Playpennies

I’ve often wondered why the generations who’ve come before us have done things the way that they have, and then these things started falling by the wayside a little, and now they’ve started making a bit of a resurgence… like for instance nursery rhymes.

I remember a few years back when Beverley Hughes tried to start up a ‘parenting workforce’ to find and support new parents – or force new parents, as some reported it -  in teaching children nursery rhymes.

At the time, Mrs Hughes said that “those who fail to read stories or sing to their youngsters threaten their children’s futures, and the state must put them right.”

While I can’t say I’m in favour of the concept of Nursery Rhyme Police barging in and interrogating my daughter about how many blind mice there were or what the mouse ran up or what the cat frightened under the queen’s chair – what is it with mice in nursery rhymes, anyway? – I much prefer the way they did do it in the end…. With Rhyme Time and Book start sessions at the libraries.

I know that when I started attending these sessions with my daughter, I was shocked to discover how many nursery rhymes I’d simply forgotten.

I’ve been mulling over all this for the last couple of days, since reading in the Gaurdian about a new book by Sally Goddard Blythe, a consultant in neuro-developmental education education and director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, and author of the book “The Genius of Natural Childhood.”

According to claims in the book, ‘signature’ melodies and inflections of traditional rhymes prepare children’s brains for language.

"Song is a special type of speech. Lullabies, songs and rhymes of every culture carry the 'signature' melodies and inflections of a mother tongue, preparing a child's ear, voice and brain for language."

According to the article, growing numbers of children enter nursery and school with inadequate language and communication skills often because their parents have not helped them develop communication skills.

So, just sticking on a CD of nursery rhymes will improve your child’s chances of success in life? Well, no. According to Blythe, "Babies are particularly responsive when the music comes directly from the parent. Singing along with a parent is (I'm sure there's a word missing here) for the development of reciprocal communication."

In fact, former minister Hughes was quoted as saying that singing nursery rhymes with young children will get them off to a flying start. And while I’m sure there’s more to it than that – such as that singing with children implies spending time with them – a few songs a day can’t be that hard, can it?  After all, before modern science and child experts and psycho-babble and all that, our forefathers were doing it, so they must have known something that we're only just realising.
Image Credit: Beetlebugs.net

If you're in the middle of the potty training stage then you'll already know just how many pairs of pants, or knickers, your little one can get through in a day.  If you're not there yet then brace yourself and plan ahead.

I got away with the whole potty training drama with my youngest - one day he decided 'no more nappies', he refused to wear them, put a pair of pants on and was dry almost from the word go; this applied to night times too, like I said...I got away with it!

The other two weren't quite so proactive and I remember the washing line and radiators groaning under the weight of knickers and pants, that had been put in the wash for the hundred millionth time.

Words from the wise suggest that you buy your child special underwear for them to ADORE and, therefore, will want to keep dry.

I have no idea if this tactic works but it sounds plausible.  The thing is character underwear can be at least twice the price of normal underwear and can also be a bit generic, and forget it if you can't find your child's most favourite characters in the whole wide world!

ParentHack mum, Becky, has come to the rescue; this is such a clever idea and will save you a few pounds and tantrums too.

The idea is simple: buy plain underwear, buy some print-at-home iron-on transfer paper, print pictures of your child's favourite character onto it, cut them out and iron onto the aforementioned white underwear.

Marvellous; click HERE to read more about how she did it.

This week PlayPennies Loves...Transatlantic Blonde.

So the Blonde is an American gal living in deepest darkest Scotland (yep, Glasgow) and has managed to survive being there since 2004; a medal is deserved for that alone *grin*

I have to call her 'the Blonde' because I can't find her real name anywhere, so I promise I'm not being rude; she's married to NotBlondeHusband and together they have a son, Blondie Boy, who was born in 2008.

I knew I'd like our Blonde author the moment I started reading about semi-permanent eyelash extensions!

You see I too have a love of long lashes and and rarely leave the house without mine being wonderfully curled; I was going to trek into London and have this done back in December but never got round to it, having seen the amazing results on Blondie I think I might just have to make the effort!

I chuckled at attempts to explain, to her American friends and family, the sublte, but OH SO important, differences between being English, British and Scottish and that never the twain shall meet.  I have South African friends and family with Scottish ancestry and some of them can only just about get their heads around the whole English/British thing.

