Finnish parents don't spend enough time with their children

[AVN]

http://www.yle.fi/news/id102882.html

Kauhajoki's Church Remembers Shooting Victims
Published 28.09.2008, 14.37
A memorial service was held at Kauhajoki's local Lutheran church on Sunday in memory of the people killed in last week's shooting at a local vocational college.

In a sombre service attended by President Tarja Halonen and members of the government, Bishop Simo Peura pondered whether negligence is contributing to the anxiety of Finland's youth.

"Have we adults been blind? What if the distress of our children and youth is caused by a lack of responsibility on behalf of adults and society? This is the discussion that faces Finns now. We need the whole country to make a change," he said.

Echoing the thoughts of many child psychologists, Peura then pleaded with parents to spend more time with their children.

"In order to ensure a happy life for our children, we have to sacrifice some other activities that take too much time away from them," he said. "We have to focus on daily life."

Kauhajoki's church pews were filled by family and friends of the victims who died in the shooting. Similar services were held in churches across the country.

I agree with this bishop. Finnish parents don't spend enough time with their children. Most of them work both 40 hours a week (and due to working pressure sometimes even more). This results in less attention for children.

And the government doesn't take care of them too. Schools are out at 12 PM, 1 AM (EDIT : Should be 12 AM, 1 PM) and after school services are very limited and don't exist for all young children (8,9 years old) or teenagers. That results in problems for society, of which the Kauhajoki shooting was an extreme example.

Any comments.

 

[Dr.Mindbender]

Lock children up in prison ... opps ... I mean schools?

Lower the hour requirements for employees so that they can spend less time in prison... opps again... I mean jobs and spend more time at prison ... opps, my bad ... home?

 

[Perfection]

I don't blame them, who the heck would want to spend time with Finnish children?

 

[Shylock]

Schools are out at 12 PM, 1 AM

What?

How could they? They are all off raiding Denmark and Poland.

 

[Princeps]

I don't blame them, who the heck would want to spend time with Finnish children?

Who wants to be around Finnish parents. As a Finnish kid, I'll say, not me.

 

[Grisu]

What?

bloody yankish am/pm system messes up our poor euro-brains :sadyes:

Basically, I agree with the article in general (not finland-specific). Parents often don't spend enough time with their kids; if that has any effect on the likelyhood of such tragic events as the Kauhajoki shooting I have no idea, but I doubt that it's a good thing in general.

 

[Dr.Mindbender]

Some kids are better off not spending too much time with their parents.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Well this explains racketooy's insane (in a good way) videos.

 

[Grisu]

Some kids are better off not spending too much time with their parents.

of course there are exceptions, but in general I'd say that spending more time with your kids is a good thing.

 

[Dr.Mindbender]

of course there are exceptions, but in general I'd say that spending more time with your kids is a good thing.

I agree on a practical level. Ideally, I do think it is better for children to be raised by the community; however that is more of a ideological perspective that I hold.

 

[AVN]

bloody yankish am/pm system messes up our poor euro-brains :sadyes:

Corrected, thanks

 

[Ayatollah So]

Basically, I agree with the article in general (not finland-specific). Parents often don't spend enough time with their kids; if that has any effect on the likelyhood of such tragic events as the Kauhajoki shooting I have no idea, but I doubt that it's a good thing in general.

What he said.

[Cool security measure by the way. About as effective as our no-fly lists here in the USA, but less inconvenient]

 

[Gooblah]

I agree with this bishop. Finnish parents don't spend enough time with their children. Most of them work both 40 hours a week (and due to working pressure sometimes even more). This results in less attention for children.

And the government doesn't take care of them too. Schools are out at 12 PM, 1 AM (EDIT : Should be 12 AM, 1 PM) and after school services are very limited and don't exist for all young children (8,9 years old) or teenagers. That results in problems for society, of which the Kauhajoki shooting was an extreme example.

Any comments.

I''m sorry, what? That's like 8 hours a day from both parents. Assuming the kids go to school at 7 am and the parents go to work at 6:00, the parents get back at 2:00pm , the kids at 12pm. So that's two hours the parents aren't there.

Are you seriously saying 2 hours a day away from parents at home could be a cause of school shootings? If it was, then damn, every school kid in America would be getting to lock and load right now..

 

[t87supra]

of course there are exceptions, but in general I'd say that spending more time with your kids is a good thing.

Isn't this one shooting the exception? That said, family life these days is kinda pathetic all around.

 

[Hehehe]

I agree with this bishop. Finnish parents don't spend enough time with their children. Most of them work both 40 hours a week (and due to working pressure sometimes even more). This results in less attention for children.

Wow we can single out a single reason for all of the school shootings! It was so simple all a long. Now we can prevent all schoolshootings. Thanks AVN.

And the government doesn't take care of them too. Schools are out at 12 PM, 1 AM (EDIT : Should be 12 AM, 1 PM) and after school services are very limited and don't exist for all young children (8,9 years old) or teenagers. That results in problems for society, of which the Kauhajoki shooting was an extreme example.

I knew it! It's all government's fault.

On a more serious note though, I think it has something to do with modern society (change of lifestyle) and perhaps it has something to do with the availability of guns*. Looking at the time line of recent school shootings, it's not only Finnish parents who "aren't spending enough time with their children": http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

*As far as I know, Britain (succesfully) banned guns after the Dunblade school shooting, and there hasn't been any school shootings in Britain after that.

 

[Grisu]

Isn't this one shooting the exception? That said, family life these days is kinda pathetic all around.

as I said on my earlier post, I don't think/don't know that lack of parental attention had anything to do with this tragedy.

My point was more general, not related to the shooting.
I do think that pointing out the shooting as a potential example was a bit of a poor choice to try to highlight a real problem, as it gets people to focus on the shooting instead of the original point (point being that parents often don't spend enough time with their kids, sometimes because they don't care enough, sometimes because they just can't afford to work less).