It looks very bad, the study that shows Australian dads on average spending a measly six minutes alone with their kids Monday through Friday. Just over one minute a day! Overall, they spend just shy of one hour each working week caring for their kids, but 90 per cent of that care is done alongside the mother, social researcher Lyn Craig finds in a new paper, Fare Care, Father Share in International Perspective.

Thankfully, they spend longer with the kids at the weekend but, again, mostly as a family unit. And when they do look after the kids on their own, these laid-back dads rarely do “drudge work” such as feeding, bathing or taking them to and from school or childcare; no, the scoundrels grab the nice jobs like going to the park or to sport.

Meanwhile their wives are spending three hours a week just looking after the children, on top of child-related housework. The resulting gap in care work is greater than between mums and dads in the US, Italy, France and Denmark -- although even in those countries fathers spend little time alone with their children. No-one, apparently, comes near Danish men, who average about 17 per cent of care because a lot more wives work full time.

Dr Craig seems keen on the Danish division of labour. There, almost 65 per cent of couple households have two full-time workers, compared with 20 per cent in Australia. Nearly half of couple households in Australia have a full-time/part-time model, compared with just 12 per cent in Denmark, and this is encouraged by family tax benefits and the absence of paid maternity leave. The resulting “specialisation of women in family care and men in paid work” is not a good thing, we gather, although it does partly explain why the men’s statistics look so bad.

However, there is one thing in which Australian couples beat the Danes, Italians and others: overall they spend more time caring for their own children, even though they tend to work longer hours. In other words, Australian children spend less time in childcare, which would not be the case if their mothers were more like Danish women.

So, although Australian women would probably like their husbands to take the kids off their hands more, it is not at all clear that working towards some kind of equality in care work would be better for the children. ~ The Australian, Oct 20

The tendency of Generation X in Japan to value their careers above marriage is distressing their ageing parents, so much so that the parents have turned to match-making groups to find spouses for their adult children. Some 47 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women in their early 30s were unmarried in 2005 -- more than twice as many as in 1990. And most of these singles (70 per cent between 18 and 39) live with their parents. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates and oldest populations in the world.

Toko Shirakawa, author of the best-selling book, Konkatsu-Jidai, or The Times of Marriage Hunting -- subtitled “One in four young people will not be able to get married” -- says marriage in Japan has become a personal preference, not an essential part of life. Women who are now around 40 years old belong to a generation “that fought against the male dominated society and were the vanguard of women’s rights by having careers… They spent their typical marriageable age working so hard and society was not ready to provide security to them both in career and family life.” Now they are reluctant to put their hard-earned lifestyles at risk, “And marriage and family building are considered such risks.”

The matchmaking sessions for parents were the idea Michiko Saito, 64 and the mother of three children, who works for a marriage agency. She decided to start the parent get-togethers eight years ago after a woman she knew died of cancer, alone without any family. Although only 10 per cent of past attendees’ children have found spouses through the profile and photo sharing events, but it soothes the parents’ anxieties a little, says Saito.

She reassures parents by telling them it is natural for them to help their children in this way, but she knows she still has to convince some young people about the virtues of marriage. “I believe that people, especially parents, should show the value of family and how great it is,” Saito says. “No-one should die alone. People should live with mutual support and care. And I believe family is the answer.” ~ Google/AFP, Oct 23

Germany is agonising over its education system again. It gets a mediocre rating in the international PISA studies, and it sorts children too soon into academic and vocational “tracks” on the basis of performance that is largely determined by family background. Chancellor Angela has called a summit of education ministers from Germany’s 16 states, since they are the ones who control education. But economist and education researcher Ludger Woessmann, of the Ifo institute in Munich, fears that education will stay in its “rut” unless the federal government can call the states to account.

One solution, says Woessmann, is to give schools more autonomy in choosing their staff (they have none at present) and to have a more competitive system that gives parents choice. He would like to see private schools (there are very few in Germany) put on the same funding level as public schools -- that is, state funded but privately run, as in the Netherlands and Sweden. In the Netherlands, three-quarters of students go to schools that are not operated by the state, but mostly by churches and other charities, says Woessmann, and these schools benefit low income children the most.

Among other suggestions the economist thinks Germany should provide more pre-school education, rather than just child care, and introduce student loans at university level, which are mainly attended by the children of rich families. ~ Deutsche Welle, Oct 22

Older Japanese men might be expected to cling to traditional social roles, but some are branching out in retirement to act as caregivers for the burgeoning ranks of elderly Japanese. Kohei Yoneyama, a former venture capital executive, started the Nagareyama Friendship Network over a decade ago along with five colleagues. Their mission is to enlist men who are finding that life after the office is short on meaningful activity. Care is not just something women should do, says Yoneyama.

