Nannies & Toys

It seems to me that busy mothers and fathers who entrust their children to the care of nannies and child-minders store up trouble for their off–spring. The apparent benefits of this alternative care conceal the creation of a serious level of short-term pyschological inadequacy. What the long-term effects maybe I do not know.

In the majority of cases when I have entertained children who are not in regular, daily contact, with their parents these youngsters often exhibit a greater degree of attention seeking behaviour than their poorer, and usually lower class, counterparts. They fidget, cannot settle, do not cooperate easily with other youngsters at the party and raise their voice in conversation in an attempt to dominate. The worst manifestation is the need to become violent with those around, in an attempt to achieve close physical contact ~ it is euphemistically called "play fighting".
It isn’t that the nannies do not do a good job but they can be no more than a surrogate parent especially when the natural parent is still in evidence, albeit infrequently.

So often these children have around them, piles of expensive toys, many sadly discarded, which have been provided for them by the 'caring' parents. None of these costly items, however, can replace the close parental contact that is really needed to promote healthy social development in the child.

The latest technological games quite often require one participant so that any chance of inter-acting with other humans, rather than a machine, is almost non-existent. The days when a rag doll, a stuffed toy or an unusually shaped piece of wood could fire the imagination and entertain are gone.


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