Children need parents

For children's welfare, the ability of parents to work flexible hours is far better than extending nursery hours or providing overnight care. Child psychologist Jennie Lindon says, 'Parents need to spend enough relaxed time with children - at a suitable time of day, not late into the evening and not when they're exhausted or doing a dozen other things - so they can do things together, feel part of a family and build up happy, shared memories.' She believes it is ideal if one parent can work part-time when children are young, but at the very least children need to spend the early evenings, weekends and holidays with their parents. 'It's an adult-child balance,' she says, 'not just a work-life balance.' But there is a fly in the ointment. The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux says that an employment rights agency needs to be set up to provide effective enforcement of employment rights, plus practical assistance for the smallest employers with the lowest-paid workers. Tens of thousands of female employees do not even have their existing rights upheld, it says, let alone new ones. Work and Parents Taskforce, take note. NW