The New Child Car Seat Belt Law/Regulations

In one weeks time a new regulation relating to seat belts and children will be implemented. As usual there is some confusion as to the exact details. The confusion isn't just with the general public. Today I listened to a police road safety officer based in Cornwall being interviewed on radio. He stated when questioned, "I agree it is confusing." The understanding seems to be that how the law is implemented will depend on how your local policeforce interprets it. So be-aware.

The confusion appears to have arisen from the inclusion of a section that talks about children under 12. Does the law relate to children under 12 years of age? or does the law relate to children less than 4.5 feet tall? The best advice that the police safety officer could give was to measure your child. If the child is under 4.5 feet then you must have a booster seat in place. There seems to be no right or wrong booster seat. It seems that any decent cushion will suffice.

Logically you would think that the reasons for this new law are a proven safety issue for short persons. Logically you would think that whether the person is a child or just a very short adult, being 4.5 feet tall and riding in a car without a booster seat, will be the same danger for all humans, whatever the age. Apparently not. Only children are covered. The inconsistencies that will obviously arise with this will be numerous. It will be interesting to see how many parents challenge the new law when they are stopped, and charged, for allowing their young looking 16 year old who measures only 4.4 feet, to sit in the car with no booster seat.

I wonder how they would have dealt with my son. Always tall for his age, at 8 years old he was 4 feet and by 11 he was over 4.5 feet tall.

Telephone Telepathy

I read recently that a british researcher, a certain Dr Sheldrake, is convinced that telephone telepathy is a real phenomena. He is basing his conviction on the results of 63 volunteers who each selected 4 friends to 'potentially' ring them at a pre-designated time. The volunteers were instructed to pick up the ringing phone and immediately say who was calling.

I'm sure this is something we have all experienced at some point. Out of the blue you start to think of someone, the phone rings - there they are, on the line. On the other hand you may be like my mother - a fully fledged telepathic phone user. She's a dab hand at saying "hallo Fiona" before I can utter a word. Thinking about it, I have been known in the past, to dabble in a little telephone telepathy myself. As a 17 year old. I have vivid recollections of staring at the phone and willing it to ring. The boyfriend of that time, a particularly bad communicator, never got the message. Night after night I tried it - eventually I got a life and moved on!

These days 17 year olds aren't interested in the old telephone telepathy trick. For them it's text messaging and emails. I hear down the grapeline that Dr Sheldrake's current research is into text messaging telepathy. I await his results with interest. You may also be interested to know that I'm considering offering myself as a volunteer should he wish to extend his research into email telepathy. I consider email telepathy to be a more exact science.

Tomorrow morning I will open my mailbox. I will receive a minimum of 24 emails. They will offer me a range of pills for every ailment you can imagine. The chance to put myself under some surgeons knife for breast enhancements to please the man of my dreams, or joy of joys, painless surgery to give me the largest p**** - to surprise the girl of my dreams!

So if you're reading this Dr Sheldrake, give me a call. Email telepathy - no problem...

Childhood And Depression

I was disturbed to read that depression amongst todays children is commonplace and on the rise. Apparently it's been brought about by the many indulgences we adults extend to children. The main culprits -junk food, extensive marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment.

The term 'death of childhood' is not new. By today's standards, children growing up during and after the war years (1940/50's), when poverty, depression, low wages and poor housing were widespread, were also robbed of the simple pleasures of childhood. And there I think lies the key. Simple pleasures.

When I was young there were no electronic games. There was TV, but I didn't have one in my bedroom. I shared my room with two sisters. Us three girls were very different personalities. Our likes and dislikes often led to childish disagreements. Having a TV in our bedroom would have led to a very noisy bedtime. We were encouraged instead to read in bed. A simple pleasure.

The joy of falling asleep with your mind imagining what might happen next in your unfinished book is a pleasure that has not left me. Todays children are not encouraged to use their imagination in a healthy way. They grow out of the habit of imaginary games and simple play too early. It's not the childs fault, nor is it entirely the parents fault.

Being politically correct in your childrearing is pushed at us from all directions. We have become an over-protective society in a way that does not allow our children to experience true life. We no longer prepare them for the knocks that life will give them as an adult.

I remember once writing a story about a sheep that learnt to whistle. Just imagine the fun and confusion this caused for the farmer. When I sent my story to a publisher the following was the main tone of my rejection slip - 'beware of fantasy in children's stories.' At the time I was too shocked at this statement to be upset about being rejected!

Allowing children to use their imagination and to have a little healthy fantasy, may well go some way to improving a childs cognitive skills. The experts think they have found a link between cognitive skills and depression. An assessment of a child's cognitive capabilities can show how a child processes information and applies knowledge - their mind, reasoning, learning and perception or mental functions and processes. Simply put this is an an IQ test. Recent cognitive tests on 11 year olds showed them to be 2 to 3 years behind in cognitive capability than they were in similar tests run 15 years ago.

Maybe it's time we took note and worked towards a 'back to basics' in childrearing. Forget being PC. Let's have learning to use your imagination, natural curiousity and fantasy on the national curriculum.