"So while a Scotsman is British, he is certainly NOT English. Do you follow? There tends to be a bit of an Anglophile slant and often it’s assumed that British and English are interchangeable when they really aren’t.   Throw in a thousand years of border wars and , let’s face it, who *actually* likes their neighbours anyway?"

This Mixtape Monday post really made me smile and brought back memories of my own clubbing days; that and some rather hazy memories of debauched nights out in Brighton with my cousin. This also prompted a trip down muscial memory lane with her and posting dodgy 'choons' from yesteryear on each other's Facebook pages.

So there are some of my favourite posts from Transatlantic Blonde - there are lots of others but I'd be here all day if I listed them all.

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Do you have a child who HATES getting into the bath, making bath times living hell?

Do they scream so loudly at even just the prospect of getting the water for, what should be, a lovely calm time spent with your child chatting over the day's events , and generally bonding over warm fluffy towels and baby powder?

HOW badly do you want them to get in that water, this is the question I put to you this Sunday morning?

Badly enough to turn the water into 'jelly'...?

• Click HERE to visit Gelli Baff

Hmmm, I'm not sure either and, for a while, my youngest was a little toad for yelling the house down when it came to bath times.

Basically, you sprinkle the first sachet into the water and it transforms into bright, lurid coloured GOO; when you're finished you sprinkle in sachet number two which turns the goo back into water.

It's completely safe, although not edible, has passed toy testing both here and in Australia and has recently been approved by the rather strict American FDA.

It was originally formulated as a foot spa product for softening hard skin on feet and, apparently, leaves skin feeling very soft and refreshed.

Just as long as it doesn't leave you Princess Pink or Magic Swamp coloured that's ok, although I'm sure then kids would love it even MORE.

OOOOH I love this!

Just take a deep breath when it comes to the price and focus on how fabulous this Stick-a-Clock is instead.

• Click HERE to wander over to NotOnTheHighStreet

Kids love learning how to tell the time and this is a different, fun and funky way of introducing them to the world of hours and minutes; not only that, it looks cool on the wall.

So in your Stick-a-Clock parcel comes the clock mechansim and hands, along with numbers 1 to 12 (obviously) and various other stickers depicting various activities that your child will engage in during the day - such as 'breakfast', 'bath' and 'play'.

All you have to do is positiong the clock part on the wall and arrange the stickers around the outside of it, with the activities positioned in their relevant time slots.

You could always make your own activity stickers too and shuffle them around depending on whether it's the weekend or weekday, school term time or holidays.

The stickers have a matt, fabric texture and are PVC free and you can reposition them many times without causing damage to your wall or tearing.

If you like quirky and something a little different from the norm' then this Stick-a-Clock could be of interest to you.

I know. It hardly sounds like a headline, does it? But researchers have pooled data from 17 studies and found that children who ate with their families regularly were 24% more likely to eat healthy foods than kids who rarely ate with their families.

Apparently they were also less likely to suffer from eating disorders.

The study was conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and they obtained relevant studies of 183,000 children and teens ranging from 3 to 17 years old. The study looked specifically at the eating habits, weight, and whether the children did anything harmful to control weight.

According to the study, those who ate three or more meals a week with their families were 12% less likely to be overweight than those who ate less, and 20% less likely to eat sweets, fried foods and so on.

There’s a plethora of statistics out of this study, including the fact that such children would be 35% less likely to engage in negative behaviours aimed at losing weight, such as binging, purging, diet pills or smoking.

I remember reading a book by Sue Palmer when my daughter was still an infant and I had time for reading. One of the things she talks about is families eating together and how each of the children in a specific honours program at a school she was involved with were polled and without exception, it was found that they ate regular family meals together.

It's only recently that we decided to clear the dining table of the mountain of paperwork and other odds and ends covering it, switch off the telly, and actually make dinner time family too – with no laptop and no Blackberry to distract us from talking about our day – all the while laying the foundations for an honours student with no eating disorders. Or that’s the hope. But even if not, it's just nice catching up with each other at the end of the day.

Image Credit: Lori de Lozier

This week PlayPennies Loves...TinnedTomatoes.

I know better than to judge a book by it's cover but I tend to dive into blogs based on their names first - well how else are you supposed to do it, there aren't any covers to, not, judge by.

I do all the cooking in the house; the teenagers can, and they're quite good at it, but it's far less painful (and quicker) for me to do it.  They can faff and experiement when they've a) learned to clear up and wash up properly after themselves or b) left home.

