TurnRightThenLeft: Sorry for not responding in the lass comment, but I was running out of words. I see what you're getting at, I just don't think that's (entirely) what she was saying. If she was, then I admit I'm wrong and off the mark.

Glen: Who says I do or don't earn anywhere near that much? For those who do, good on them. Maybe they're not the Little Aussie Battlers (aka Little Aussie Bludgers) who won't get off their backsides yet still expect others in society to carry them. I'm sick of hearing it. This country is still a land of opportunity, not entitlement, though it's fast becoming that way. The real backbone of this country get shafted from both ends. I don't like John Howard much at all (and I didn't vote Liberal last time in case you're wondering), and I'm sure a lot in the middle don't, yet here's why the left in this country are so far off the mark: even if the right only pays lip service to middle Australia, at least they're not outright hostile to them. Enough with the politics of envy already. It's boring.

GlenWriter. All is well if children don't get depressed, develop behavioural problems, mental illness and/or commit suicide. But then again if that happens we can just blame the parents anyway!

People seem to forget that children are like little adults and they feel, they see and they understand.

Decisions can be stressful for parents because in many instances they have limited control and they have real live children to deal with who are often struggling to cope and loosing hope.

I thought it was a ridiculous article.

Jane, I don’t know why you felt you had to make all these choices and decisions re schooling and outings etc., especially as they got older for your children?

My husband and I have always equipped our children with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make their own choices and decisions. To date they have always made my husband and I proud and they have always made decisions that were in their best interest and we have 4 children, two are teenagers. If we don’t allow them to make their own choices and decisions then they don’t learn to make the right choices and they don’t learn about consequences.

Our job as a parent is to encourage and support our children, not to live their life for them so if you thought you had to make all those choices and decisions for your children, then that was a situation that you created.

Not all parents bring their children up that way!

There was an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today about worried children http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,19952867-5006010,00.html
Children are not oblivious to what is happening in the world and as a result they don't really have it made!

Jolanda,
Don't you know that the Australian Women's Weekly is more scientific, the Woman's Day is more rational and the New Idea well Simone swears by it that it has the complet facts.
The Daily Telegraph well they just ram camaras in peoples faces while out with their children.
If you want the real facts the New Idea is the one.

Dear Jolanda,
Um, the article was meant to be satirical. I am, in fact, totally of your mind, that all the agonising of modern parents is, by and large, a waste of time and energy.
I see it as a kind of projected egotism - that the decisions modern parents make are all of extreme importance - when, in fact, they are mostly trivial, and more about the parents - and how they want the world to see them - than about their kids.
My message- perhaps badly communicated - is meant to be a common sense one, that kids (particularly middle class ones) are resilient and, unless actively abused or grossly neglected, tend to turn out as they were meant to turn out.
I meant to poke gentle fun at the obsessive control culture practiced by many parents today, so I celebrate your desire to let your kids decide what they will do and have, in fact, practiced much the same philosophy myself - and my kids are doing pretty well too.
Jane

"My message- perhaps badly communicated," she wrote!

Hmm, massive understatement.

But wait, what's this I've found?

B&T (19 December 2001)
Caro begins new year with new home at Principals
http://www.bandt.com.au/news/8d/0c009c8d.asp

"Caro said she was 'running out of puff'."

Well, I can see that nothing's changed here then.

Never mind dear, feminist entitlement princesses have had their day. Dinosaurs are supposed to go where they're supposed to go - into history.

Nothing personal, you understand Jane?

Have a happy life.