Ever expanding government in action

There was a write up of this press release in this morning's Metro:

Children whose mothers go out to work have poorer dietary habits than children's whose mothers are not in paid employment, according to a new UCL study. The children furthermore are more sedentary, and are more likely to be driven to school than children whose mothers do not work outside the home, according to research published today by Professor Catherine Law (UCL Institute of Child Health) in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health...

While the work patterns of fathers have changed relatively little in recent decades, those of mothers have, with around 60% of mothers with children under five in the UK and the US now going out to work, say the authors. Busy working parents may have less time to provide their children with healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, say the authors, who cite previous research, suggesting a link between working mothers and a higher risk of obesity in their children.

So that's created a nice Climate Of Fear, trying to make people feel guilty for going out to work, it's all for the chi-i-ildren etc, that'll go down well with the hair shirt Christians and old school Tories as well as with the Greenies and bansturbators. And what's the solution?

"Our results do not imply that mother should not work," says author Professor Catherine Law. "Rather, they highlight the need for policies and programmes to help support parents...to create a healthy environment for their children. They suggest that dietary guidelines for children in formal childcare, similar to those already adopted in Scotland might be applied in England, for example."