As of March 2008, almost 22 per cent of Japan’s population was over age 65, a figure that is expected to double by 2050. Some 13 million Japanese are over 75 and more than 36,000 are centenarians. Meanwhile, a plunging birth rate is eating away at younger labour ranks. Government responded in 1998 with a law to support non-profit activities like the Friendship Network (which already existed) and in 2000 introduced elderly care insurance which allows for the reimbursement of some service programmes. Japan is also opening its doors to foreign nurses.

The Friendship Network has seen its initial ranks swell from 155 members to 2000 -- 12 00 who help others and 800 more who participate in the organisation’s other activities. About 30 per cent of members are men. Today the network also runs a home for seniors who can’t live on their own and even provides some daycare to single parents.

Volunteers pick up elderly people to take them to appointments, do gardening and repairs and give other assistance. Members earn points that in many cases can be exchanged with similar networks elsewhere, making it possible for a volunteer to accumulate credits for a family member far away. They also receive some payment.

A man of 76 who trains volunteers sees himself as a role model for his 60ish students: “So they know there is a future ahead.” He also teaches at a vocational college where he gives young people “a very different image” of older people. Yoneyama says he tries “to transform a company man into a community person”. He tells them: “Get rid of job titles. Get rid of your business cards. Don’t long for your old train pass. Let go of the old and become a new person.” ~ Christian Science Monitor, Oct 21

The millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, are entering the workplace with a strong sense of entitlement to conditions that will suit their talents and tastes, according to a Wall Street Journal writer. In an article based on his new book, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace, Ron Alsop profiles the young graduate workers as the demanding products of doting parents, teachers and coaches, accustomed to constant praise and to receiving trophies whether they deserved them or not, since what mattered was their self-esteem.

However, it seems that parents and teachers are not doing young people any favours by constantly adapting to their needs. “Going into the workplace, they have an expectation that companies will adapt for them too,” says a corporate consultant and career coach for college students. They expect higher pay, flexible work schedules, promotion within a year, and more vacation or personal time. But they are not inclined to give loyalty in return; if a job does nor prove fulfilling, millennials will forsake it in a flash. The problem of retention worries employers. If these workplace nomads do take longer to land a new job-- especially in the present economic conditions -- they are comfortable in the knowledge they can move back home and be subsidised by mum and dad.

Other characteristics that employers find challenging include the young workers’ need for precise guidelines and lots of affirmation, and their inability to handle criticism or even suggestions for improvement. They tend to be highly opinionated and are not in awe of the boss or management, to whom they expect ready access to share their brilliant ideas.

However, companies will have to adapt to some extent to the millennials, who also possess significant strengths in teamwork, technology skills, social networking and multitasking. Bred for achievement, most will work hard if the task is engaging and promises a payoff. And after all, says Alsop, “the grumbling baby-boomer managers are the same indulgent parents who produced the millennial generation,” so they are reaping more or less what they sowed.

Now there’s a take-home thought on parenting: Would you like your kids to be working for you? ~ Wall Street Journal, Oct 21

Erosion of the family in New Zealand is costing the country at least $1 billion a year, according to new research commissioned by lobby group Family First. The report, The Value of Family, estimates for the first time the fiscal impact of single parenthood, divorce and decreasing marriage rates in the small, South Pacific nation, and finds that the cost over the past decade amounts to $8bn. New Zealand’s gross domestic product is around $211 billion (US$128bn), making the cost of family breakdown equivalent to about 0.5 per cent of GDP a year.

Family breakdown in New Zealand reflects trends in many developed countries, but the nation of not quite 4.3 million people has one of the highest rates of non-marital births -- ahead of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Canada -- and sole parents outnumber married parents among families with children. Some 49 per cent of children (65,000) live in a sole parent household, and such households have five times the poverty rate of couple households. The report, by Dr Patrick Nolan of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, is not the first to point out the toll that poverty takes on children’s health and wellbeing. But it is the first to go behind “child poverty” to the family breakdown that contributes to poverty. It also looks at the role welfare policies may play in non-marriage, family breakdown and “poverty traps”, but finds there is a lack of empirical research to go on.

However, it finds that married couples can also fall into poverty traps, thanks to taxation steps and the abatement of assistance as income rises. Under current tax schemes in New Zealand, married couples from low income families would be up to $15,000 better off in terms of income in the hand if they separated, because of the interaction of family assistance programmes. “The government has created a system which contains perverse disincentives for parents to get married or stay married,” says Family First NZ national director Bob McCroskie.

