Name

Kate Higgins

Bio

Likes weans and wittering, cooking and carousing, gardening and girning. Committed to changing Scotland one blog post at a time, here and on her own site, A Burdz Eye View. Passionate about social justice and making sure those currently without, get theirs.

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  • How much can the state help us become better parents?

    The Prime Minister has a point.  I can recall being presented with my first new-born some 20 odd years ago and panicking:  I immediately signed up for the full six-day stay in hospital to work out what to do with him. 

    And while some of it was instinct, and trial and error, I'm not ashamed to admit that I learned lots from my own mum and from friends and other family members too.

    But it doesn't get any easier:  every milestone reached gives barely a moment for celebration before the next challenge presents itself.

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  • When the headlines are healthy, but bad news lies underneath

    Headlines proclaimed that young Scots are among the happiest in Europe.  They are brushing their teeth more regularly, consuming fewer fizzy drinks, doing well at school smoking and taking drugs less.

    Heck, some of them even claim to talk to their parents.  It paints a rosy picture, but only if you stick to the headlines.

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  • How the Finns are turning out the finished product from schools

    It's seeing them learn through play which is so fascinating. I can recall many instances of watching my toddler sons trying to do something but not quite getting it.

    You know the kind of thing – trying to move water into a bucket using a pot with holes in it, or to make a triangular block go through a smaller, circular hole.  How long would they continue to do the same thing before they would realise that it wasn't going to work and that they would need to try something else?

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  • Budget 2012 analysis: a missed opportunity?

    Despite George Osborne claiming that the "central goal of this budget is to support working families," measures which benefit them directly were thin on the ground.  And most attention was given to the better off ones.

    Talking about dancing on pinheads, the Chancellor spent so long building up to his announcement about needing to "avoid a cliff edge" in relation to the proposed cut off for child benefit, I thought he was going to renege on it altogether.

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  • Children are victims of domestic violence too

    It was an important move, because previously no one knew just how many children were present in households where domestic violence had reached the point where police were being called. The figures were more shocking than anyone might have thought.

    Around 7000 children and young people all over Scotland spent last Christmas and New Year hoping that the violence might stop.  And these are only the ones we know about, as Graeme Goulden, Chief Inspector who leads on the anti-violence campaign at the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) pointed out.

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  • At long last, the needs of our children are moving up the political agenda

    I've done a couple of blogposts recently calling on all the political parties to make children and issues impacting on them a priority.

    And whaddya know?  They appear to have been listening.  Or at least not turning a deaf ear to such pleas.

    At the SNP Spring Conference, First Minister Alex Salmond's big announcement was that the Scottish Government would be putting into law, through the forthcoming Children's Services bill, an entitlement for all 3 and 4 year olds to 600 hours of nursery education.

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  • All adults, but especially politicians, have to teach our children that abuse is wrong

    There's the Labour MP who assaulted colleagues while under the influence. It is suggested that the same MP has serious issues with alcohol and also seduced a much younger female party activist. Then there's the SNP MSP, currently suspended, after the Sunday Herald published accusations of serial domestic abuse of the women in his life.

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  • Children’s health is too important to be a soft target for government cuts

    Yesterday, though, rightly saw top billing for a great news story for children and young people with diabetes. The Scottish Government has stumped up the cash to ensure that every child who can use one will get an insulin pump.

    And with one small step, a giant leap in the quality of life for 480 children with Type 1 diabetes will be achieved.

    A small number, granted, but every child deserves the best possible start in life and coping with a life-long condition, which in some cases might be life-limiting, should be made as hassle-free as possible.

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  • Sideline bad behaviour to give our kids a sporting chance

    Both are pretty naturally gifted sportsmen – nothing makes me prouder than standing on the sidelines cheering them on.

    I've done it in blizzards, gales, scorching sunshine (this one very rarely) and always tried to show encouragement to them and their team-mates.

    But like many parents, I've seen and heard other adults take it all too seriously and worse, vent their frustrations at children and young people playing on the park.

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  • Let all the bairns decide Scotland's future!

    Though you may want to hibernate your way through this procedural bit of the independence referendum debate, you really should sit up and pay attention.

    It might be tedious, there might be an awful lot of gesticulating and noise-making from the political parties and respective parliamentary institutions, but actually some of the decisions reached in these early days will have profound and longlasting impact.

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  • In death, as in life, we have failed Declan Hainey

    No one could fail to have been repulsed by the pictures of the squalor in which little Declan Hainey’s body was found.  Nor made heart sore by the appealing photo of the wee boy, his cherubic features and toothy grin emphasising just how young and innocent he was when murdered.

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  • What is the BBC's problem with women?

    I've never been shy of banging on about the lack of women commentators on Newsnight Scotland.  All too often, we get an all bloke affair: I've lost count of the number of times this has happened and it was only after concerted criticism that a fleeting attempt was made to rectify matters.

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  • This year, why not make a different kind of resolution?

    I never do owt so rash as promise to change at New Year. I can think of nothing worse than removing clothing, doing without comfort food or taking up a new hobby in the darkest depths of winter when cash flow has slowed to a trickle.  I wait until early summer to come up with madcap ideas but be assured, I break my resolutions just as quickly as any made in January.

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  • Our youngsters are doing much better than parents in shunning booze and fags

    The parents never tire of telling it.  Aged 16, and on my first local pub foray  with friends, one thought it would be funny to buy me doubles all night.

    I arrived home to go to the midnight church service but only managed to greet the church-goers in between vomiting episodes on the front steps of our house.

    The parents spent all night with me checking I wasn't going to choke and die mid-huey.  At 7.30am I bounced into their room, fully recovered; they meanwhile felt like they'd been the ones on the batter.

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  • Is care for Scotland's new mums all that it should be?

    Recent research conducted by Netmums and the Royal College of Midwives exposed real weaknesses in the provision of care for women and babies in the NHS.

    Nearly a third of survey participants claimed not to have been offered NHS run ante-natal classes but worryingly, this rose to nearly half of women on low incomes. Almost 75% of women earning less than £15,000 said they had not attended such classes.

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  • Attention all parents: what are your children doing online?

    This weekend, watch the film Trust.  Produced and directed by David Schwimmer, the geeky one in Friends who almost but never quite got his woman, it is essential viewing.

    If your teenager spends hours glued to their phone or buried in their rooms online on a laptop or PC, “chatting” or doing “nothing” then you have to see this film.  Because instead of just shrugging and getting on with the dishes, or smiling to yourself that you know where yours are and what they are doing, this film will show you just how at risk they really are.

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  • Why is childcare absent from the agenda?
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  • Europe’s values help us avoid the ‘lowest common denominator’ card
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  • That Braehead ice-cream pic: would a mother have been challenged?
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  • Investing in young people will pay off in the long term
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Name

Kate Higgins

Job Title

Blogger

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