The Save Childhood Movement – get involved

Last month at our Babyhood film screening I was chatting to Saffia, Editor of Juno magazine. She's involved in lots of interesting things, but one that caught my attention is The Save Childhood Movement. It's an issue that Steve Biddulph mentions in his book, but is one that affects boys too.  I asked Saffia to tell us more as I thought it would be something our customers would also be interested in knowing about.

~ Eva

The Save Childhood Movement was created to help address the growing sense of unease that currently exists about child wellbeing in the UK. It is particularly focused on the impact of developmentally inappropriate pressures during the early years of childhood.

The Movement is now bringing together lots of inspirational voices, and is holding its launch summit in London on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 April 2013 from 9am until 6pm. Everyone concerned about the current erosion of childhood is invited to attend. With some thought-provoking films and an exciting and multi-disciplinary group of well-known speakers, including Sue Palmer and Tim Gill, it promises to be a fascinating and inspirational weekend. www.flourishsummitlondon.co.uk

JUNO is supporting the Save Childhood Movement, and I will be there. But if you can’t make the weekend, you can still get involved. There are lots of ideas on the website – www.savechildhood.net. You can form a local group, or just keep aware of issues that are arising and make your voice heard if you feel concerned; what do you think about advertising aimed at children, or how easy it is for children to see porn? Do you let your children play outside unsupervised? These are all issues that we are discussing, at the summit and on our Facebook page:

www.facebook.com/savechildhoodmovement?ref=hl

We have also introduced a National Children’s Day – would you believe there is not one in the UK! The first on is on Wednesday 15 May 2013 and there are more ideas and resources at www.nationalchildrensdayuk.com/join-in.html. This day is about celebrating the rights of children to develop at their natural pace. We would love to hear their voices, so are asking “what would your best day look like”? If your child wants to write or draw something about this, please share it with us so we can help make children’s voices heard.

Saffia Farr, Editor, JUNO natural parenting magazine – www.junomagazine.com