Former Australian Labour leader Ian Latham wanted parents caned for their childrens bad behaviour at school.I agree.My 28 yo neighbour lets his 3 kids do as they please.His wife is groged up all the time and he;s constantly off with his mates.The eldest boy is constantly suspended and his father thinks its a joke.I bet his mates would laugh if the Headmaster was giving his backside the cane.

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No wonder he's the EX-Labour leader;brainless!

Why not give them a community service order and THEN make the parents carry it out?

Your neighbours would then be so thoroughly pissed off with painting old ladies' garden fences, they might just be persuaded to give their 3 kids a set of rules to stck to-or else!

The man's name was Mark Latham, and he didn't want parents caned.

At one stage he wanted the cane reintroduced to schools where it had been banned (this was why he was still a backbencher and he changed his tune very quickly when more senior members of his party told him that wasn't going to become Labor party policy - especially as he was in Federal Parliament and such issues are state issues), and more recently he wanted parents of troublesome children to have to attend parenting classes - but he never wanted parents caned - well, at least he never said he did. I can't read his mind.

He's no longer Labor leader because he lost an election Labor was convinced they were going to win by making ill advised statements and coming across to the voters as a thug and a bully - at least that's my opinion.

"The man's name was Mark Latham, and he didn't want parents caned.
At one stage he wanted the cane reintroduced to schools where it had been banned" (Dean)


I liked Mr. Latham better when I read he wanted indifferent parents caned. Parenting classes wouldn't be a bad idea either for a good chunk of today's parents. I don't advocate CP but rules, standards, and enforced expectations would be nice along with more real interests in the children parents choose to bring into the world. Possessions, driving them to organized sports and making excuses for their misbehavior is no substitute for real parenting skills.

Above anonymous is Rez

"Parenting classes wouldn't be a bad idea either for a good chunk of today's parents"

In the UK, Mr Tony "Lee Kwan Yew" Blair has already instituted this policy. Does anyone happen to know whether there are any results yet?

It's also rather noticeable that quite a large number -- possibly disproportionately so -- of out-of-control youngsters (mostly boys) are the offspring of single mothers. It's unfashionable to draw attention to such matters, but that doesn't make it any less true. Could it be that boys need fathers, after all?

"It's also rather noticeable that quite a large number -- possibly disproportionately so -- of out-of-control youngsters (mostly boys) are the offspring of single mothers. It's unfashionable to draw attention to such matters, but that doesn't make it any less true. Could it be that boys need fathers, after all?" (alaric)

Answering "yes" might be a gigantic and erroneous assumption. I wonder what the stats look like for single fathers of out-of-control children? Or the stats for out-of-control girls? Or how much of a connection there is to any category of parent/child family set up and out-of-control children to amount of time parents spend actually interacting in a meaningful way with those children? Is there an equal occurence of out-of-control boys in families where there are two female caregivers (mom and grandmom, etc.)? If not then perhaps gender isn't the controlling variable. There are a lot of variables involved that could have a great deal of impact on the nature and type of out-of-control chidren. To only look at one of them without carefully holding all the others constant is bad science and encourages conclusions that may have little merit.

Well, I think you're reading more into the gender issue here than I had in mind to convey. Leave "boys" and "fathers" out of it, if you like, and ask "Could it be that kids need two parents, after all?"

"Well, I think you're reading more into the gender issue here than I had in mind to convey. Leave "boys" and "fathers" out of it, if you like, and ask "Could it be that kids need two parents, after all?" (alaric)

Kids need adults in their lives who love them, care for them, spend meaningful time with them, and provide good role models for them. It's nice if you have two adults in the home to do that whatever the gender of those adults. It might be better if you have many adults in an extended family to do that. But there is nothing wrong if there is only one adult in the home to do that either. It's the child having it that's important not the number or the gender. A kid could certainly have two parents in the home and never get what he needs.

Above anonymous is the forgetful Rez