What ails Britain’s children? | The Economist

In “Reclaiming Childhood”, published three days earlier, Helene Guldberg, a child psychologist at the Open University, examines the same facts and draws different conclusions. Rising rates of mental illness among the young, she argues, reflect readier diagnosis, and bullying has increased because the word is now used to mean the infliction of even the slightest emotional bruise. She thinks many attempts to improve children’s lives, such as alarmist anti-bullying campaigns, and the parenting lessons proposed by the Children’s Society, are likely to be counterproductive. “Suggesting that all parents need to be taught how to do their job risks creating a self-fulfilling belief in parents’ incompetence and children’s lack of resilience,” she says. “And if adults tell children that name-calling may scar them for life, then it may.”

My emphasis. Makes me recall Adams’ race of Shaltanacs:

… a race from the planet Broop Kidron Thirteen, who had their own version of the Earth phrase, “The other man’s grass is always greener.” Although, given their planet’s horticultural peculiarities, theirs was: “The other Shaltanac’s joopleberry shrub is always a more mauvey shade of pinky russet,” – and so, the expression fell into disuse, and the Shaltanacs found they had little choice but to become exceptionally happy and content, which surprised everyone else in the galaxy, who had never realised that the best way not to be unhappy is not to have a word for it.

This approach to life has its pros and cons, but there’s a lot to be said for not caring too much about how fucked-up you are.