More than half of kids only saw their parents at weekends and 44% of parents admitted using computer games to keep the kids quiet, because they were too tired to organise activities. That combines with the fact that the weather was lousy and the economy a disaster 2011 has been labelled as the worst year to be a child.) Source

According to scientists at the University of Cambridge, abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become drug addicts. (Experts have always been unsure whether drugs changed the wiring of the brain or if drug addicts' brains were wired differently in the first place and this study has shown the same differences in the brains of addicts and their non-addicted brothers and sisters. So you really can blame it on  your parents.) Source