What the report also shows indirectly is a lack of interest on the part of government and researchers in the fate of the family based on marriage. Moreover, national elections are just two weeks away and yet hardly a word has been said by any party on this subject. The report calls for programmes and services to reduce unwed pregnancy and to help prepare couples for marriage and support them during marriage. It also recommends research on the relationship between government policy and family form. ~ The Value of Family, Family First NZ, October 2008-10-22

Is drug and alcohol abuse among young adolescents a cause or an effect of other health and social problems? The point has been much debated but a new study led by Candice Odgers of the University of California, Irvine, favours the former hypothesis -- that “drugs are bad for kids” rather than “bad kids do drugs”.

Analysing data on 1000 New Zealanders born in 1972 and 1973, Dr Odgers found that “Even adolescents with no prior history of behavioural problems or family history of substance use problems were at risk for poor health outcomes if they used substances prior to age 15.” She suggests, therefore, that all children, “not only those entering adolescence on an at-risk trajectory, require an adequate dose of prevention”.

The analysis showed that those who used drugs or alcohol before the age of 15 were between 2.4 and 5 times more likely than their peers to have experienced health or social problems later in life. These included dropping out of school, becoming addicted to drugs or an alcoholic, having a criminal conviction, becoming pregnant as a teenager, and testing positive for an STI. Factors such as prior behavioural problems and a broken family increased the likelihood of dropping out of school, but even low-risk children who used drugs or alcohol early remained 2.7 to 3.8 times more likely to have experienced one of the four other problems.

Early use was classified as taking drugs or drinking alcohol on numerous occasions, buying them, or using them at school. This eliminated anyone who drank at home, or who tried the substances on a one-off basis. ~ Times Online, Oct 17

Every so often there is a story about the resurgence of Latin in US schools. Last week the New York Times reported on its popularity in New York and the surrounding state where some schools are starting to teach it to sixth-graders (10-year-olds) and there is even a school called Brooklyn Latin.

It appears that Latin is valued for increasing SAT scores -- by building vocabulary and grammar -- and for looking “cool” amongst peers or impressive on a college application. Interest has been boosted by the Harry Potter books with their touches of Latin; at least two of the books have been translated into Latin, as also several by Dr Suess (e.g. Cattus Petasatus). Movies like Gladiator and Troy have also lent glamour to the ancient world.

The number of students in the US taking the National Latin Exam has risen steadily to 134,000 in each of the past two years, with large increases in remote parts of the country like New Mexico, Alaska and Vermont. Latin is now the fourth most popular foreign language in schools and one expert says it is possible that Latin will edge out German to take third place -- after Spanish and French.

Latin departments also seem to be good at packaging and marketing their “product”. Lessons tend to focus on culture, history and the daily life of Romans, and there are clubs, poetry competitions and mock chariot races. In Scarsdale, NY, where Latin enrolment rose by 14 per cent (to 80 students) this year, the high school sponsors a Roman banquet on the Ides of March during which students come wearing tunics and wreaths in their hair. ~ New York Times, Oct 7

It has often been disputed, but religious involvement does protect young people against drug abuse, according to new research from Brigham Young University. Sociologists Stephen Bahr and John Hoffman analysed data for 13,534 students from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, and 4983 students in a state-wide survey of Utah schools. Individual religiosity was measured by two questions: one asked students how frequently they attended church and the other asked them to rate the importance of religion to them.

After making allowances for family and peer characteristics, and regardless of denomination, the researchers found that those teenagers who were religious were less likely to do drugs, even when their friends were users. They also found that religiosity buffered youths against peer pressure for cigarette smoking and heavy drinking. However, the study showed that merely belonging to a religious community did not have a significant effect. “Individual religiosity is what makes the difference,” said Bahr. ~ Science Daily, Oct 12

Chronic, heavy marijuana use during adolescence can reduce the power to think, remember and plan, and the effect can last for weeks after coming off the drug, brain research shows. A paper presented to the American Academy of Pediatrics by psychologist Krista Lisdahl Medina said neuro-imaging showed the brains of affected adolescents working harder than they should to perform executive functions such as planning, decision-making or staying focused on a task. Medina said there is evidence that girls may suffer more from these effects of drug abuse. ~ Science Daily, Oct 15

Last year Australians registered the highest number of marriages since 1990 -- more than 116,000 -- but statistics indicate that most would have been living together already, taking the shine off the good news. Predating the financial crisis, in Australia anyway, 2007 looked like a good year to get married for the 30-somethings who had been delaying the step.

Almost 77 per cent of couples nationally cohabit before they marry, and 63 per cent choose a civil celebrant to officiate at the wedding; 20 years ago 60 per cent of marriages were conducted by a minister of religion. The average of age of men marrying for the first time is now 29.6 and for women 27.6, compared with 26 and 24 in 1989. This represents a decline of marriage not only among those in their late twenties but also those in their early 30s over the past two decades. The proportion of Australians who eventually marry has fallen from about 90 per cent to 80 per cent over the past 30 years. ~ Sydney Morning Herald, Oct 1