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The Kitchen Round Table

a thought piece from Parent.org

"I have a dream - or is it a vision?"

Welcome to The Kitchen Round Table. You have received this because you are on a database of people we consider interested in this area of thought. Unsubscription details are at the bottom. KRT is a short political thought piece from Parent.org, an organisation dedicated to giving parents a voice.

Vision - an antique political tool

Leaders have been using vision for centuries.  When Roman, Grecian and Mongol political and military leaders rallied their populations to  empirialism they did so by articulating a strong nationalist vision.  Hitler was strong on vision, so too were Ghandi and Mandela.  More recently businesses and organisations have latched on to the power of a well articulated vision as a tool for uniting and motivating a workforce towards a common goal.

New Zealand - 20/20 vision?

All our recent elections have been fought over competing visions.  We have a very clear vision about our economic future - "innovation", "knowledge economy" are part of the everyday political and media language.  We have a shared, but not necessarily agreed, vision over ourselves as a bi-cultural nation - empowerment for Maori, reconciling the past, partnership for the future.  This use of vision helps us work past our differences of opinion.  We even have a very clear vision for children as articulated in the "Children's Agenda" and the existence of a Children's Commissioner.

What a shame...

We don't have a vision for our nation's parents.  To have a vision for children but none for parents is like trying to reduce the road toll while ignoring drivers.  Do we not want anything from or for our parents, or do we just not care?  

Blurred vision?

Whenever the Prime Minister has spoken about parenting in the last couple of years it has been to tell parents to leave their children in the care of strangers and return to work.  Government initiatives have centred around making that easier to achieve - childcare subsidies, raising standards in childcare, making after school care more accessible, financially supporting those who choose work over parenting and so forth, a bit like paying French farmers to not plant crops.  Perhaps this is the vision they have of parenting - "Good parenting is absent parenting".

What does this mean for parents?  Do they feel supported as a parent, valued and respected in that role - inspired to work hard at parenting and care about the children they are raising.  Absolutely not!  

Good vision going for free.

Parent.org has a very simple vision for New Zealand's parents - "World's best parenting environment".  From a simple statement like that all things can flow.  Parents can see themselves as valued by society and this will encourage ambition.  Business can see a role for themselves in bringing this environment about through work/life balance initiatives.  A simple statement like this can focus government work on creating opportunities for parents to learn and grow, rather than the current finger in the dike approach to parenting skills and knowledge. 

Bottom line

Vision is great!  It is a fantastic tool to unite and inspire people and articulate an outcome for everyone to work towards.  With a clear vision for parenting we can begin to create an environment that encourages skills and knowledge and that will lead to better outcomes for children and ultimately a society that is safer, richer, more creative, and more harmonious.

The Kitchen Round Table will come to you every few weeks, building on this idea of creating a better country by creating a better environment for our parents to operate in, so if you want some fresh thinking about social and economic issues look out for your next KRT .Parent.org is a national lobby group promoting this common sense approach to building a better society.  We are a-political, non religious, non-prescriptive.  We simply believe that by creating an environment the encourages successful parenting New Zealand will become a better place for everyone.

Next edition – "experience vs expertise - is evidence based policy good policy?"

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