Anyway, I get through a LOT of tinned tomatoes every week and so I was naturally drawn to TinnedTomatoes.

I clicked and I landed in food HEAVEN!

When I first arrive at someone's blog I tend to scroll down first rather than read - just the food pictures alone, down the right hand side, were enough to let me know I had to stay and find out more.  The rhubarb and custard cake, the chocolate pistachio fudge and the toffee pecan brownies are going to be the ruin of me!

TinnedTomatoes is the brainchild of Jacqueline and is a fabulous collection of vegetarian recipes.

Now before you run for the hills screaming that you 'don't LIKE lentils' let me reassure you that vegetarian cooking has come a very long way since that stereotype - I've been vegetarian and vegan in the past and there are some recipes that remain firm family favourites to this day.

I promise, there are THAT many scrummy recipes here that you'll soon forget there's no meat in them.

You won't run out of ideas anytime soon either as TinnedTomatoes goes back to 2007!

I clicked on the 2007 archive link and landed on this Moroccan Parcels recipe page - I've just come back from my home in South Africa and these Moroccan parcels are the sort of thing that me and my husband love to eat when we're home in SA together; I'll definitely be giving these a go when I want to 'transport' myself back there in an instant.

There's also a monthly competition - No Croutons Required -  where you can submit your best vegetarian recipes to be included in the round-up, if you win you'll get a prestigious plaque to display on your blog; fabulous.

There's so much to look at, and drool over, at TinnedTomatoes and everything's easy to find and nicely archived for you too.

I'm sure there'll be a recipe of two that will appeal to everyone - veggie or not - and I can guarantee if you go for the cake and muffin recipes you'll be at least a stone heavier by the end of the month too; don't say I didn't warn you!

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When I was a kid I thought it would be great to have a photographic memory, but as the years and experiences ticked by I realised that it was a GOOD thing not to be able to remember every single thing *grin*

However, when you're little and you've built something fabulous out of Lego, or you've created an masterpiece that Van Gogh would be proud of on a large aquadoodle mat (we like aquadoodle deals here on PlayPennies) it can be utterly heartwrenching to see your art evaporate or have to dismantle your Lego model.

Taking photographs of your youngsters efforts is a great way of getting round this 'trauma' and is something I've been doing for a while - me and my youngest are avid Lego fans, we build some great things and always take photographs of our endeavours so we can remember them.

Michelle over on ParentHacks has taken this idea a step further by printing the pictures, framing them and hanging them on her child's wall.

I think that's a rather nice idea and if you decide to give this a go, I hope you've got LOTS of wall space as I have a feeling it's going to be very popular with the kids.

I don't miss those early baby days one little bit.

One of my pet hates was finding suitable places in the dishwasher for all the little baby bits and pieces, so they wouldn't bounce around all over the place, during the cycle, and end up melting on the heating element.

Here's one of those ideas that, if you haven't already thought of, you wonder why on earth it didn't occur to you earlier; it's so obvious, simple and cheap.

Use a small plastic basket to put all the bits and pieces in; no more scrabbling around in the bottom of the dishwasher, marvellous.

Now I haven't seen small plastic baskets like this with fruit or veg' in them in the supermarkets, BUT I have seen them in places like the Pound Shop et al.

I love simple tips and tricks like this - if you've got any and are happy to share them with other PlayPennies readers then drop me a line and tell me about it.

This week PlayPennies loves...Lost In Translation.

In fact, I've been loving this for a while; it's the sort of blog that I consider to be a real blog, if you know what I mean - tales, stories and accounts of things that have happened, along with random musings about whatever happens to have sprung to mind; brilliant.

The only problem I have with Lost in Translation is deciding which posts to point you to - oh what the hell, you must just choose somewhere to start and then READ.

Some are short and sweet, others are longer and musey, some are ranty and shouty and the majority just have me, at the very least, chuckling like this GREAT post on how to stop your tights from falling down.

Did you know that Snickers and Oreos are a food group? Read this post and you might start to feel better if you consume vast quantities of them, but if you lie to diet apps on YOUR iPhone like our author then you KNOW you're in trouble!

"Three of my new apps are called TargetWeight, CalorieCounter and DietApp. I was hoping they would come in handy to tackle the Snickers-Oreo belly of shame - until I found myself lying to my TargetWeight app about my weight."

