Are we just here to pick up the pieces?

I feel that part of the problem with increasing bad behaviour in rising fives may be due to parents being reluctant to discipline their own children. But it is more likely that the most troublesome children are not properly bonded with their parents and may have been handed over to a range of people to be looked after from a very young age.

They are angry with everyone and especially their parents because no-one is consistently there for them. Parents probably give the children frequent tellings off without properly talking to them and finding out what their problems are. Some parents have very little patience, as can be readily observed on any suburban street. Children get dragged along to all sorts of days out, and they get bored and tired.

Teachers and school staff are just the latest in a long line of people the child may have been handed over to. It takes a long time to be able to build up a trusting relationship with a child that has never known consistency and genuine concern. More designated one-to-one support in nurseries might help the child learn to relate to other people and calm down, but the damage may be very hard to repair.

Parents need help to learn just how important they are to the emotional development of their children, to be supported in the home, and not to be encouraged to go out to work and leave their children with relative strangers from a very early age.

Anne Blackman Gwent