Blogs 1 & 2

Blog 1: 18th April 2008: Separate Beds – Separate Lives

Most families these days depend on two incomes to run a home. In this area house prices are higher than the national average whilst wages are lower which means much of a family’s income can go into the maw of the mortgage or the rental. To try and cope with these demands parents often organise their working days so that one parent is at home caring for the children whilst the other is working and they then swap roles during the course of the working day.

This means a child is actually cared for by the parent thus avoiding all the difficulties (and costs) of childcare but can lead to a situation where the couple spend virtually no time together at all. They are like the little people in the Weather house – when one is out the other one is in and never the twain shall meet. If you are in this situation it is hard to look up from the necessities of managing all the family’s needs but do try and remember part of your family’s needs is for you to have time together as a couple and as a family before you become strangers to each other. Very often people do not blame each other for the breakdown of their marriage but simply feel they have grown apart. If all you see of each other is a fleeting glimpse of a back disappearing out of the door then it may be time to grab your coat, your partner and the children and go out together.

Blog 2: 21st April 2008: Lies, damned Lies and Statistics

After I completed yesterday’s blog I came across an article in my daily paper dwelling on how statistics can be used to beef up newspaper headlines and articles as well as claims by politicians or companies for their pet campaign or promotion.

Skipping over the bit about the appointment of a Statistics watchdog (how many watchdogs make a statistic was my first thought), I read with interest a paragraph about Center Parcs and its take on modern family life. The report commented on a release by the company titled “The Family – It’s Not Toxic, It’s Thriving”. Center Parcs apparently stated that a study showed over 40% of families spent 8 hours or more a week together so actually families like each other and want to spend time together. As the reporter pointed out

1)This means 60% of families spend fewer than 8 hours per week together

2)8 hours a week equates to 68.5 minutes per day so if the significant chunk of the ‘8 hours or more’ 40% are only doing just over 8 hours it still does not amount to very much per week

Another way of looking at it, which was not mentioned is whether the families who do spend more time together are the happier ones or not? If you were required as a family to do more than 8 hours a week together (and doesn’t that sound like having to eat your 5 a day of fruit and veg) could it in fact lead to more family break up not less?

I would also like to know the statistic for how much extra stress we have in trying to analyse all these statistics. I was just relieved to learn my sausage eating habit isn’t going to kill me unless I dress it up as a coconut and let it fall on me from a tree. Apparently falling coconuts are more dangerous than sharks – or not as no one knows the provenance for the claim 150 people each year are killed by those bouncing nuts.