I love the tone of Lost in Translation - it's chatty, witty with just the right amount of ranting, sarcasm and not taking one's literary self too seriously; just brill.

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I am utterly intrigued by the concept of giving children a vote.

The new Hungarian government is considering giving mothers with small children an extra vote in elections, so that they can vote on behalf of their children.  I’m not sure how ‘up to date’ you are with your Hungarian politics, (yeah, me neither), but in short, the conservative Fidesz party have come up with various controversial policies since coming into power, and this proposal is its most controversial yet.

József Szájer, a senior Fidesz official and MEP, said that 20% of Hungarian  society consists of children.

"This is quite a considerable group that is left out of representation. The interests of these future generations are not represented in decision-making."

He added: "We know at first it seems an unusual idea, but in the 50s it was unusual to give votes to black people; 100 years ago, it was unusual to give votes to women."

Well, technically, he’s right, isn’t he? It’s the votes we take and the decisions we make today that influence our children.

Looking at the 2001 census data for England, the children under voting age made up just over 20% of the population – similar to Hungary’s stats – which, as Szájer said, is a pretty big chunk of the pie.

I have to wonder, if children were given a voice, would it make any difference? Would they vote to shut or reduce SureStart centres? Would they vote to close libraries? Or 1 o’clock clubs? Or community services such as breastfeeding cafes?

Of course, I know that  children don’t really understand the value of money, and won’t get that the government is trying to claw us out of a financial hole, but since it’s them that will have to pay pensions and medical and so on for a bunch of old people down the line I do like the thought of them having some say in the matter – perhaps not infants and toddlers, but young people are able to contribute or detract from society so much more from a much younger age now, so maybe it’s time they start having a say in it too?  Children stop being children so much earlier than they used to, so rather than repress them, frustrating and prohibiting them, maybe they should be given more responsibility.

If you’re old enough to take responsibility for your actions, shouldn’t you also be given the opportunity to take responsibility for your future?

Image credit: Ian Britton

It shouldn't take you too long to realise that The Future Perfect Company isn't a company who aim their products at kids.

• Click HERE to go over to the Future Perfect Company

I can't even remember how I came across The Future Perfect Company but I saw these double-handled ceramic mugs on their site and thought they'd be great for kids too.

All three of my children started off with the obligatory plastic double-handled Tommee Tippee cup; at some point they wanted to move away from plastic, be like everyone else and drink from proper mugs or glasses instead.

That was all very well and good but glasses don't come with handles and have a big circumference for little hands to try and grasp and ceramic mugs are heavy, combine that with a handle on one side only and they become somewhat lop-sided.

So even though these double-handled mugs are intended for people at the other end of the age range scale, I think they're great for kids who want to be like the grown ups and ditch their plastic fantastic drinking cups.

They start from £14 each, but if you follow the link above you'll be able to pick up two for £20.

This week PlayPennies loves...Cooking, Cakes and Children.

I'm chuckling away here as I think about Lynne Truss' 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' title; how one misplaced, or omitted, comma can change everything - you see I originally wrote 'Cooking Cakes and Children' - a blog by the gnarly old woman of Hansel and Gretel fame perhaps *grin*

If you like to read reviews in blogs then you'll be ok with Cooking, Cakes and Children - I'm not a particular fan of them as it's not what I read a blog for, I want to read about the family and what they get up to, so when a blog is more review than blog well, sorry I'm just not interested.

However, I HAD to share Cooking, Cakes and Children with you, if for nothing else, for THIS CAKE alone - it's quite easily the best teddy bear birthday cake I've ever seen; I'm totally mesemerised by him!

There are all sorts of recipes for you to try - like these dairy-free blueberry muffins; my resolve NOT to bake and then spend the rest of the afternoon eating cake was doing rather well until I came across this recipe for Sticky Ginger Cake; utterly lethal with hot custard, don't say I didn't warn you!

There are various other gems of posts hiding among the reviews - knitting projects, how to make things like a fairy bed from a cardboard box and so on, you just have to do a bit of scrolling and that's not so hard now, is it.

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Don't ask me why I was reading the Daily HateMail the other day, I just was ok!

In doing so, I came across THIS article about the latest Bugaboo, named the 'Donkey' - whoever came up with that name should be fired in my opinion, whatever happened to interesting and exotic sounding Bugaboo names like the 'Cameleon'...?

I remember the fuss and hoo-hah surrounding the Bugaboo pushchairs when I was pregnant with my youngest; I didn't get it then and I don't get it now.

