The government is to add “relationship education” to ante-natal classes.
Shouldn’t relationship education be part of growing up, before potentially fecund relationships are formed? Isn’t this provided by many parents and families?
Isn’t it rather late to warn of the strains that parenthood might impose on a couple once a baby is on the way?
If we all grew up knowing that our relationship with any child we brought into the world would be the first thing by which we would be judged, and that our support and care for the other parent would be the second, then children, who are involuntary and vulnerable third parties to parents’ relationships might be better cared for.
Perhaps, as we later become increasingly dependent on others, we should not expect a state pension if we have abandoned children whose dependence we brought about in the first case.