USA is second worst place in the developed world to raise kids (UNICEF)

[Blighty Skins]

Shame on you! And if you're wondering which one is the worst, according to UNICEF...it's the UK

[Johnny Punani]

are you serious??

[Blighty Skins]

No...I'm not. It's an official report...from yesterday.

[perturbed]

No...I'm not. It's an official report...from yesterday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360517.stm

[jbooma]

yep every other place has so many different colleges and opportunities

[portisizzle]

What was the best place to raise kids, pray tell.

[endzone_dave]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360517.stm

It seems to me the article is saying that allowing your kids to drink, have sex, and smoke pot is what makes you a good parent. Your kids will have less peer pressure and this results in them being happier.

[Major Harris]

i wouldn't want to raise my kids anywhere else. seems en vogue to hate the us.

[Zen-like Todd]

Shame on you! And if you're wondering which one is the worst, according to UNICEF...it's the UK

Zzz.... saw it, don't buy it. There may be kernels of truth, but at a glance it seemed to favor simplistic metrics that assume socialist policies magically create better welfare for children. No big shock that under those guidelines, the UK and US make poor showings.

[Blighty Skins]

Zzz.... saw it, don't buy it. There may be kernels of truth, but at a glance it seemed to favor simplistic metrics that assume socialist policies magically create better welfare for children. No big shock that under those guidelines, the UK and US make poor showings.

Well I don't know about the US, but I think it's about right for us. British people treat their dogs better than their kids. Last week we had some scumbug parents beat their 3 year old girl half to death...she has Cerebral Palsy, poor thing. So not only was she dealt some duff cards from life, she got to be beaten, kicked in the crotch, locked in the toilet for 7 weeks and forced to eat her feces and had clumps of hair pulled out her head...social workers found her "hours from death". Not only that but 2 days ago a 2 year old girl was found dead in her bedroom. She'd been raped from her uncle and then strangled to death.

Everytime I go out to a shop or supermarket I see basterd parents mistreat their children, it's a common thing here. Today at a hardware store this cow of a mother dropped something on her 5 year old sons head which hurt him. Instead of consoling him all she could do was shout in a nasty voice "It was only an accident!!" and "It's not bleeding, you know!".

Why do they bother having kids if they're going to be cruel. Seriously, between cruelty to animals and cruelty to kids it's something I can't stand. You don't want to know what I would do to them....

[zoony]

Zzz.... saw it, don't buy it. There may be kernels of truth, but at a glance it seemed to favor simplistic metrics that assume socialist policies magically create better welfare for children. No big shock that under those guidelines, the UK and US make poor showings.

That's it exactly. Ironic that these same policies that are so bad for children belong to the two most powerful nations on Earth.

[Blighty Skins]

Again, I can't speak for the US, but for the UK it is accurate. And also for Italy. I've lived in Italy for a while and it's a very child orientated country. The UK seems to be a nation where kids are just about tolerated and they must revolve their lives around us. Italy is the opposite. I'll give you a real world example. Restaurants over here do not want kids and British parents are expected to hire a babysitter if going to one. All kids are welcome in Italian restaurants. That's just one example...

[chomerics]

Zzz.... saw it, don't buy it. There may be kernels of truth, but at a glance it seemed to favor simplistic metrics that assume socialist policies magically create better welfare for children. No big shock that under those guidelines, the UK and US make poor showings.

Here is the report if you want to read it. . .

http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07.pdf


The metrics were as follows:

European countries dominate the top half of the overall league table, with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland claiming the top four places.

#
The UK and United States are in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six categories covered. The six categories are material well-being, family and peer relationships, health and safety, behaviour and risks, and children's own sense of well-being (educational and subjective).

# No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions of child well-being, although the Netherlands and Sweden come close to achieving this.

MATERIAL WELL-BEING

# Child poverty remains above the 15% mark in the three southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy) and in three Anglophone countries (the US, the UK, and Ireland).

#
There is no obvious relationship between levels of child well-being and GDP per capita. The Czech Republic, for example, achieves a higher overall rank for child well-being than several much wealthier countries.

# A total of nine countries - all in northern Europe - have brought child poverty rates below 10%.

FAMILY AND PEER RELATIONSHIPS

# Approximately 80% of children in the countries under review are living with both parents. This ranges from more than 90% in Greece and Italy to less than 70% in the UK and 60% in the US.

# Even in the lowest ranked countries, almost two-thirds of children still regularly eat the main meal of the day with their families, with France and Italy maintaining the tradition most of all.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

# Fewer than one in every 10,000 young people die before the age of 19 as a result of accident, murder, suicide or violence.

# European countries occupy the top half of the report's child health and safety table, with the top five places claimed by the four Nordic countries and the Netherlands.

# Infant mortality rates range from under three per 1,000 births in Iceland and Japan, to over six per 1,000 in Hungary, Poland and the US.

BEHAVIOUR AND RISKS

# The overall OECD league table of young people's risk behaviours sees the UK at the foot of the rankings by "a considerable distance".

# Risk behaviours considered in the study include smoking, being drunk, using cannabis, fighting and bullying, and sexual behaviour.

# Only about a third of young people eat fruit daily.

# Only about a third of young people exercise for an hour or more on five or more days a week - youths take most exercise in Ireland, Canada and the US, and the least in Belgium and France.

EDUCATIONAL WELL-BEING

# Finland, Canada, Australia, and Japan head this particular table in the report.

# The UK is rated in the bottom third of the table for educational well-being.

# Four southern European countries - Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal - occupy the bottom four places.

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

# Children's subjective sense of well-being appears to be markedly higher in the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece and markedly lower in Poland and the UK.

# Approximately 80% of young people consider their health to be good or excellent in every OECD country except the UK.

# The Netherlands, Norway and Austria, are at the head of the table with over a third of their schoolchildren admitting to "liking school a lot".

[Sarge]

Like I care what UNICEF says

So since we're such a ****hole in their eyes, they'll be sending us food and monetary aid from now on, instead of sending it to real ****holes in AFrica, right?

[supadrummer]

Like I care what UNICEF says

So since we're such a ****hole in their eyes, they'll be sending us food and monetary aid from now on, instead of sending it to real ****holes in AFrica, right?

Why do you call African's ****holes? They aren't the ones bombing us. What made you give that statement?