Apparently the Bugaboo Donkey is selling out across the country despite having a £1,200 price tag!

Are people insane?

It was launched last week and according to the article in the Mail, John Lewis were selling them at the rate of one an hour; madness.

I've always viewed pushchairs and strollers as a necessary evil and have never paid more than £50 for one - the last one, a Mamas and Papas three-wheeler travel system came from eBay for about forty five quid.

SO...am I missing the point here?

What IS the big deal with pushchairs that require a small mortgage for the average Joe to be able to afford?  Mariah Carey is supposed to be the proud owner of a Bugaboo Donkey.

Just think of all the other things you could do with the best part of a thousand pounds if you were tight-fisted like me, when it comes to pushchairs, and only spent £50 on on!

I want to know, would YOU spend this much money on a pushchair?! Or maybe you already have; sorry for calling you 'insane' but you could go on a pretty decent holiday for that sort of money.

Of course, if this is the pushchair of your dreams then it's available from John Lewis for £1,200.

There are some things that just aren't socially acceptable, I'm sure you agree. While I personally think removing the Golliwog from Noddy was more insulting than just, say, changing his name, and I just can't call Christmas anything but, I can understand how someone with no affinity or link to Christ might simply prefer 'happy holidays'.

I do think, however, that the Seattle school that chose to rename Easter Eggs as Spring Spheres in an attempt to appease parents who were trying to keep their children's lives as religion-free as possible, has gone a little bit too far.

As Sunny Channel at Strollerderby says: “One big thing about the name 'Spring Sphere'… an egg is not sphere shaped. Oval yes. Sphere no. The school may be trying to teach the children to be non-offensive but in doing so shouldn’t they use an accurate moniker? Couldn’t they call it a “Spring Egg,” or “Eggers,” or “Pastel Plastic Ovals Filled with Candy.”

But incorrect name aside, surely, if the school wanted to teach the children to be non-offensive, the better way of doing so would be explaining that Easter is a Christian celebration (based on the Jewish Passover), eggs are a pagan symbol of fruitfulness and really, most of the world just likes chocolate?

I see no difference between an Easter-egg-shaped-Spring-Sphere and hiring a prostitute and calling her your “special friend”. It's the same thing, changing the name doesn't change what it is. As far as I can see, it's not teaching the children anything other than how to kid yourself and justify your actions till they fit your desires. But maybe that's just me.

If we want to remove anything of any religious or traditional value for everyone across the board, I think it's time Halloween became known as Fancy Dress night, Guy Fawkes became Fireworks Night, and bank holidays became Sale Days, and we can all drift further from our roots, our history, our traditions, and become one global society with absolutely no understanding of, or need for tolerance, difference or respect.

It's not every day that you'll get something for nothing, but it seems as if Asda is breaking that rule with their Sporting Chance sports activities for children this Easter.

For the Easter Holidays, Asda are offering free sports and activity sessions across the UK, with no purchase necessary. You simply pop into your local Asda and pick up a voucher – although should you decide to buy your milk and bread while you're there, I'm sure they wont mind.

Fiona Campbell-Reilly, Asda head of community, said: “"Easter holidays are upon us and evenings are getting lighter, so it's a great time for children to get involved with a local sporting activity. We all love a good Easter egg, however it's important to balance this out by encouraging children to keep active and healthy and take advantage of the Sporting Chance free sessions."

The scheme has been running for three years – this will be the fourth – and over 89,000 families took part in the free sessions last year. There are over 100,000 free sports and activity sessions planned throughout this Easter holiday and each session is designed to keep children entertained and active.

You can find out what's going on in your area by visiting the Asda Sporting Chance website, and if you want more information on eating better and tips on moving more you can visit Change4Life which Asda supports.

I did an activity search in an area I know to be relatively deprived – they even closed the leisure centre a few years ago – for a child aged two and under, honestly not thinking anything would come up. Surprisingly, there were two options – football and dance – within one mile of the postcode.

Then I searched for a 10 year old, and found three types of martial arts and two ball sports within five miles.

I must say I am pretty impressed with the variety on offer.

While we're munching away on Easter eggs and the evenings are getting longer, why not take advantage of these beautifully sunny days and get the kids involved in free sporting activities. You know what Asda will say, after all? That's right. Every little helps.

Image: Olympian Alistair Brownlee with children & free sports vouchers

This week PlayPennies Loves...And 1 More Means 4.

