Category: parenting


Ballantine-Jones on gay marriage

Filed under: marriage, parenting, same-sex marriage — Leave a comment
May 17, 2012

The NSW Council of Churches has urged church leaders to publicly oppose a motion by Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann supporting same sex marriage.

Mr Marshall Ballantine-Jones, Executive Director of Media for Anglican Youthworks, and a member of the NSW Council of Churches executive, said it was staggering to think that so-called informed MPs actually entertained “such an extreme and cruel motion.”

“Marriage is not about gay rights, it’s about children,” he said.  “Professor Patrick Parkinson’s recent report, For Kid’s Sake, leaves no ambiguity.  Children raised outside of a traditional marriage have alarmingly increased rates of self-harm, substance abuse, mental illnesses, and premature sexual activity.

“Statistics don’t lie – children ideally need a biological mother and a father.  If anything, politicians should be moving to strengthen traditional marriage,” Mr Ballantine-Jones said.  “Once society dilutes the uniqueness of traditional marriage into obscurity through this erroneous motion, there goes the last bastion of hope for a better future for children,” he said.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 6 May 2012.

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Girls need their fathers more than ever

Filed under: family, fathers, parenting — Leave a comment
July 29, 2011

Psychologist and author Steve Biddulph is best known for his bestselling books and lectures on parenting and boys’ education. As a parent of three boys, I’ve read some of his books and considered his advice on many occasions.

But Steve Biddulph also has good advice for fathers of girls. Recent research indicates that, as they hit adolescence, girls need their fathers more than ever – as “safe male figures who teach their daughters how to negotiate the world of men, to have self-belief, to be adventurous.”

And fathers can pass on valuable, career-related skills to their daughters. “Fathers who spend time with their daughters,” says Biddulph, “especially one to one, on outings or walking the dog, or stopping for a hot chocolate once a week, seem to have more confident daughters.”

And there are spiritual as well as relational benefits to a quality father-daughter bond. There’s nothing more important in a child’s world than a loving father and mother.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, Sunday 24 July 2011.

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Preparing for Schoolies Week

Filed under: alcohol, parenting — Leave a comment
November 19, 2010

By Rod Benson

It’s longer than I care to admit since my Schoolies Week, but every year teenagers go through that same rite of passage marking the end of all those school years, and the beginning of the rest of their lives.

It’s a very special time, and they deserve the chance to kick back, celebrate, and savour the moment with their mates.  But of course there are the dangers of peer pressure, unprecedented freedom, and the hard drinking that so often accompanies hard partying.

And the news is not good: research just released by the DrinkWise organisation indicates that young people are feeling increasing pressure to drink alcohol, and to drink to excess, even when they don’t want to, in order to fit in with their friends.

It’s a familiar pattern, but tougher regulations and higher taxes on alcoholic drinks can only go so far in moderating behaviour.  The best solution is not state intervention but the positive role model of parents, talking things through with teenage children, coaching them to make good decisions in tough situations.  And that starts a long time before the countdown to Schoolies Week.

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 21 November 2010.

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More children in foster care

Filed under: children, NSW politics, parenting — Leave a comment
September 8, 2010

By Rod Benson

Figures in a new report on children in the welfare system indicate that about 36,000 children and young people in NSW, or two in every 100 kids under 18, have experienced out-of-home care through abuse or neglect, or due to parental illness or inability to cope with parenting.  The number of children placed in foster care or with relatives has risen 72 per cent since June 2002. 

The current system isn’t working.  Case workers are under enormous pressure.  The rise in case numbers means higher costs.  And above all, there is the emotional and psychological price paid by children and their parents. 

Community Services Minister Linda Burney says the government’s new child protection system aims to reduce numbers by putting more emphasis on early intervention.

Another step in the right direction would be to make better use of non-government agencies which are able to offer a wider range of support services. 

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 4 July 2010.

Image: http://www.newbiemommy.com/images/Free-Online-Foster-Care-Classes.jpg

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Not everyone wants paid parental leave

Filed under: employment, parenting, workplace relations — Leave a comment
September 8, 2010

By Rod Benson

Well, it’s official: from January 1, Australia will have its first national paid parental leave scheme, bringing us into line with the rest of the developed world apart from the U.S.

But not everyone is happy.  Family First Senator Steve Fielding claimed on Tuesday that the scheme was “putting prisoners and prostitutes ahead of stay-at-home mums”; and on Wednesday suggested that “drug addicts and welfare cheats” could deliberately fall pregnant, procure an abortion, and still pocket the government’s cash.

Family Voice Australia’s Dr Colin Jory says the scheme will give women in the paid workforce an average of $2000 more than stay-at-home mums after their babies are born.

But let’s not forget that this scheme is specifically intended for parents in paid employment who can’t afford to give up work, and it can be shared between both parents.  Surely that’s a step forward, and not backward, for Aussie kids. 

Broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 20 June 2010.

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