Ellee Seymour

It’s half-term week this week, the kids are at home, but are they happy there? According to a stinging Unicef report, the UK is accused of failing its children, coming bottom of the league table.

It looked at 40 indicators, including poverty, peer and family relationships, when monitoring child well-being across 21 industrialised countries. As a result, the UK has been described as having a ”dog eat dog” attitude in society, and under-investment was also blamed. These were the results:

1. Netherlands

2. Sweden

3. Denmark

4. Finland

5. Spain

6. Switzerland

7. Norway

8. Italy

9. Republic of Ireland

10. Belgium

11. Germany

12. Canada

13. Greece

14. Poland

15. Czech Republic

16. France

17. Portugal

18. Austria

19. Hungary

20. United States

21. United Kingdom

I wonder what the top scoring countries are doing that we are not.  Will David Cameron have picked up a few tips during his recent visit to Sweden? What can government do to overcome this? Isn’t it really the parents’ responsibility?

I partly blame our young people’s fixation with computer games for causing a lack of communication in families, how it is an easy way out for some parents to amuse their kids rather than spend time with them. How many young people today run errands for their elderly neighbours and are encouraged to be considerate towards others? Where are their role models to inspire them? What will our future generation be like with this “dog eat dog” attitude, if it really is as bad as that, I shudder to think. 

I can’t not mention what today is with all those hearts and flowers at the top of my site. I wonder if men feel pressurised into buying cards and  flowers to celebrate St Valentine’s Day. I suspect they do. Although it smacks of consumerism, many men ignore it at their peril.

I feel it’s what happens throughout the year in a relationship that makes it special. And I love to hear romantic gestures that come straight from the heart.

Take Kevin, a plasterer at my last salsa class. He has two left feet while his stunning wife Jackie is a trophy winning ballroom dancer. And, of course, she is a diva with the salsa, she would be a perfect match for Antonio Banderas.

Kevin wanted to plan something special for her 40th, so unbeknown to her, he secretly had salsa lessons - then threw a surprise salsa party - and asked her for a dance. She was stunned and is still recovering from the shock of it.

I remember reading how Michael Winner once booked an orchestra to play ‘happy birthday’ in his garden first thing in the morning to one of his past loves, how magnanimous and breathtaking.

What’s the most romantic gesture you have ever done or heard of?  I always like to be surprised, and life is certainly full of those.