The Green Party General Election manifesto (www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/2015-manifesto.html) was released today (14th April 2015) and it is a breath of fresh air compared to the LAB-CON-DEM announcements that are being rolled out this week. Today the Conservative Party announced they would increase free childcare to 30 hours a week (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11534988/With-a-smart-promise-of-free-childcare-the-Tories-have-finally-stopped-kowtowing-to-the-stay-at-home-mothers-brigade.html?hc_location=ufi) and Labour have promised 25.
Mums – Get back to work ASAP! The economy needs you! They cry – as if we need any encouragement to feel more guilty than we already do.
School children are also being encouraged to stay in school later and later possibly until the idea of a family will cease to exist.
Labour is (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/13/labour-election-manifesto-key-points) keen to ensure all primary schools guarantee access to wraparound childcare from 8am to 6pm through a new National Primary Childcare Service. They forget that children need to be children, they want them to ‘know what work is like’ by sacrificing them having a chance of a childhood.
Nowhere is there provision for the mother who wants to stay at home with her pre-schoolers.
None of the main parties seem keen to even consider that mothers (or fathers) might want to be at home with their children while they are young even though there are key studies that show being a SAHM is important to a child’s emotional development (www.livescience.com/18196-maternal-support-child-brain.html), speech (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/08/singing-children-development-language-skills) and happiness (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2296567/Scientific-proof-stay-home-mothers-benefit-children-So-coalition-Budget-tax-break-working-mothers.html).
The Green Party would delay formal schooling until a child is 7 years old and the Citizen’s Income would definitely help parents who choose to stay at home, and the Green Party also supports home education and flexi-schooling. This makes the Green Party the ONLY party who are supportive of stay at home mums and dads.