The Cinderella Law will put families in the hands of social workers
Parents who starve children of affection face jail, thanks to a new law. The "Cinderella Law" makes emotional "neglect" in a family illegal. The law means that the Children and Young Persons Act will now treat scapegoating, verbal abuse, and the withholding of affection by parents as criminal offences.
My immediate reaction, as an Italian mamma (and step-mamma) who swamps her children with affection, was to welcome the new law as a sign of progress. I have always regarded the British parents of yesteryear, who parked their children at boarding school from the age of six, or with the nanny from the age of nought, as criminals. Today, a whole generation of middle class mummies and daddies would be behind bars – and a good thing too. No one could possibly be against a law that puts a child's emotional needs above everything.
But the new law requires the family to be policed in a new way. The family unit is under watchful pressure from Government already: both parents must work, all children must be tested regularly, and taxes and benefits penalise those two parent, single-earner families that dare break the state-imposed mould. Placed under this much strain, it is a miracle that any family survives at all.
Now, it will come under even more pressure to comply with vague descriptions of emotional satisfaction. Who can hope to know what goes on behind closed doors? At present, the telltale signs of physical abuse – a black eye, bruises, broken limbs – prompt action. But when we enter "emotional" terrain, I don't believe the elephantine state is sensitive enough to gauge if a child's trauma really stems from a heartless mother.
We would have to put our trust in social workers. They don't have a great record when it comes to spotting physical neglect – think of little Daniel Pelka and Baby P, two little boys who were consistently let down by the "guardians" of childhood. I see little reason for confidence in their rooting out real mental abuse. Moreover, social workers will have to trust the neighbours/teachers to notice how parents interact with their children and I can't see how this would work: would they be counting how many kisses each child gets? Would they take into account that a raised voice in a Middle Eastern family is not a sign of hostility, or that someone raised in a Scottish Presbyterian environment might not see touchy-feely parenting as appropriate? In any case, coochy-coo and kisses could well spoil the children while the reserved, non-tactile parents might fuel children's ambition to prove themselves. (Remember Emma Thompson admitting her mum could never utter a word of praise?)
The Cinderella Law, like the fairytale it takes its title from, strikes all the right sentimental chords. But I suspect it will not prove practical.
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