Actually it means five now as Amy, and her husband, are parents to FIVE children; we love them this week for that level of insanity bravery alone!

I have three children - there's just a year between the eldest two and then a gap of nearly 11 years between my daughter and my youngest.  My brain CANNOT compute what it must be like to have five children under five!

Five girls and one little lad make up the And 1 More Means 4 - I hope Amy has more than one bathroom otherwise he doesn't stand a HOPE of getting in there when the girls hit the teenage years!

Amy works nights so she can spend as much time with her littlies during the day as possible, and she finishes work at 2am.  This isn't too much before I'm getting up and reading about how she loves 2am is a bit like how I feel about 4am (although I don't have the crumpets *grin*).

I'm at least a decade older than Amy, but it seems that school life hasn't, and doesn't, change as the years roll by - Education  - School and all the other bits.

Reading through Amy's blog, I have to wonder if she has access to a secret stash of extra hours somewhere - I've no idea how she fits everything in, I feel exhausted just reading all about the family antics but throughout, she's always smiling.

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Oh I LOVE these!

• Click HERE to see the frog stickers

The title pretty much gives the game away - these are frog wall stickers that are chalkboard coated so your little one can draw on the walls without drawing on the walls!

They'll also have some rather funky looking frog 'wallpaper' that isn't wallpaper.

You can draw, and write, on them with normal chalk and then just clean it off with a clean damp cloth when you want to start again.

They come in two colours - black and green - and each frog measures 40cm x 38cm.

There seems to be a sale on these at Dotty Dot because there are two prices listed - the normal price of £12.50 each or the sale price of £8.75 <-------- I like the look of that price best!

I'm a bit of a coffee fan.

Ok, I actually drink far more than I should but it's straight and black and I don't like it strong (unlike Tamsin, I swear you can stand the spoon up in her coffee!).

I stayed away from the black stuff when I was pregnant with all three of my kids though and dived headlong into the caffeine free world of herbal teas.

Anna Louise Simpson did the same but took things somewhat further than just buying a few boxes of Twinnings tea bags; she designed her own range of herbal infusions especially for pregnant and new mums, although you don't HAVE to fall into either of those categories to enjoy them.

• Click HERE to go over to Mama Tea

There's Morning Mama tea with ginger and chamomile - perfect for morning sickness sufferes or when you just want something warming.

Glowing Mama tea with rooibos and elderflower; Cool Mama with spearmint and chamomile, Ready Mama, a blend of infamous Raspberry Leaf to kick start labour along with rose petals and New Mama tea with fennel and lemon balm.

The all sound rather lovely to be honest and can be bought from various places online, and if you order direct from Mama Tea then there's no delivery to pay.

As of today, fathers are entitled to longer paternity leave – up to six months, in fact, if the mother has gone back to work. I love the timing of this, like a gift to families on Mothering Sunday.

A while ago I wrote about fathers getting a raw deal when it comes to paternity leave, and just a month later the proposal for the extended paternity leave was floated (I do wish that had something to do with my article, but I doubt it!). Today it came into effect, and basically means that mums can now 'transfer' the second half of their 12-month entitlement to the father, up to a maximum of six months.

While I found having my husband around for the first two weeks exceptionally helpful – I was breastfeeding and barely moved off the sofa – I don't personally feel that two weeks is long enough for him to really bond, nor that those first two weeks are the most essential time, so these new laws seem really good to me!

For the first few months, it's really only mum that matters to babies, but from around six months, babies are so much more interactive that it's a good time for dad to get to know the baby, and bond with a real little person – or so I think, at least.

While it may be harder for small businesses, and some may even be exempted, I do think that this is a step in the right direction. Sadly, however, I'm not sure how feasible it's going to be for most families:

Statutory pay is still only just over £120 per week, and with a new member to the family and mum having taken a pay cut for a while already, there aren't too many families that can afford to live off statutory income.

So, while I'm not sure that it's going to make a big difference to families in reality, I do think having the option is good for parents. And if nothing else, it removes an obstacle to women of childbearing age when it comes to job interviews - whether that discrimination is supposed to be there or not.

Images:
1970s Swedish Paternity Leave ad featuring weightlifter Hoa-Hoa Dahlgren – OnBeing @ Flickr
Paternity Leave – The US Army @ Flickr
Marco + Masi – Nico Cavallotto @ Flickr