Kid's problems

Comment is free: Searching for the antidote

This commentary from The Guardian makes some sensible points about concern for modern children:

Is there a danger that the glow of a mythical golden yesteryear is making this the most scrutinised younger generation ever, while leading only to a partial and highly selective understanding of what's really happening? Cause and effect; nurture and nature are notoriously difficult to disentangle. ....

.....adults have wrongly taught (some) children that what they feel is much more important than what they achieve. "Self-control or the ability to persevere and keep going is a much better predictor of life outcomes than self-esteem. Research tells us that children high in self-control make better grades and finish more years of education ... Self-control predicts all of those things researchers had hoped self-esteem would [deliver] but hasn't."

In Scandinavia, concern is also growing about a parenting style known as "curling", after the sport that became a surprise Olympic hit. Professional middle-class parents, both working long hours, insist on sweeping away all difficulties for their child: interfering with teachers and friends; spoiling them rotten and expecting nothing - neither good manners, nor chores, nor endeavour - in return. Again, on contact with adversity, the child instead of learning from failure and a modicum of stress, mentally collapses.

The analysis of why some children are so highly distressed needs to include both ends of the spectrum - those who have too little and those who appear to have too much. While somewhere in this whole process, against the grain of consumption and celebrity and success as defined by the workplace, we could somehow try to restore the value of ordinariness and the pleasures it can bring.