Children in England are unhappier with their lives than those in 13 other countries

I’m appearing on Sky News today discussing this:

Children in England are unhappier with their lives than those in 13 other countries including Israel and South Africa, with only South Korea lagging behind according to a comprehensive international piece of research based on a survey of 53,000 children aged 10 and 12 in England, Germany, Norway, South Korea, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Turkey, Romania, Algeria, South Africa, Israel, Ethiopia, Colombia and Nepal.

Every year there seems to be a report that truly saddens me and makes me wonder what on earth we can do in England to help our children grow up to be happy, confident, kind, tolerant, empathetic, resilient children with strong self esteem.

Perhaps we need to look at our values – perhaps we need to look at the way we speak, play, talk, listen and interact with our children.

Perhaps we need to sit down every evening and eat with them as I believe children spell love T-I-M-E and we seem to be in such a rush to be somewhere else – but where else is more important than with our children?

I think we need to talk and teach our children to be kind to others, tolerant of differences and respectful of authority, the elderly, the vulnerable and the weak.

We need to teach our children how to be confident, assertive and resilient balanced with gentleness.

I’ve dedicated the last 10 years of my professional life as a writer and parenting coach trying, in my very small way, to help parents be the best they can be and I believe, as a former Deputy Head & Class Teacher for 25 years that many of these problems would be lessened if parents and schools worked together.

What are your thoughts and ideas about addressing this very serious and depressing report ?

Read more here -> http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/19/english-children-among-unhappiest-world-widespread-bullying

Perhaps my book could help?